Staging Second Life in Real and Virtual Spaces - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 229

Several students commented on the need
for more time to become acquainted with the
environment as well as the technical demands in
integrating the virtual with live theatre. As one
student pointed out 'We could have done with
a lot more time learning about how Second Life
worked, because there were a lot of problems to
work out technically, as well as problems staging'.
This is not a surprising response given, contrary to
our expectations most students were not familiar
with 3D virtual worlds or games prior to taking
this course.

puppeteer being hidden. In turn the performers'
gestures or actions that directly related to the virtual
world aided this effect of integration; the flying
action of the live performer not only embodied a
Second Life gesture, but when performed within
a moving Second Life landscape enabled the con-
nection between the two. Finally, gestures that the
avatars were programmed to enact and which the
actors could physically react to also enhanced the
sense of interaction. The cause and effect of the
swinging tail of the T-Rex and subsequent ducking
of the live performer and the games of rock paper
scissors and passing the ball between performer
and avatar all served to bring the real and digital
together in a shared time/space continuum. There
was a genuine interplay between performer and
avatar resulting in a 'mutual affect' between these
different media.
The trial of Second Life in the Electronic Arts:
Visual Theatre course demonstrated the potential
of 3D worlds to engage students in collaborative
performance activities that combine the live and
the virtual. While it is likely that the technical
issues did frustrate many students, the problem
solving that arose from addressing the challenges
clearly engaged some of the students who were
then able to see the potential of mediatised per-
formance despite the technical constraints of the
Second Life platform. The observation that most
students regarded the learning experience as
worthwhile indicates that the learning objectives
were achieved even though most students stated
they would not like to undertake another course
using Second Life . Given some of those students
did suggest alternative platforms that might be
used in future offerings, it would seem that the
limitations of Second Life as an environment
should not be regarded as a reflection of the pos-
sibilities afforded by 3D virtual world platforms
in general.
Notwithstanding the specific limitations of
the platform identified by staff and students, the
trial of the use of Second Life in this course did
highlight several issues that can be addressed in

Discussion

The course coordinator used mediatised perfor-
mance environment as a research laboratory in
which students were encouraged to engage with
new technologies and consider how to stage them
in relationship to the performer. As the coordinator
explained, 'Digital presence is taken as a given as
the current dominant cultural presence in the arts
and students are challenged to consider how live
presence may negotiate digital presence within a
theatrical environment'. Within this educational
framework the stage is considered to be a 'hyper-
medium' because of the unique capacity of theatre
is able to absorb other art forms and technologies
while asserting its own authority.
The staging of Second Life within the Elec-
tronic Arts: Visual Theatre course played upon
the liminal space between real and digital. The
coordinator commented that part of this frisson
between real and virtual worlds the performers
embodied the stiffly programmed and somewhat
uncoordinated gestures and movements of Second
Life in order to appear as much as possible like
an avatar. Similarly, as the coordinator explained,
an object that could be replicated in both real and
digital worlds such as the box served to cross over
effectively between the two. The real balloon/
ball gained its efficacy much like the performers
for appearing to be digital. This was achieved by
imitating the glow of a digital ball and for the ball's