A lot of intriguing ideas concerning narrativized experience, scripts, space, and a sort of posthuman collaborative agency (that includes the self among multiple types of force) generating the ‘voice’ of spaces. It took me some time, but I identified this last to be the central idea to glean from your presentation.
Because you assembled many ideas, ethnographic narratives and media, it was at times difficult to locate the thread. I would considerably trim down the content to a few resonating ideas that can each have their own space to resound within. This also means slowing down, adding pauses for emphasis. This does not necessarily mean to sacrifice breadth or depth – you can find a core argument or line of (inconclusive) thought and move closely along a single trajectory while alluding to the rhizomatic pathways that lead off this trajectory. Sometimes it is even more effective and narrativistically dramatic to do so (rather than overwhelming the audience with the dizzying array of possibilities). This may merely be a problem of interior/exterior – you may not have found a way to satisfyingly convey what you know well in plainer, but not unsubtle, terms to us, on the outside of the mode of thought you’re engaged in. One solution is to give us a cue or map of some sort at the beginning, preparing us for what’s to come, what to look for, AND then, step by step, giving us the payoff. The payoff is often not there because there is an inherent gap between theory and actuality. Despite the ability to be articulate in the language of subtle abstractions, it is still a challenge to track for an audience how abstractions work through concrete situations, experiences, feelings.
You also spend some time talking about the unique qualities of sound in virtual architecture and spaces – what it lacks and what is different when compared to RL architecture and spaces. Your ethnographic narratives were vivid and engaging and a nice breather to your theoretical discussons. I think it would be useful to more clearly make the connection between SL and RL (or vitual/actual?) you want to point out. If there are differences, then why do they matter? Do the differences give us a look at what things are to become for us all in RL? Do the differences just give us the ability to see more clearly what RL is like in terms of sound/space? Do the differences offered by SL sound/space experience allow us to experience RL sound/space differently?
December 21, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Down right inspirational! Jeff’s presentation inspired me to sign up for the sound and space class.
I enjoyed the melange of media that accompanied the presentation, which itself was very provocative. The idea of building narratives to simplify all we see really stuck with me.
I’d never really considered the effects space has on the way we perceive sound. I always thought more about the way sound effects our relationship with the world. SL is a great forum to consider this new way (for me) of thinking. We view our surroundings and build a narrative for what it should sound like and warp the waves that enter our ears to more closely follow these ideas.
One thing that I think deserved more time or consideration was the concept of acoustics in SL. I believe you said that there wasn’t a sense of physical space in SL, and the acoustical elements of sound were missing. If this is true, I wonder how far off this advancement is. We have technologies that allow us to synthesize acoustics (reverb etc), how long until we can build places with their own resonances. I might have just missed this, but either way, I think it’s fascinating and could be explored further.
January 3, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I was really intrigued by your thoughtful presentation-Voice of Spaces. I think it was theoretical but at the same time creative which is often a difficult task to accomplish. However, at times the possibilities and the ideas you presented of experiencing sound and space via SL seemed overwhelming. Like Jason, I agree that the media you chose to accompany your presentation was a great breather and really helped in clarifying some of the ideas you brought forth about sound and space within SL. The music and videos were fantastic and greatly enhanced your presentation giving it a very futuristic and three dimensional feel. Still, it was hard for me to pin point how you really felt about your experience in SL. I think many people were fascinated by the appearance of your avatar and consequently it fostered new ways of thinking about SL. It may have been useful to share a little story about your experience of having an obese avatar and the difficulty and or challenges of navigating it through SL and how that may or may not have had an effect on sound and space. Overall, I think you did a great job!!!
Happy New Year, Will