On Sunday, the 16th of August, the first Great Lakes Machinama Festival was held at Memphis Smoke, a well known blues establishment in suburban Detroit. The festival also billed itself as a “mash-up” or “mixed reality” event, as both a real life crowd watched the festivities along with avatars from the virtual world of second life at the Callidora Beach Concert Stage. Making her second life debut was Liz Larin, who took the stage at Memphis Smoke performing an hour set, while her avatar Miz1000 Hirszhorn appeared simultaneously on stage at Callidora. The festival was sponsored by the Stratton Foundation, a private foundation located in Metropolitan Detroit, with “a mission to help students learn, discover and develop successful careers in science and technology”. The event began at 5 pm EDT (2 pm PDT/SLT) and was free in both realities. The foundation used the event as “a benefit to raise funds for scholarships for students studying entertainment arts at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit”.
When I’d first heard about the festival, I had to read the notice twice. I thought, “Wow! A mixed reality event happening in my own back yard” and I knew that I had to be a part of it. I followed a link to the Stratton Foundation web site and uncovered more information about the festival. I also saw that the foundation produced a regular podcast series, one of which had been recorded in SL with Callidora owner Renfew Sperber. The next time in-world, I tracked down avatar Doug Dratman (aka Douglas Stratton) President of the foundation and introduced myself via IM. Doug and I met in second life shortly after that for a brief discussion about the festival and second life. We then made arrangements to meet in real life when the time for the event drew near.
On the day of our meeting as I drove, the thought occurred to me that its right around now in many of the articles where I write, “I ported over to meet ...” However for this article I’m in my car driving north on the freeway to meet with Doug at a local restaurant. We arrived within seconds of each other and shook hands as a waiter escorted us to a table on the patio outside. The day was near perfect and we joked about it being like every day in SL as the sky, with nary a cloud in sight, looked much like a “Linden” sky.
“Tell me, how did you find out about second life Doug?” I asked
“I read an article in the Detroit Free Press. I spent a few months poking around the edges, feeling a bit odd and reluctant to jump in.” He replied.
“What was it that got you and the Stratton Foundation engaged then?”
“I found a guide book about second life, it helped me to understand it a lot better. From there I created an account and logged in, finding myself at Orientation Island. It was a very unusual experience, interacting with other avatars … socializing. We discussed as a board doing more in virtual worlds and it was my son who became engaged with Callidora. We found out about the work there on the cancer fundraising and established a connection with Renfew and her brother msw tomorrow.”
“And that led to doing the Great Lakes Machinama Festival as a mixed reality event?” I asked.
“We had a series of meeting with them to understand and plan this out. It’s been a wonderful experience for us.” He replied and then added, “I hope you don’t mind, but I invited two others people to lunch with us, both have been part of the team working on the technical side of things with both venues.”
We were joined at lunch by Tom Lavigne and Joseph Craig, both from IDEAcore, a Detroit based Technology Company. We exchanged thoughts and commentary on the event, the promise of virtual world technology for entertainment and the arts, along with my experiences in second life. The luncheon over, the three departed to the venue for a test run in preparation for Sunday’s event and I returned home to write up my notes.
In world once again, I contacted Renfew Sperber, owner of the Callidora SIM. She had this to say about the event. “This is a very exciting project and working with the Stratton’s, Liz and the rest of the Detroit team an amazing experience. We are thrilled to be a part of this and honored to host Liz's mash-up debut in Second Life. The opportunity to work with an organization that is fostering art and technology education and to provide further exposure of the positive aspects of Second Life and the potential of the technology is something that I am very passionate about. The Stratton Foundation is creating an important bridge that showcases the way that virtual technology can be used to foster real world projects.”
On the day of the festival, I made the drive to Memphis Smoke, excited at being on the RL side of the screen at a mixed reality event. I wasn’t disappointed. When I arrived it had just begun as Doug introduced the first of fourteen Machinama selected for the event. Taking over as MC for a brief period during the presentation was Scott Bogoniewski from the college, who introduced and provided commentary on the entries created by students of the school. The last one presented to the Memphis Smoke crowd was the Stratton Foundation’s prize winner, “Made of Sound”. The Machinama had been created by Jayna Shropshire, a student at the College for Creative Studies who used the song written and performed by Liz Larin, as the basis for her scholarship winning entry. Ms Larin had won an award in her own right for the song and she accompanied the presentation of the video with a live performance of “Made of Sound”. With the viewing of Ms Shropshire’s entry complete, a short pause occurred as connections were made to second life and then Liz Larin took the stage, virtual and real to perform a one hour set where she rocked both worlds with a range of selections, original and covers.
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