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August 05, 2005
Burningman Cybercamps
From networked performance.
The VIRTUAL PLAYA PROJECT is a navigable 3d digital Burningman environment using Microsoft Flight Simulator as a platform. It is intended to be an open-ended project that invites participation at various levels. It can be downloaded for home use; played on a giant screen at a Burningman event, or even be used as a design tool for a theme camp or artist wishing to plan an installation before it ever gets to Black Rock City.
The ultimate wish for the project however, is for the Virtual Playa to be the Burningman Cyber Regional. Using multi player technology, it can become a portal through which we can meet on line, and share experience with other cyber burners from anywhere in the world in real time. This takes the project from just being a cool piece of collaborative digital art, to a true meeting place for the cyber-tribe. Download it for free, copy it, send it to pals, leave it on buses, give it away as a gift.....spread the word.
I met these guuys at a Burning Man film fest where they demoed their stuff. It's a great idea. I was working on Adobe Atmosphere at the time and had hoped to do something similar but in a way that allowed users to collaboratively build art structures in-world. It's not here yet, but it won't be long before someone creates an EverQuest-type space rich with physics and geared towards in-world construction/creation. Second Life is close but the hardware just isn't strong enough to synch a lot of object manipulatioon across thousands of clients. But you could imagine a 24/7 virtual burning man with ongoing art creations spreading out further and further across the virtual world, tens of thousands of avatars running about interacting, communicating, collaborating, etc...
Posted by: lvx23 at August 5, 2005 08:56 PMWhat is its purpose? What do you gain from it?
Posted by: Roark at August 11, 2005 10:17 AM(Continuing from my comment earlier...)
I have now looked at the Burningman website and read the description of it on http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/experience.html but it doesn't explain succinctly what it is. Thus, what is it, please? An extreme sort of art festival?
Posted by: Roark at August 11, 2005 10:25 AM