2nd life versus World of Warcraft

Above: scenery of World of Warcraft, Bottom: girls shopping in Second Life




I have a friend who´s brother is used to stay without food and drinks for one day or longer while he´s playing World of Warcraft. Why should he? He´s the leader of his combating crew in World of W., he is gaining victories, new magic skills, conquering countries - and last but not least, gaining prestige. So why should he fucking eat - somehow I understand him.

World of Warcraft is the biggest "virtual world" with 3,8 million players all around the world. It´s an online game, constructed around fantastic characters, strategic fights and magic landscapes. The players use to talk to each other by headphones while playing. I´ve listened quite a few times to my friend´s little brother. It sounded quite funny when he was shouting around, giving orders to his fight-compagnons - a bit like he would work for a spaceship in his free-time.

A bit more than one year ago, a big hype about a new online game was rising: Second Life, a game that played with virtual characters but real money was born. You could design yourself whatever character - a blonde pin-up girl or an Italian gigolo. But you had to pay for every single extra-features for your avatar (this is the name that is used for any online character). Newbies in Second life all look the same, and noone will talk to them.

Once pimped up your avatar, you could start the walk through this new, fantastic world. But what was so fantastic about it? According to reports ( I never tried to play it) everything was like in real life - shops, beaches, parties, business (many real companies joined second life and made real money there), houses, sex, advertisements. Even the rules of society seemed to be the same. And without having money, you couldn´t do much - like sometimes in real life.
All in all, pretty boring and disappointing.

So, one year after the big hype, it has become calm around 2nd life - World of Warcraft, is, according to my knowledge, still not conquered by the big companies of the real world, but still an addictive place for many youngsters. While 2nd life only wants you to buy you online Nike sneakers that you have to pay in real dollars or penis-enlargements (yes, in 2nd life you have to pay your penis-size) World of Warcraft is a place where people can live the adventures they don´t have in real life - and is set at impossible, magic places. Or in short: While World of Warcraft is a freaky thrilling place that makes many people freaks in their real lifes, but kings in their virtual one, second life is only a second boring life.

E-poetry

Anna Maria Uribe: Anipoem

E-poetry means poetry created through the help of computers, uses the language of computers (codes) or the way of reading and communicating with computers (hypertextual) as matters of expression. It can also be the creation of a computer. Personally, I think e-poetry is reflecting the new way of language we´re using and living it, since we´re dependent on the use of techniques.

Social software

"Facebook-Overload"


Social software is any software that is created for human communication, interaction and collaboration. While "wikis" are mainly designed for creating a "common knowledge" by allowing everyone to add, exchange or correct information, socalled "social platforms"´s main advantage is the possibility to communicate and illustrating a person´s personality virtually. Common known platforms are: Facebook, FlickR, Tribe, MySpace... People with the same interest, people of the sam country or just any people are signed in the same platform. All in all 120 personal attributes in average you are asked for on a social virtual platform. Depending on the platform, there exist various features of "pimping" a profile - interests, photos, videos, links to the favourite websites, friends and people the person is related to....
Besides the positive aspects of easy communication, social platforms also are conducive for voyeurism, self-exposure and abuse of data. Some people have happened to be fired of their jobs because of some fatal info/pictures on a social platform.
PS: if someone wants to delete his/her profile on facebook, he/she will have to delete every personal detail by hand - or the data will be save, although the profile is gone...

John Cage knows that you can find mushrooms in autumn

John Cage is considered to be a pioneer of electronic music. One of his most famous works, though, "4,33" uses neither acoustic nor electronic instruments, because it´s composed as a work of silence by Cage. The only advise the musicians (it´s free to decide for the performers which instruments they´re going to not play - whether acoustic or electroacoustic ones) find in the partiture is "tacet" - Keep silent. I find John Cages ideas that lead him to create a music piece of silence, interesting: The idea that silence forms an equal part of each sound we´re hearing and using, the idea that each sound, each timbre, each loudness and melody needs the pure silence to be considered as sound.

Listen to the silence

But honestly, I wouldn´t attend a concert where "4,33" is performed. I thank him that he gives me the chance to think about this fact, but I think Cage himself would be laughing about people that in these days are pilgrimaging to concert halls, still sitting there, frozen in their chairs, listening to silence. For me, "4,33" is more a thought, an attitude of reflecting your own way of consuming music, than a work.

Another work that characterizes Cage more as the pioneer of electronic music, though he actually didn´t use electronic equipment, is "Imaginary Landscape Nr. 1". A chinese cymbal, Cages famous prepared piano make the acoustic part, records with sound for testing turntables on them form as well the electronic as also the improvised part - Cage didn´t know the sounds that came from the reords.

His unusal attention for technical things that are sneakily conquering men´s life (like background noise, etc) makes him a recommendable author and musician. But also, I think he was "just" a very attentive person, his thoughts and ideas for works are, in fact, very simple. "I knew that there was a japenese haiku about mushrooms. haikus are always connected to seasons. And why I wanted to find an autumn poem I knew it would be about mushrooms, because in autumn you can find mushrooms" (Mushroom Haiku, excerpt from Silence)

The best games to waste your time

This is my personal score of the most stupid - but so satisfying and time-wasting - games you can find on the web!

Number One: The bubble squeezer


...a favourite example of using a new interface and transforming the satisfactoring feeling of squeezing plastic foil into a virtual experience....uahhh!!squeeze the bubbles


Number Two: Make your own punk music!!!
In any case of anger, boredom or sexual frustration I metamorphose myself into a punk.Smash the fuckin´anarchy machine


Number Three: The Online Würstlstand
a job that everyone has to do once in his or her life while living in Vienna is serving sausages to drunken Viennese people. Because a "Würstlstand" is a place that is opened 24 hours, each day... If you ever want to live in Vienna, here you can train your sausage skills - and also get to know something about Viennese mentality...Deliver the sausage

Googol - Google´s evil brother

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00000000000A one, followed by hundred zeros, is called "Googol" - the word google gets its name from. Originally, this should be a metaphor for the mass of answers you can get through one single Google-search.
A few years ago, the word Googol was known for another reason: It was a searching mask where you were able to search private chats from AIM (Instant Messenger) and ICQ. Reason: AOL had been forced to publicitate their complete data archive of private conversations via AIM after a citation from general attorny John Ashcroft. The archive contained the thoughts of possible terrorists, cheating husbands and countless computer-beginners.

By using the arguments of the "Freedom of Information Act" (FOIA), Googol was able to buy a copy of the complete logifiles, more than 2 Terabytes of Data. The Googol searchmask wore the same design as "Google", so everyone thought it was created by Google. So, Google sewed Googol, and the searching mask for firm private data had to close down in spring 2002.

Robotica como arte?

Cuando nos preguntamos sobre la existéncia o la valoración de arte robótica - y yo hablo más de arte que está creada por un robot que sobre un robot como obra - referenciamos mucho a los pioneros en ese área. Nam June Paik, por ejemplo, que dijo sobre su robot K-456 en 1965: "Me imagino que K-456 encuentra gente en la calle y los sorprende en segundos. Como una ducha súbita" K-456 era un robot que haya debido arte en la calle.




Nam June Paik y K-456. C: Nam June Paik


O referenciamos Eduardo Kac y sus idéas de telepresencia. O hablamos sobre el pionero de robóticas CYSP 1 y su creador Nicholas Schöffer. Construyendo los robóticas, artistas como Schöffer o Paik a mismo tiempo reflejan la posibilidad de partes "humanos" (creativos) en las macchinas.
Hoy usamos mucho los robots como parte de nuestro vida, esos robots para nosotros no representan caractéres con capacidades , pero representan partes muy comúnes de nuestra vida circadiana. La posibilidad de ser "Cyborg", de otro lado, todavía está tratada como una presentación muy ficcionál. Así, las obras del artista Catalana Marcelli Antúnez Roca para mi representan una exepción. "Requiem", un ser que existe eterna gracies a prótesis, pero está inmóvil, juege con la idéa de la prolongación artificiál de la vida gracies a macchinas.
En este estádio, la vida humana está formada de un cuerpo biológico y un motór tecnico que lo ayuda vivir, un estádio bastante Cyborg. Marcapasos cardíacos o chips de ordenadores en el cerebro también, pero solo son ayudas para la vida física.



Requiem, robot de Marceli Antúnez Roca. C: Telefonica.com

La dependencía del humano de los tecnologías de cada manera que nos parece como una cosa fuera de nuestros cuerpos, me parece, es el factór que nos hace más Cyborg que queríamos imaginarnos. En la ficción, Cyborgs principalemente están presentados llevando su parte técnico por dentro su cuerpo. El Cyborg réal lo lleva principalmente fuera, pero todavía lo nececita para pensar, trabajar, comunicar.....