MU Talk

Vanessa 08:20 on 13/11/2014 Permalink Reply
Tags: Blueberries ( 8 )   

About 2015

Dear Blueberries & Mixed Berries,

Happy Holidays!

The MOOC that launched our 3 websites: .Re/act, .Re/search, and .Re/cipes plus our Slack chat space, Practice Based Research in the Arts, from Leslie Hill & Helen Paris at Stanford / NovoEd, ran from 9 Oct – 11 Dec 2013. At it’s end the Blueberry group decided to continue with once-a-month Google Hangouts. A few of us drifted off, others joined in, and Ciara rechristened our group Mixed Berry Shake.

With our upcoming meetup on Monday 8 Dec we’ll have completed a full year of post-PBR meetups and we’ll be celebrating a year since the conclusion of that MOOC.

Moving Forward

My question today is, now that we’re about to complete this 2014 year of independent collaboration, what do we want for 2015?

HCI MOOC Stats / Scott Klemmer / UC San Diego / Coursera

• Another year of monthly meetups?
• Have a “holiday party” on 8 Dec and then let our “extended mission” come to an end?
• Move to something like once a quarter meetups that perhaps are 2 hours and more substantive?
• Move away from meetups just to touch base and toward a more ad-hoc project based collaboration?

I’m really fine with any of these options or any others we come up with. But I did want to ask. In a way it’d be a shame to let this small community we’ve built go. Then again, while our during-PBR meetups had a lot of agenda material courtesy of the excellent PBR Guest Artists, our content / discussion / production in 2014 has, in a way, been lower.

I say “in a way” because we’ve also done a lot: Ciara & Hugh metup in Ireland. Christa, Michael & Kate metup in California. I had the chance to bring avatars from around the globe together with Michael, Kate & EZTV for ONE Night. Some of us participated in a LACMA Art+Technology proposal and “we” might put another proposal together very soon.

Still, I do wonder if we aren’t accomplishing less than the intense times of those weekly activities in PBR. Our November Hangout was wonderful and the first chance I had to “meet” Andrea. But between the understandable late arrivals and early departures, and the technical difficulties that several of us had, it was a bit of a project! For sure there’s something nice about that live interaction, but we do pay a price in efficiency and convenience for that synchronous communication. With sites like .Re/act and Slack we can be asynchronous (or even synchronous if we happen to be there at the same time) and work at each person’s time zone and convenience.

What do you think?

ONE Night Costumes, front

We’ll definitely keep .Re/act, .Re/search, .Re/cipes & Slack going either way, so they’re always there when we want to use them. And we can add any new peeps to them that anyone likes. But I’d appreciate it if you’d all chime in here (or link a blog post if you prefer!) and share your thought on what, if anything, should frame our activities for 2015?

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  xtaforster 12:16 on 13/11/2014 Permalink | Reply

  Hi Vanessa, Thanks for getting the conversation started. I’m thinking about it, mulling it over while I eat my lunch here in Houston, and I will post more shortly. However, I heard that you have a performance this weekend in Virtual London, and I’m wondering where I can read more about THAT! LMK. (I couldn’t find info easily about it on your blog). TTYL. xta

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  Michael J Masucci 16:23 on 13/11/2014 Permalink | Reply

  I think that continuing the monthly meetups is a good idea, even though the attendence is sporatic, and people understandably come and go.

  In time, I hope that more on-going collaboratibve teams are formed from within the group, and that a number of single project collaborations are tried as well.

  It’s been a great learning experience for me to meet you all, and the few things that we’ve done together, like ONE Night and the LACMA proposal have shown me the way to even better such collaborations in the future.

  But I also understand how precious time is fro everyone, and that some may not see the same benefits I’ve seen. So perhaps a number of options, allowing to some to keep meeting regulatly, others to come and go as thier time and interests dictate and others to simply float away is a way to go.

  For 2015, my New Year’s resolution will be to go back and writing regular short essays for PBR and to look to find more ways for us to collaboarte from our differnt regions. I think there is something important going on here, even if it is still after one years, in its infancy. I hope that together we can find a way to make it grow.

  And I do think another LACMA proposal is a good idea.

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    Vanessa Blaylock 18:55 on 25/11/2014 Permalink | Reply

    SHOW ME THE MONEY

    I know artists who believe that teaching is an unwise distraction from their work. That artists should focus on production, make, show, and sell work, and earn enough to support yourself.

    I know artists who believe that sales are corrupting and that your career is better served by having an income from an activity like teaching, and they your art work isn’t beholden to some revenue stream.

    For sure both choices have legitimacy. Personally, I favor Choice #2.

    HOWEVER…

    In thinking about all the great work, ideas and charisma in Mixed Berries, to say nothing of our many amazing PB-RITA classmates
    http://blog.virtualpublicart.com/tagged/classmates

    I wonder if seeking funding for our work might not be the Magic Dust, the Glue, the Catalyst, we need. Christa has written about the power of deadlines, and getting someone somewhere to believe in your creativity enough to fund it can also be challenging and valuable.

    In a busy world we’re all challenged with focus and priorities. Collaborating on funded projects might give both internal and external legitimacy to our work. It might give us a chance to bring more of our PB-RITA classmates in on projects.

    Michael has the LACMA Art+Technology grant proposal, and Christa’s threatening to look some up in the next week. What if we tried to identify a slate of 6 grants to apply for in 2015? And let that work, applying and hopefully executing these projects, be the focus of our Hangouts?

    Michael’s multi-city interaction projects seem idea in some ways. And Rebecca’s City project seems like it or aspects of it could fit with some of Michael’s ideas.

    Funding might be the cohesive core around which our hangouts could develop more focus around specific projects. Michael and Andrea have talked about the bias of Art History. Getting institutional validation would help to move our ideas and work a little closer to official narratives.

    What do you think?
    Do you know about any funding opportunities we might apply for?

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  xtaforster 17:56 on 13/11/2014 Permalink | Reply

  I agree that meeting monthly and continuing to pursue ways to collaborate is a valuable practice in and of itself. I was thinking that perhaps a group of us could commit to individually writing something for a future issue of MOOC magazine, and we could give ourselves a specific deadline (I love deadlines, as you all know) to make this happen.

  Van do you have any content on your mind that you’d like written for a current or future issue? If not, then perhaps we could brainstorm for a theme that we could all write toward.

  I also want to continue to add content to our websites and keep in touch and share resources through slack chat. Furthermore, in addition to LACMA, we might be able to search for some other RFPs and work with deadlines to try and come together around an idea for (potentially) funded projects.

  Over thanksgiving break, I’ll do a bit of research for some other RFPs so that I have something to share at our holiday party on the 8th.

  Thanks a million to Vanessa for keeping us going and organized and motivated. I suspect she’s got lots of other projects that are driving her harder than this one, and I really do appreciate the energy she continues to share with us. Furthermore, I really want to hear more about her Avatar Field Guide — what IS the difference between the avatar classifications — af̱toportréta and fo̱tográfos móda and fo̱tográfos koultoúra? I looked at a couple of the different examples, and I am too uneducated to discern the differences at this point. I want to learn more. Is the performance in Virtual London related to this project? How can we attend?

  xoxoxoxo xta

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    Vanessa Blaylock 18:02 on 14/11/2014 Permalink | Reply

    Thanks Xta! Actually “Vaneeesacam!” is a different project from “Avatar Field Guide”. You can attend “in person” by having Ysidora login to SL and hangout… or you can watch live at
    http://twitch.tv/vaneeesab

    The scoop is here:
    http://virtualpublicart.com/events/activities/11

    BTW Michael, this broadcast formula I finally came up with using XSplit Gamecaster to feed 1080p HD video to the Twitch.tv streaming service looks pretty good. If we ever did something like ONE Night again, it might be a nice way for you to project HD video without having to have a “cameraperson” (logged in, in-world user) on site.

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  Rebecca Longworth 15:13 on 20/11/2014 Permalink | Reply

  I’m torn — I definitely would like to keep our chats and our contact going. It often seems that the chats are a little too short, so longer hangouts less often might be nice… on the other hand, I know that the fact that they’re monthly has made it easier for me to join when I can.

  Perhaps it would help to keep the one-hour every-month schedule, but to hold ourselves to a schedule within the hour. For example, we could spend 10 minutes per topic, or give each participant the floor for a set time to let us know what they’re up to, and for others to ask questions. One of those timeslots could be free-form conversation; and those who are available can always stay past the hour mark to chat further. It might sound very formal, but a time pressure also might help us each think of what we most want to impart to the group, and ask questions of each other.

  In other news, I’ve started a dedicated site for my project, City Creature:
  http://www.citycreature.wordpress.com. And I’m looking at word-cloud software to help display/interpret the answers to my questionnaire. Let me know if you have suggestions! Fun times.

  Best
  Rebecca

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  Ciara Finnegan 04:55 on 24/11/2014 Permalink | Reply

  I’ve really enjoyed the dialogue and interactions .re/act has supported over the past year and, while the Hangouts do present a challenge in terms of scheduling, I believe they also add value to our exchanges. I quite like Rebecca’s suggestion that we occupy 10 minute slots during a hangout and think that structuring the format in this way is worth experimenting with in 2015.

  Vanessa, thank you for all the work you’ve put into creating this space and for your generosity toward the group. I mentioned to Michael that I affectionately refer to the Berries as my “semi-imaginary” friends:-) – thank you all for keeping the energy flowing this year – being involved has meant a lot to me. I also think that Michael and Kate have been instrumental in bringing others to the conversation and in orchestrating (directly and indirectly) meetings in Real Life. For this I am hugely grateful.

  I’m looking forward to the December 8th party!! Have been practising my disco moves;-) Or maybe it’ll be more Mardi Gras…where’s that feather boa I started off with????