Staging Second Life in Real and Virtual Spaces - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 219

Second Life have experimented with techniques to
overcome these kinds of limitations. For example,
the Ballet Pixelle company employs seating with
set viewing angles that can be scrolled through via
a menu in the Second Life Shakespeare Company's
more recent production of One's a Pawn of Time ,
a camera HUD operated remotely was employed
to change the viewer's camera angles in line with
the direction of the performance.
Yet another, potentially even more powerful
transformative form of liminoid performance
involves simultaneous live performance in the
physical space of a theatre and 3D virtual environ-
ment. This kind of performance is associated with
the 'blurring of generic boundaries, crossover and
hybrid performances' and can best be described
as 'intermedial' in that it 'inhabits a space in
between the different realities of performance'
and (Chapple and Kattenbelt, 2006, p. 11-12).
The theatre as a stage of intermediality can be
regarded as a 'hypermedium' which incorporates
a mix of media into its performance space (Chap-
ple and Kattenbelt, 2006 p. 19-24). What distin-

guishes intermediality from other forms of mixed-
media is the transformative properties of
intermedia; through a process of remediation
media are refashioned at the level of both content
and form (Bolter and Grusin, 1999, p. 45). Such
hybrid performances are potentially transforma-
tive because they involve the corporeality and
materiality of the live performance with media to
intensify experience and 'reflexivity of thought'
(Kattenbelt, 2006, p. 37).
Paul Sermon's (2007) Liberate your Avatar 3
project staged in Second Life and All Saints
Gardens in Manchester is an example of such
an intermedial performance. As Sermon (2007)
explained, the merged realities of Oxford Saints
Garden and its Second Life counterpart enabled
'first life' visitors and 'second life' avatars to
co-exist through a live interactive installation.
Inspired by Sermon's work, Joff Chafer adapted
the techniques employed by Sermon to stage the
Summer Dancing project in Second Life. In this
performance, live film was mixed with a live blue
screen image from Second Life through a vision

Figure 1. Joff Chafer performing in Hamlet with the Second Life Shakespeare Company