The Stanford Humanities Lab is a Center for
Transdiciplinary/Post-Disciplinary Study. We discover
fascinating futures to be explored in ignoring and crossing disciplinary borders.
SHL believes
that some crucial questions — about what it is to be human, about experience in a connected world, about the boundaries of
culture and nature — transcend old divisions between the arts, sciences and humanities; between the academy, industry and
the cultural sphere.
We engage in experimental projects with a "laboratory" ethos — collaborative, co-creative, team-based — involving a
triangulation of arts practice, commentary/critique, and outreach, merging research, pedagogy, publication and practice. Beyond commentary and discussion, we build: new media, interactive archives,
predictive models of social change, collaborative research workshops, art exhibitions.
The SHL agenda encompasses
• animating archives - regenerating, bringing to life,
and fostering new modes of interaction with the storehouses of human, cultural, artistic, scientific achievement - our focus is on the question of the relationship of the human past to efforts at conservation and preservation
• building bigger pictures - putting specialized in-depth research into the context of big human questions; questions, for example, of rapid social change and innovation, the ethical implications of information technology, the character of distributed digital communities, the politics of digital citizenship, the past, present, and future of intellectual property
• enabling co-creative collaboration - developing successful models of teamwork, learner-centered models of training (thinking through doing), and collaborative authoring tools and processes
• building bridges - establishing innovative partnerships between industry, museums, foundations, and high-level university-based research
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Metaverse Meetup #2 with Jamais Cascio
For our second Metaverse Meetup we are truly pleased to present Jamais Cascio one the authors of the Metaverse Roadmap. Our first meetup turned out to be very well attended by some very interesting people both at Stanford and in Second Life. We know we have an interesting speaker and topic for this second event and once again will open the floor for some nice and geeky conversation afterwards, so please come join us.
The man: Jamais Cascio writes about the intersection of emerging technologies and cultural transformation, focusing on the importance of long-term, systemic thinking. His work regularly appears both in print and online, and he has spoken around the world on issues such as the global environment, technological transformation, and political change. In 2003, Cascio co-founded WorldChanging.com, the Utne Independent Press Award-winning website identifying models, tools, and ideas for building a "bright green" future. In March, 2006, he started OpenTheFuture.com as his online home. Cascio presently serves as a research affiliate at the Institute for the Future, as the Director of Impacts Analysis for The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, and as a founding fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.The talk: The Metaverse -- what does it include, where is it going, and how will it change our lives? Based on my work for the Metaverse Roadmap Overview, I'll look both at the underlying technologies of the Metaverse and at the social, cultural and economic impacts it could have.
When: Thursday, November 29th 2007 from 6pm to 7:30pm PST/SLT Where: Wallenberg Hall, Stanford University and at Spaceport Bravo in Second Life courtesy of the excellent ISM
A few more bullets for good measure: - Feel very free to forward this email or blog about this.
- RSVP is voluntary but appreciated
- Write me (Henrik Bennetsen - hbe@stanford.edu) if you have any questions.
- The next of these events has not been scheduled as of yet, but feel very free to suggest speakers or topics
- The Stanford Humanities Lab is delighted to welcome MediaX as cosponsor for this event
We hope to see you there
Video from our first Metaverse Meetup is now online!
We are off to a good start with a well-attended event last Thursday, at Stanford and in Second Life. Mike Liebhold delivered an interesting talk entitled 3D Data for Real World Virtual Worlds. You can now see the video here: We are grateful to Mike and everyone who attended across realities for making this first event so successful. The next SHL Metaverse Meetup will be on Thursday, November 28th and will feature Jamais Cascio on the Metaverse Roadmap. Watch this space for further details.
An Interview Across Domains
Back in May Lynn Hershman, Michael Shanks and myself were interviewed about Life Squared live from Stanford via Second Life & Skype to the Paradoxes of the Public event in Duisburg, Germany. Presence Project participant Gabriella Giannachi were taking part on the European side of this and wrote up her thoughts: Sat on the bed next to Gene Ware, I remember thinking: 'I am sitting in Dante's Hotel next to Lynn Hershman'. Although I was aware that I was not in the 'original' hotel room, there was something special about being 'there' - note that I could not distinguish between Lynn Hershman and Gene Ware at all, which is particularly curious given that Gene Ware was effectively animated by Henrik. I noticed that I felt my avatar was kind of stiff, somewhat socially inept. I became aware of myself in RL and realised that I could just not 'be' in two public spaces at once. Read the entire interesting writeup and then go check the podcast for full details.
Metaverse Meetup UPDATE!
Great news! After we announced the Metaverse Meetup a number of you wrote and asked if there was going to be a virtual component to this. After some hectic work behind the scenes and a most kind hosting offer from the people behind the excellent International Spaceflight Museum we are now able to stream live video from our event into Second Life. The event is taking place on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 from 6:00pm – 7:30pm SLT/PST and to attend via Second Life you go here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/66/74/184/ After the talk we will also take questions from the Second Life audience look forward to some interesting mixed reality Q&A. Please be advised that for technical reasons we have to impose a cap at 50 visitors for the Second Life part of this event. Hope to see you there!
SHL puts on Metaverse Meetup
It is our pleasure to invite you to the first Metaverse Meetup on Thursday November 8 th at Stanford University. We want to bring together people from across industry and academia who share an interest in virtual worlds. As our first invited speaker we are thrilled to have Mike Liebhold from the Institute for the Future. His talk will be entitled: 3D data for real world virtual worlds. This will last for about 20 minutes with plenty of time for some good conversation afterwards. We are also having an open mic session, so if you want to pitch a project, find collaborators etc. then here is your chance. The basic idea is a pretty loose format with lots of time for networking built in. Here is the scoop on Mike:
Mike Liebhold is a Senior Researcher for the Institute for the Future, IFTF, focusing on the mobile and abundant computation, immersive media and geospatial web foundations for context-aware and ubiquitous computing. Previously, Mike has worked for an impressive array of companies including Intel Labs, Netscape Communications & Apple Computer. Here is the talk abstract: Abstract 3D data, maps, and software will change the way we compute and interact with spatial services. Moving beyond simple texture mapped terrain and boxes, new 3D mapping frameworks are rapidly evolving into platforms for real world virtual world media, interaction, commerce, and science. In this talk I'll review work of various groups who are building different components of a 3D Geoweb. I will first describe how their 3D data and software will work as a platform for a 3D real world virtual world, and then, what kinds of new applications and user experiences might be developed on these platforms, and then finish with a brief discussion of prospects and mechanisms for data interoperability allowing users to create, discover, use, and exchange 3D data across platforms. When: Thursday, November 8th 2007 from 6pm to 7:30pm Where: Wallenberg Hall, Stanford University
More practical stuff: - Feel very free to forward this email or blog about this.
- No need to RSVP but you can write me (Henrik Bennetsen - hbe@stanford.edu) if you have any questions.
- The next of these events will be on Thursday, November 29th and will feature Jamais Cascio talking about the Metaverse Roadmap .
We hope to see you there
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