Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 13
Staging Second Life in
Real and Virtual Spaces
Russell Fewster
University of South Australia, Australia
Denise Wood
University of South Australia, Australia
Joff Chafer
Coventry University, UK
ABSTRACT
Over a four-week period students enrolled in a second-year visual theatre course at the University of
South Australia attempted to stage the online virtual world Second Life in a conventional proscenium
arch theatre. The Staging Second Life project played upon the liminal space between 'real' and digital,
and gave the students the opportunity to transpose a virtual world into a theatrical setting. The students
actively played between these two media in turn becoming intermedialists. Within the hypermedium of
the theatre they were able to remediate the conventions of Second Life via their bodies and manipulation
of objects. The project reflects a growing trend in performance pedagogy where technology and new
ways of thinking about its applications are increasingly integrated into the curriculum. This chapter
describes the practical aspects of the course as well as the emergent theory of intermediality underpin-
ning the Staging Second Life project.
INTRODUCTION
positioning bodies in time and space (Chapple
and Kattenbelt, 2006, p. 11).
This chapter describes the
Staging of Second
Life
which reflects such a paradigm change in
a second-year visual theatre course conducted
at the University of South Australia. Students
enrolled in the visual theatre course attempted
to stage the online virtual world
Second Life
in
a conventional proscenium arch theatre, playing
on the liminal space between 'real' and digital.
Theatre studies as a discipline is said to be un-
dergoing a significant paradigm shift in response
to media changes and technological innovation,
which as Chapple and Kattenbelt argue, have led
to ', new principles of structuring and staging
words, images and sounds [and] new ways of
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-822-3.ch013
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