June 12 – Media Art Café Berlijn Enschede

15.00 – 17.00 uur

Our life and our relations are increasingly influenced by online social networks and virtual environments. In particular, multi-user virtual worlds like Second Life, World of Warcraft and Half Life are starting to occupy an increasingly dominant part of many people’s lives, but actually maintaining a second life parallel to their so-called real life is still reserved for the few.As a consequence, the media and public imagination harbor a number of misconceptions about how the use of virtual worlds might impact our lives as well as an often stereotypical portrayal of why someone might choose to live parts of their lives in a computer-mediated environment.

What is it really that makes some people spend hours daily in a virtual world? What are the conditions for finding virtual worlds rewarding and enjoyable? What kinds of experiences motivate people to live a second life? Is it about experimenting with that which is physically or ethically forbidden in their normal life, to play around, to meet others, to do business, or collaborative scientific or artistic work? What is the effect of a virtual life on the real, and the other way around? Will the popularity of virtual worlds increase further in the future?

We will explore such questions in the form of a panel, with 5 people around the table who have experience with Second Life as scientist, artist, philosopher, computer technologist or educator. The panelists will introduce themselves by showing different examples. Then the moderated discussion will start, with the opportunity for the audience to comment, ask questions or share (or even show) their own experiences.

CIC08
On october 22th, 2008 the Creative Interactive Computing Symposium has been held for the first time at Twente University.

In the following filebrowser you can find presentations of given talks, as well as the participant list for future reference and contact.