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Ways of Virtual World-making: Actors and Avatars

Summary: The dissertation Ways of Virtual World-making: Actors and Avatars is about some of the many choices that lead human actors to engage with large online roleplaying games and social virtual worlds. The study addresses questions about how the choices made make sense to human actors in their daily life and communication. In several case studies, we follow the choice and co-design of virtual world and avatar, the social relationships formed, the expressions of self and the navigation through physical and virtual worlds. The cases have been followed over time and with the methods of virtual ethnography and ‘in situ’ iterative video interviews. Thus, the choice of methods reflects the methodological approach of “following the human and nonhuman actors” in their daily life online as well as offline.

The dissertation is published by Roskilde Universitetsforlag (Roskilde University Press), and you can buy it here. Read the first review on Marianne Riis’ blog.

My doctoral disputats, “Sisse Siggaard Jensen: Ways of Virtual World-making – Actors and Avatars” has been accepted for a public defense for the doctoral degree Dr. Phil. at Roskilde University. Denmark.

The defense will take place on Friday June 1, 2012 at 1 – 5 PM (GMT+1) in Biografen, Roskilde University, and it is streamed on the university’s website: ruc.dk as well as on this blog: worlds.ruc.dk.

The opponents are: Professor Jay D. Bolter, Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor Andrew Burn, London University, Professor Kim C. Schrøder, Roskilde University (chair).

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Ways of Virtual World-making: Actors and Avatars

Hi all,

Fredag d. 1. juni kl.  13.00-17.00, Roskilde Universitet, forsvarer jeg doktordisputatsen “Ways of Virtual World-making: Actors and Avatars”.

Forsvaret bliver streamet på universitetets hjemmeside: ruc.dk og her på vores blog: worlds.ruc.dk.

Aghandlingen er publiceret af Roskilde Universitetsforlag (Roskilde University Press) (e-book) og den kan købes her.

Nedenfor kan du læse et kort resumé af afhandlingen.

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ITM research seminar with Dr Ulrike Schultze on “Performing Identity with Digital Material: A Sociomaterial Perspective of Virtual Worlds”

Seminar at COpenhagen Business School 20 April 2012. Follow the link below for more information.

http://www.cbs.dk/en/Research/Departments-Centres/Institutter/node_165685/Menu/Research-Seminars

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Innovation and market creation in and around virtual worlds

Preliminary program with confirmed speakers…

Research meets practice seminar at CBS, May 11, 2012

Innovation and market creation in and around virtual worlds

Selling and marketing virtual worlds has never been a problem when it comes to games and social media. Virtual spaces such as World of Warcraft, Second Life and Everquest have gained tremendous success and users willingly pay monthly rates in order to explore the potentials held by these worlds. However, when it comes to virtual worlds as platforms for professional communication, the task of selling and successfully innovating seems a lot tougher. Addressing this issue will be the main task of this research seminar.

Both academics and speakers from the virtual worlds’ business community will present their thoughts on how to establish the idea of bridging the gap between avatar-based 3D interaction and professional communication. The list of speakers includes:

Henry Lowood, Curator for Germanic Collections, Curator for History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University, USA

Robin Teigland, Associate Professor at the Center for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), Sweden

Isto Huvila, Associate Professor post-doc research fellow, Uppsala University, Sweden, and docent in information studies, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

Ursula Plesner, Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark

David Burden, DADEN LIMITED Manager, Birmingham, UK

Vin Sumner, Founder and Managing Director of Clicks and Links, Second Places, Manchester, UK

Stephan Stephensen, CEO at Mingoville, Copenhagen, Denmark

Mattia Crespi, CEO at ISN Virtual Worlds, Milan, Italy and University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

Claus Uriza, Founder of Pop Art Lab, Denmark

Åge Staghøj, Virtual process consultant, Denmark

The seminar will take place on May 11th 2012 from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. The seminar will be held in room K150, Kilevej 14A, 2000 Frederiksberg. For directions, click here.  The seminar will be open to the public, but registration is required. To register please email name and affiliation to Emiliya Kaloferova, ek.ioa@cbs.dk

We look forward to seeing you there!

Kind regards,

Ursula Plesner, assistant professor, CBS

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Explosions of Virtuality, Stanford 2011

Take a look at this video. I hope there will be a follow up workshop soon ;-)

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Seminar: Cross-media Storytelling

Please see update posted on Nordicworlds blog

Cross-media Storytelling: Theory and practice in relation to film and multimedia production held on December 1st, 2011 as live event and partially in Second Life.
Location: The Cinema, CBIT, Building 41, Roskilde University, Denmark.

The seminar is in English, is free and open to all students, staff and partners.
You do not need to register.
The My Avatar and Me full-length film is mainly in Danish, with English subtitles
Flyer pdf: CrossMedia-Dec1seminar-flyer

Program
13 – 13:05 Welcome by Professor John Gallagher, Experience Lab
13:05 – 13.45 Presentation by Assistant Professor Lisbeth Frølunde on cross-media storytelling, using examples of machinima and hybridity such as My Avatar and Me.
14 -15.30 Film showing of My Avatar and Me (2010)
15.45 -16.30 Panel with My Avatar and Me Film Directors Bente Milton and Mikkel Stolt, in dialogue with avatars in cyberspace
16.30 Informal time for networking.

The event is supported by
- the Nordic Virtual Worlds Network (the NVWN project is funded by Nordic Innovation). Further information on streaming and a slurl to the SL events will be on the NVWN website. Robin Teigland is hosting the event in SL.
- See also Experience Lab, RUC

Posted in Blog, Machinima, Workshops and Seminars.

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