Nicholas Cook Colloquium

"Performing Live in Second Life"
October 21, 2013 - 4:30pm
Open Grounds
Free

The McIntire Department of Music presents a colloquium by Nicholas Cook, of Cambridge University. This event is free, and will take place on Monday, October 21, at 4:30pm at Open Grounds.

Below is the abstract to the colloquium:

This paper provides a general introduction to music in the virtual world Second Life, but its focus is on relationships between music-making in Second Life and in the real world. Concerts in Second Life typically aim to replicate the conditions of live music in real-world venues. There are however significant technological constraints on such replication. For one thing, the music is made in the real world and streamed into Second Life. For another, the variable lag that is a basic feature of Second Life means that accurate synchronisation of images, gestures, chat, and streamed sound is impossible. Based on a case study of the virtual band Redzone, the paper argues that the most effective way to create liveness in Second Life is not to replicate the conditions of real world performance, but rather to reconstruct liveness based on the technological affordances of virtual reality. The forthcoming chapter on which the presentation is based was written in collaboration with Justin Gagen, a founding member of Redzone.

Address

UVA Department of Music
112 Old Cabell Hall
P.O. Box 400176 Charlottesville, VA 22904-4176

Email: music@virginia.edu