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Media Web Window and Social Media links in Second Life

The original pilot project was an exploration of the 2D being enhanced by a 3D environment. Can people come together in a virtual space for a collective experience? The potential is for a 3D archive with playable media laid out around you.

It began with a 3D representation of a stage set where production creatives could meet and walk the set, place furniture, evaluate sight lines. A global meet up point where audiences could wander round an exhibition, touch objects and trigger windows to the associated media held on the companies website.

There were many challenges. The space developed bought video on to screens set out as a screening room that multiple viewers could watch together in real time.

Second Life has moved forward. I want to explore the potential for a social connection.

There are times when a project rolls and a realisation dawns that your time nurturing and supporting has come to an end. Pilot Theatre’s Second Life hub has grown from a seed to a blooming flower.

A character in search of a company!

A time to reflect

So where do I go from here?  Pilot Theatre have now taken up residence in Media City’s new cultural quarter conceived and created by Kohd a virtual world developer located in real world Bradford, UK.

The march of the arts in to the 3D web is a vibrant voyage of discovery. There are travel issues getting to the venue for some but this is part of the enjoyment for me, that of introducing folk to new experiences.

So here is a venue space costing roughly £100 a quarter plus my minimal fee. I work in the arts… I know about tinsy budgets! Are you looking for a virtual venue? Its a great way to turn a 2D social media web presence in to a multi user 3D web experience. You can stream video, display Flickr, pull in RSS feeds, meet up when distances are costly, create a 3D Facebook group, all this to explore with guidance from the inside…me, Katie Reve.

Art galleries, music venues, museums, beach resorts, tranquil woodlands, mysterious kinetic sculpture parks, hidden caves, all of the above in combination. No health and safety, no drink driving… let your imagination take flight. Oh and you can fly.

Interested?

Until then I will continue to explore, catch up with global friends and confuse folk with talk of my adventure where I seem to talk about the real world and the virtual as one. Language makes no distinction between the physical and the mental only time and space.

New digital horizons… what to see?

Friday, February 1, 2008

Pilot Theatre Establishes an SL Presence

Pilot Theatre, the innovative theatre company from England, has established a presence in Second Life. Pilot Theatre is an award winning National Touring Theatre Company and is currently in residence at York Theatre Royal in the United Kingdom. Pilot’s Second Life representative, Katie Reve, and I met for an introductory chat and she was most gracious in allowing me this interview.

“Hello, Katie, welcome to my home and sometime office,” I greeted her as she arrived and then continued: “It’s nice that we finally meet AV to AV.” Smiling, she replied: “So very nice to see you as well, Nazz. So this is home?” I replied that, indeed, it was and took her on a brief tour. “I love it. SL never ceases to amaze me. My place is so small. The theatre is a bigger space. My SL home is a little girlie hideaway, a skypod, on a bit of First Land I inherited from a friend. Living at the theatre would be too much like RL!” she said and then laughed.

NL: What do you do for Pilot Theatre in SL?

KR: Mostly, I liaise with the RL Pilot team creatives who are using SL to realize the creative dreams they see in this world. I work closely with technical teams… great skill. It’s great to see their imaginations come up with scenarios. They tell me what they want to do and ask me if it’s possible. I work with the Artistic Director and the writer; the office has four permanent staff and each show has a team. As each show is cast, a technical team is assigned to it. Usually there is a production manager, stage manager, deputy and assistant, and light and sound, depending on the complexity of the show. This has been a huge learning curve for me, too. A fantastic opportunity, I hadn’t even IMed before joining SL.

NL: How is Pilot using its presence in SL?

KR: Pilot Theatre is about RL. SL is an audience space. We might stream the RL show in but never have AVs perform. At the moment, SL is about the SL users and informing them about Pilot in the real world. We are in our early days. We promote the SL space on the website and Facebook group and use the SL space in presentations. I collect the visitor names and message to the group news and reviews about the show.

NL: How successful has Pilot’s presence in SL been?

KR: Well, we have two major SL projects in the pipeline, plus a potential simulcast. Pilot performs for audiences 13 and upwards so we get a lot of schools seeing the shows. SL is an adult venture, a playground for the director, writer and me, really, to develop creative technology. Obviously, we can’t encourage the kids to join SL! But, yes, eventually we want to be in the teen grid, too.

NL: How else is Pilot using SL and the internet?

KR: My Space was a big part of the current show. The script was developed on My Space for people to comment and review. I was web designing for theatre companies and creatives in RL and wanting to stay with theatre but being drawn in to technology; it’s all so exciting, the driving innovation in IT. Pilot has been a golden opportunity. The use of a 3D remote environment is the other pull to SL for us. Building theatre sets for a production team to see before it’s built in RL and for the actors to see. In RL, a model is made of the set design. The designer then travels to a meeting and presents the model. What we want to do is build that in here so the production team doesn’t have to travel every time for a meeting. The actors don’t rehearse on the set but on a version marked out on the floor. Having the set available in SL means the company can see the set. Making it interactive means each scene can be rezzed to see the scene changes. Then it becomes an accessible archive piece for audiences to explore in SL. We’ve come across the Holodeck apps in SL. They are perfect for what we want to do. As we build up an archive, we can simply rezz each set and pack it away to utilize space really efficiently and save on the prim counts.

Pilot Theatre home hub

In Second Life we have established a meeting space where we hold group sessions with creative team members based around the UK. We discuss potential new projects, meet with arts organisations interested in our venture and social events take place here. We have an Exhibition Gallery on the first floor of our building where photographs and display materials promote Pilot Theatre’s current shows and when not used by the Theatre Company is opened up for Second Life artists to exhibit work. Back in August Misha Otaard, a photographer from Madrid exhibited in the space. We also have an Events Garden. Media screens stream promotional video clips in to the space that you can watch with friends. There are 2 screens on the exterior of the main building by the front doors and one in the Exhibition Gallery showing a range of past productions Pilot Theatre has produced and toured the UK. Currently it is occupied solely by Looking for JJ. There is also a large screen in the Events Garden shows edited hi-lights from the opening night of the current play “Looking for JJ”. Which has won critical acclaim from audiences and critics alike since opening in late September 2007 at the Theatre Royal in York before transferring to the Unicorn Theatre in London before Christmas.

Pilot Theatre on the road

Looking for JJ tours the UK in the spring from Febuary 5 2008 and is potentially going to cross the Atlantic for a tour in the the US along with Fungus the Bogeyman their children’s show. Their award winning adaptation of Lord of the Flies is being revived for an autumn tour later this year. While a new production of Catcher in the Rye will run in New York. In Second Life social events will make it possible for audience members to meet and celebrate Pilot Theatre in ways never before possible before Second Life. It is a social and interactive experience.

Second Life Pilot, online content and keeping it live.

Throughout Pilot’s Theatre Hub information about the company and its activities are available from notecards given electronically as visitors enter the building, links go to the Pilot Theatre web site, display boards on stands and interactive click bots visitors can touch for additional information. Visitors can also get free Pilot T shirts from the Freebie Corner for their Avatars to proudly wear as they explore Second Life.
However, Pilot Theatre is rooted firmly in the real flesh and blood world. They utilise the 2D traditional web, interactive Web 2.0 technologies and now 3D virtual world Second Life. Reaching and connecting with new live audiences is the purpose of all Pilot Theatre’s Internet presence informing users of their web site and directing visitors to their My Space, Facebook groups and web based forums about the live shows. Exploiting these technologies for promotion is one thing. Exploring the creative potential and pushing the boundaries of what the arts can use those new technologies for is another inspiration that drives Artistic Director, Marcus Romer and Pilot Theatre Company’s most innovative work.

Coming soon

In my next entries I will tell you about Pilot Theatre’s virtual writer in residence, Richard Hurford, the Shift Happens event and a project seeing writers across several counties collaborating within Second Life on a truly exciting story telling Second Life first.

Oh I could go on… and indeed it will be part of the course I am delivering. (Details to follow.) A very exciting Web 2 social media, 5 day course and a collection of SL courses at Castle College’s Axis Centre in Nottingham.

This Vodaphone “InsideOut” service has given me something to think on. The implications are huge. It’s all about how and who you want to do business with. If an AV (avatar) doesn’t want you to know their real name the friendship should remain firmly in the “Game”. If you do use this service there is a danger of your body living in one world and your mind in an other. Not healthy! And in terms of in world it costs. Well it’s L$300, thats about US$1 a call. In serious business terms you do begin to get in to Sillysville having a virtual meeting that you can’t be at you desk for to allow your AV to attend so you conference call in your presence via your mobile! Hmmm!

What do you think? How do you blur your RL/SL line?

Its getting some positive participation. If you are on Facebook please join.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6587973954

Much of my theatrical work is done virtually! This statement I love. I am indeed Pilot Theatre’s virtual Stage Manager running, developing and managing their online virtual world presence in Second Life. I am an IT social networking professional. My work is about helping small creative companies get the most out of new technology.

Facebook is one of the platforms.

For those who are unfamiliar with Facebook it is an interactive contacts directory. It uses Web 2 technology. Web 2 is another term flying about… it is referring to the access and sharing of information online. Web 1, you look at the web site, navigate through pages, fill in forms, buy products and send information using a submit or send button. Web 2 does all this but the web sites or social media platforms give you feed back. Who else has been there. Notification to your inbox when new stuff is added. The ability to change the look and configuration of elements on the page. You can control the information sent to you, specify your interests, subscribe to blogs, tune in to podcasts, share video. That’s web 2. Well the fundamentals! Mainly its better user experience. Its about being proactive.

Facebook is about people power. Users are looking for things. Users are willing to participate, online at least. Awareness of issues and sharing concerns… The Save our Theatre groups I was invited to were very detached from each other and duplicate groups were springing up. I created this meta group to unite the causes.

This is the link to the “Save theatre in the UK – meta group” please join, please invite people to join. Please let any media, press or marketing contacts you know about this group. Online social media and business stories tend to be quite attractive to the media, press and marketing sphere.

From Jan 7 to 18 Arts Council England will announce who will and won’t be funded. Several well known venues in the UK will have to close as a result. There are online petitions (deadline for participation is 15 Jan), meetings with government ministers and the Entertainment union Equity are confronting the exiting CEO of the Arts Council on Jan 9 in London. A protest is taking place in Norwich on Jan 19 about funding cuts and Bristol Old Vic are holding an open meeting on Jan 10. This has come through the group since it was created a few days before christmas.

Join in have your say.