Pop~Event: 6thCyberconf

The fe.mail data_set - subtopic AVATARS

Conference URL6thCyberconf
6th International Conference on Cyberspace held June 5-8, 1997, The University of Oslo

The conference followed the general phenomena of academic presentations, selected from abstracts sent months ago. This format is a standard format, especially among the electronic festival nomads, that the submission of interesting abstracts is the key to become a presenter. This does not guarantee an interesting in person presentation.

At 6cyberconf, many regulars of the cyberconf circuit presented routine lectures, like de Landa described in his talk "Intelligent Interfaces" on the history of computers 'program routines'" - which could have been taken as a metaphor for the whole event. There was no more a 'master program' rather, it was the contra shift to the data program...this means that some of the unknown speakers brought the most interesting content within this 'meshwork' of cyberconf oriented ideas. (see a very animated Manuel DeLanda )

On the first day of the conference, Telepolis was presented as an online interface for net culture, which is an independent format among other webcasters. The open concept of Telepolis' design, was well received by the 6cyberconf audience, who were impressed by its bilingual hypertext structure, interesting topics, and the possibility to interact. Armin Medosch, redaktor, premiered the new interface and design of Telepolis. Pop~TARTS described their specific fe_mail TOPIC, and collective bilingual text filtering, which seemed to have a special interest for the international networkers.

The homogenity of standardization in contrast to the heterogeneity of software, we can take as a model for the conference structure, as well as Delanda took it as a model for the social implications of soft and hardware development, and certain routes of interface developments. To learn how to create 'meshworks' is in general relevant, also in self conscious social sub-systems.

The audience was a private gathering of about 100 persons, with an almost half-half North Americans and Europeans presenting. There were only two East Europeans in attendance (both born in the west) and among the Europeans, the majority were Norwegian and Swedish. The perspective of the conference was surprisingly on Cyberspace as the term to identify immersive online environments. This culture reference was for sure American dominated, because in 1996 in Madrid, the Europeans brought many different terms into the discussion, for example Dataspace, E-space, although all the same, it gives some open ideas about the potential for personal identity. With "Cyberspace", one accepts the commercial, VR industry, which has taken the one term from science fiction to fulfill all the promises of the future of the medium.

Some of the highlights of the 6cyberconf, were for Pop~Tarts:

Sally Jane Norman, a vibrant Canadian living in Paris, concepts of the body in and the question it poses for drama, into theatrical environments. She said "we must consolidate knowledge of our physical bodies, in order to live in Cyberspace..." She showed some examples of how digital geometry affects performance, in her talk about the male conspiracy of Cartesian coordinates, which entails the myth of the universal digital space.

Steve Pettifer, from the computer science department, The University of Manchester UK, presented "Worlds within Worlds: on the topology of virtual space" a paper he developed with Adrian West. This is a pragmatic work that has been going on now for about 2 years.
In his presentation he discussed the holistic experience of VR, the multidimensional representation of data following a model of laws and rules. This research come from the object oriented programming and structuring of programming languages. In the public discussion, he presented their research, DEVA, a method to understand the cause and effect of the 3D and 4D spaces of abstract, virtual worlds, especially where there is no ground space. VR has many different kinds of worlds, both cohesive and not so developed. DEVA provides a way to look at the Metaverse, and assists those who are trying to comprehend how different worlds are identified, by establishing their properties. It is not a spatial layout, but rather a potential of types. A programmer, Pettifer stuck to the concept of fixed perimeters, and the necessity to strictly define the rules and environmental conditions. This professional approach bothered the theoretical and philosophically inclined audience members, like Perry Hoberman, who wanted to maintain the possibility of shifting rules and the unexpected.

Patricia Futterer, a Viennese who had been studying in Canada, presented her research paper, entitled "cyber-selves and the architecture of fantasy"; the web-version is at www.Austria.EU.net/pat/cyber/

Her analysis began with the history of perception and the self. She mentioned the anatomical paintings of the body, often decorated with flowers and fruits from the Renaissance. She asked, of the history of art, what has defined the "sense of self" and how has the use of fantasy continued to develop in today's virtual worlds. She based her examples on modernist ideas as well as postmodernity and the circulating image of the body in information culture. Interestingly, she was attacked for using examples of Nazi German image building strategies as a relation point to virtual architecture of avatars and fantasy selves in VR. In discussion, it was pointed out that the Nazi's had been purposefully using architectural photography to exploit their irreverence of the use of scale. This means that published photographs of architecture models were published as real buildings..

Barbara Becker, German National Research Center of Computer Science (GMD)
Her paper, "Virtual Subjects on the Road" dealt with the phenomena of creating virtual identifies, and what are the motives for gender switching. A linguist who is concerned with computer languages, she also teaches at the KHM, Koeln, (see the article on Stahl Stenslie and mem_brane). Among her questions, was the text based construction of virtual identities in MUDS and MOOS. She asked what are the limits of our physical barriers in these environments. (see also the article on Gash().

Becker discussed several techniques of self construction via a text body. She used the metaphor of the whirlpool of sentences, where the subject is written into movement of text. In this situation, the self looses itself. She asked, in which ways does the imaginary become concrete in Virtual space?, like, what kind of techniques really work. Her historic references include common experiences we have in the real worlds, with games, festivals, wearing masks, theater costumes, and in literature. Always one has to follow the inner laws of language - which allows us to work out 'the self' in imaginary situations.

Janet Rolph Richardson, of WorldsAway's DREAMSCAPE (a Fujitsu Software environment available in CompuServe) presented:
"Constructing and Engaging Virtual Body-Mind in an Interactive Animated Cyberspace Community"
In Dreamscape, people enter from their 'waking lives' into the virtual life of the 2 1/2 D world -meaning that you observe yourself interacting with others in the world- and transfer their personality from one world to the other through an avatar. It is possible to develop multiple selves, and she observes that often people have very different personalities online then in their waking life. Her paper discussed the sensory motor recall that happens -muscle exhaustion from observing actions of the virtual self-as well as the gender and ethnic switching that takes place in the free environment of VR. She said, You must be able to disengage from the virtual identity when in the waking world," and as an 'oracle' (something like a wizard) she assists newbies daily, who learn to navigate this online community that has over 50,000 inhabitants.

Suzanne Meszoly, director of C3 Budapest described the activities of C3 - Center for Communication and Culture. In a RealAudio transmission from the newest C3 program ParaRadio, was received clearly in Oslo and gave a chance for the teenage Roma gypsy group, which has been active in the Center this year, to play their digital version of traditional music. C3 a model program that brings corporate partners together with the Soros Foundation, and the Hungarian Telecommunications system. It is a provider, research center and resource library for the Hungarian public. It is an interesting idea that came up on the last day of the conference, that C3 would be the host of the 1998 cyberconf. We believe that this might be a chance for more representation of people from the ex-east, bringing a wider base for the discussion. (see also the article on Suzanne Meszoly and the opening of C3)

Special Event: e~on:
E~on, the future is your friend,
was an exhibition held at the Kunstnerhes Hus, in which all 6cyberconf visitors were invited to attend. Highlights of what was on view were the following:

Solve et Coagula, mating man and machine www.gar.no/sec. An installation by Knut Mork, Stahl Stenslie, Lars Nilsson and Karl-Anders Oygard, was the outstanding work of the exhibition. A massive iron framework enclosed a personal space for using the datasuit which the artists devised for mating with the machine. (see)

Motherboard/lawhat al-umm, "the digital mosque", which was a nice mix of 3D computer animation, live action, and video. The artists brought to consciousness, the linking of the western women (in white dresses) to the Moslem women, who are confined in black veils. (dancer of motherboard, animated )

watz+pendry, with Licktoad Jubenia was a performing environment, a gothic fairytale set up for the audience to join actors within a data space.

Some Cyberspace stars included The Krokers, Sandy Stone (who started the conference in Austin Texas 6 years ago), Marcos Novak, architect, artist, composer and theorist who developed the concept of Liquid Architecture, Perry Hoberman, Pierre Levy and Thecla Schiphorst. Disappointedly, there were many dropouts....including keynote speaker Florian Roetzer, special guest Claudia Alsdorf, and speakers Timothy Druckery, and Calin Dan. (see the Krokers, very animated ).