the other day we gave a tour of some of our virtual world science activities and usually a visitor likes what they see and “understand” how OpenSim stuff is created
the understand part is something i bet everyone in our community can identify with whenever you have been in a situation where you are explaining what you do with virtual worlds to a mainstream, non-virtual world person
in my opinion, mainstream folks are not a creative group – not because they aren’t creative because i believe we are all creative, but because everyday life doesn’t allow time to be creative. on top of not having time, western culture doesn’t promote creativity once you become an adult. we are taught to be consumers, that celebrities are uniquely gifted, and that creativity is relegated to where you place your barn in Farmville or what weapons you choose in a shooter game
OpenSim and Second Life allow for an entire creative spectrum – from pulling together other people’s work to build your own club or home to making everything yourself – it’s completely up to the user as to how much creativity they want (and perhaps one reason virtual worlds are not mainstream activities). even if you buy everything, you probably change colours, terraform, and landscape which allows for a lot of creative freedom (or maybe your creativity is expressed in how you deploy OpenSim – like Mera and her awesome garbage PC! Mera epitomises some of what we want to teach with Enclave Harbour – full use of resources & less waste)
helping outsiders understand – you know how it goes when you are excited and explaining to someone how you make things – the person you are talking reaches a point where their eyes glaze over and you become an overzealous nutcase (okay, i’ll reserve nutcase for me, i can’t speak to how people view you!) =p
people have different levels of understanding they need – most do with a short explanation and simply want to check off a mental box that they understand what you do in the virtual world. but . . . every now and then you run into someone that wants a deeper understanding, it doesn’t mean they want to get into it for themselves, or that they want a dissertation, they just want to know more and maybe even understand why it makes you passionate and why you enjoy making time for it
our visitor wanted to understand the creative process, not so much about prims and rezzing, but about the overall process. it’s easy to get lost in explaining how prims can be manipulated to create things and that’s what probably glazes people over, but explaining the journey to the end goal might be more meaningful. after all, when you think about writing a book you don’t think about commercial digital printers, typography, Amazon pricing policies, and ISBN numbers, you think about what you’ll write and if people will like it. getting an ISBN number, choosing a font, and all that stuff is critical, but it isn’t what makes someone want to become an author
just like thinking to write a book, our Enclave Harbour started with a holistic but vague idea – to teach science through field trips that can be done from home or school. then that “big” idea was divided down into locations like a landfill, deep-sea oil platform, or weather station. for me the detail of making a landfill compactor was exciting but to a mainstream person, they don’t care about prim counts and textures, mainly because they don’t have a framework to understand if that is important. the proverbial big picture does the trick and for some people, like this latest visitor, they wanted a little more detail such as the landfill being equipped to do waste-to-energy (WtE) and not how many prims, client-side overhead, blah, blah, blah
i think of Sarge’s work with his Excelsior Station – it’s for combat rpg but it’s the story of the place that draws me in – regions like a shipyard with housing (PortSide) and alleys and a medical dome - none of it having to do with how many prims or texture sizes. Excelsior Station piques my curiosity – the notion of it entertains me by telling a story – what’s the history of the place, what’s going on now, what other places are there to explore within it, why is there combat, what’s being fought over? it’s the story and not the details he has toiled over that make it what it is
painting a big picture and then adding only the relevant details – and knowing which ones to omit – help outsiders understand and even become interested in it =)
the “secret” details are what many of us enjoy spending our time with, but we are the insiders and it’s meaningful to us
okay, onward to retrofitting this waste-to-energy dealio . . .
© ecomaine
Yes, I think you are right. I was surprised at the interest I got in my (‘RL’) sculpture making process and the story of it all. The quantities of resin and brush sizes are purely for art geeks like prim manipulations. Other peoples enjoyment comes from ‘getting’ the process rather than the details.
…some of us are happy to talk details all day tho…luckily we have friends with similar geekness.
soror Nishi
13 May 12 at 5:34 pm
Thanks for the mention, Your Poutine-ness *winks*.
I’d like to add that the Station has never been a full bloom idea. It started with some experiments in what the limits of my system and software have. Out of that came some vague goals of what I wanted to achieve. Those were the seeds and soil.
And it grew.
I think that is the most fundamental part of creativity. It grows, in an organic manner. You can add things, but then all the rest changes and adapts until it all comes together, the way a garden will change when you add new flowers.
I look forward to the time when others settle in and add their own ‘blossoms’ to the Station.
Sarge Misfit
13 May 12 at 6:32 pm
Nice example with your real sculptures (what an awesome expression for you too) and we are lucky to have a community that loves to share those gritty details :)
Organic is a wonderful term to apply to our very technical tool!
I once read about a car manufacturer CEO who was helicoptered to work daily and would tell his team that they were not in the business of selling cars, but in the entertainment business where it’s the story that sells. Most car ads never mention if the car has an engine or even wheels
Ener Hax
13 May 12 at 7:06 pm
Thanks sweet herring for mentioning my fighting for the “Old Crappy Computers Right to Live” party. Its a struggle but someone haz to do it. xxxx
Mera
14 May 12 at 9:28 am
“in my opinion, mainstream folks are not a creative group – not because they aren’t creative because i believe we are all creative, but because everyday life doesn’t allow time to be creative. on top of not having time, western culture doesn’t promote creativity once you become an adult. we are taught to be consumers, that celebrities are uniquely gifted, and that creativity is relegated to where you place your barn in Farmville or what weapons you choose in a shooter game”
I was thinking along these lines on my way home today. I saw a guy riding along the street on a bike, singing to himself. Obviously for no other reason than he just wanted to. Its sad that I can’t remember the previous time I saw someone doing that. We’re so awash in professional products and the idea that you have to be a talented genius that most of us think our own voices (or other creative impulses) are not good enough and so remain silent.
Kimika Ying
14 May 12 at 7:12 pm
wow! that is a poignant example Kimika! we all need to sing every day, especially in our hearts – life is meant to be grand and full of awe and that starts with each one of us
look at the reach your one bicyslists has had – on you and now onto me! =)
Ener Hax
14 May 12 at 10:09 pm
I keep reading about Enclave and Science Land…when can I visit? Would Ener Hax be interested in presenting at a SIGVE Speaker event in the fall? Perhaps conducting a field trip? I’m currently involved with a group of educators working on an ARG with a science bent….a field trip to your place may be quite beneficial, if you are ready.
Gridjumper
15 May 12 at 7:12 am
Speaking of singing, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk
It is Bobby McFerrin (if you don’t know who he is, then don’t worry, be happy) demonstrating how through audience participation he can direct them to produce music (it is worth watching the full talk as it is quite interesting).
One of the things I have found is to be creative, it helps to have restrictions. It might seem counter intuitive, but it works.
As an example, say the first word that pop into your head and time how long it took you to come up with that word. It usually take longer than you think.
But now put a restriction there: Say the first word that comes into your head about computers.
You will find that this second one will occur quicker than the first. This is because we have a restriction that helps filter out options. If we have too many options, we enter “Analysis Paralysis” where our brain tries to deal with having too many options and getting it down to the one option (or a few options).
When a person is first presented with virtual worlds, there is a huge number of options that they have to confront. their brains go into the Analysis Paralysis problem and they become overwhelmed.
In the game of Chess, a beginner will struggle to know what each piece does, and because they are overwhelmed by all the options, they enter Analysis Paralysis and they struggle with the game. As players get better at the game, they learn to “Chunk” (and that is actually the technical term for it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunking_(psychology) ), this is grouping related options into groups, and then treating those groups as individual options. Very experienced chess players even Chunk whole board layouts and sequences of moves.
This is the same with virtual worlds. Experienced users have chunked all the options for how to manipulate prims and other stuff needed to operate in the virtual world. these chunks allow the more experienced users to quickly and reliably select the best set of options to use when attempting to make various objects.
New users don’t have these chunks, and because experienced users have them and they are used to thinking with them, it makes it hard for experienced users to teach new users.
When teaching a new user about virtual worlds, we should remember to think like we did when we first started – without chunks, and to help direct the new users into developing their own chunking.
Paul
16 May 12 at 6:21 am
[...] via from the outside in – ”understanding” virtual worlds at i live in science land. [...]
from the outside in – ”understanding” virtual worlds at i live in science land « Lethy's Table: Mediated Education
16 May 12 at 8:10 am
[...] week i was tasked with making a waste-to-energy plant and as with most thing i build, i like to let the idea roll [...]
what a load of rubbish – waste-to-energy at i live in science land
20 May 12 at 2:51 pm