Metaverse Creativity (new title: Virtual Creativity) - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2014

Interactive and immersive synthetic experiences may utilize or even redesign the overall sense of embodiment of the person experiencing them mindfully. Because experience is ultimately mediated by the body, it is necessary to look at its affordances and constraints in physical space as the referent. The real-time quality and variety of connections to the body that are available to provide input into synthetic realities aid in extending the body into the virtual, to the point of being capable of redefining that body and its relation to the thought process in the embodied experience. In this article, first, mindfulness is characterized by the advantages it opens to representations such as those of synthetic environments. Then, the enactive approach is used to describe mindful embodiment in these environments. Other literature is called forward to consider how embodiment relates to self-representation as an attribute of presence in virtual space, how embodiment also relates to the perceptual system that is reformulated or extended by technology, and finally, how it is articulated in semantic constructions built from the experience of the body, which tie representation to the expansion of these constructions arguably created for the purpose of collective consciousness, which can be further understood as part of human evolution.

This article proposes a framework for the analysis of artworks created in virtual worlds by extending Patrick Lichty’s four modalities of art in virtual worlds, identified as transmediated, cybrid, client/browser and evergent. Following a review of artistic practices in Second Life a selection of artworks from the ‘Kritical Work in SL’ exhibitions are analysed for the qualities of imaginative experience and the articulation of a new set of movements of the imagination from (and between) physical and virtual world spaces that indicates a potency of virtual worlds for the investigation and creation of artistic practice.

Seductive narrative, magic, ‘spells’ (in the form of scripts or code), interactive immersion and other affective elements are present and important in Bryn Oh’s Second Life-based artwork. In this text, I show that just as it is misleading to exclusively associate the virtual with computers and multimedia technology, it is equally unreliable to assume that the transforming experiences of subjectivity and identity lived in SL are exclusively the result of instrumental technicality of MMORPG’s (a virtual multimedia tekhne, so to speak). Virtuality has always been present in literature, poetry, fantasy, daydreaming – all subjective and affective engagements and long-standing artistic resources that produce rapture and immersion. The unfolding narratives, interaction and liminality in Bryn Oh’s work capture the visitor’s complicity. These are a strategy to embed the visitor into the flow of stories unfolding from Bryn’s virtual world, interactive art installations and machinima. A few reflections on Bryn Oh’s particular mythopoeia are developed here using three vectors,3 the hermeneutic value of which explains the arc of interests, aesthetic purposes and locus offered by the artist through her work, intellectual production and media presence in the web, including virtual worlds, SL, blogs, Vimeo and YouTube channels. In connection with these subjects, I apply multidisciplinary views ranging from literature to visual semiotics, media studies to distribute aesthetics. I seek to make sense of these vectors in the form of a ‘polyphonic conversation’, addressing the particular transformation of Bryn’s mythos in affective tekhne. The process reveals important transformations regarding subjectivity and the identity of visiting avatars as well as their ‘owners’, unfolding through interaction with her artwork. The aim is to contribute to the discussion on virtual worlds, digital and virtual art theories.

This article describes the implementation and artistic evaluation of an abstract, believable virtual agent known as Qiezli. Possessing the ability to create aesthetic output by itself, Qiezli functions as an automated performance artist in Second Life (SL). Seemingly pre-occupied with its own daydreaming imagination, Qiezli is visually inspired by Josephine Anstey’s narrative-embedded zoomorphic agent, ‘The thing growing’ (2000). Qiezli uses aesthetic abstraction, Non-Verbal Communication (NVC) and combinatorial creativity to interact with SL-avatar participants beyond the confines of a goal-oriented narrative. This research catalyses methods for simulating alien ontologies and stereotypically western (i.e. Enlightenment and Romantic-era) artistic behaviours in user-generated virtual worlds. Qiezli appears alien not only via its abstract appearance but also through its idiosyncratic usage of expressing itself non-verbally by wearing video-textures in response to avatar interactions. Whereas character-traits such as self-absorption or aloofness are not usually seen as a benefit to interactivity; Qiezli’s insistence on focusing on its solitary daydreaming state mirrors a stereotypical characteristic among Romantic artists who chose to transcend society by detaching from it. This article contributes to the metaverse art-discourse by showing the perceptual and technical limitations of designing an agent in SL – especially one that is meant to be visually and behaviourally distinct from a human-controlled avatar. The main limitations are due to SL’s proprietary Linden Scripting Language (LSL) and its design that structures agent ­behaviour around a finite-state architecture comprised of event-activated gestural loops. Based on the observation results from representatives from SL’s artistic community; the authors now suggest that Qiezli or an equivalent agent be produced using a more robust cognitive architecture. Therefore, Qiezli would appear less reactive by managing external memory-storage and engage in genuine deliberation of states and ­operators.

Video games have been the focus of discussion by researchers of gaming and narratology regarding their narrative capabilities for quite some time. While some researchers argue that interactive media such as video games should not be designed around a narrative due to their inherent, non-linear nature, others suggest that when analysing video games as a narrative medium a different approach may also be considered. Given that the sequence of events that are presented to the user are not as ordered as they are in traditional narratives, it can be surmised that the traditional definition of narrative (a sequence of events) would not apply in the case of video games. However, this should not mean that the medium cannot contain narrative qualities; it only raises the need to a new approach for the consideration of narratives in video games. In this article I suggest that instead of using the traditional narrative arc as a basis for evaluation for narratives in video games, one may also consider the indigenous qualities of the medium itself in terms of its narrative capabilities. Focusing on environment design in virtual worlds by examining how they are designed, authored and presented to the user, and how they are tied to the narrative design of a game, I aim to point out the ways in which game mise-en-scènes are used as storytellers in their own rights and may be sufficient in narrating a scene.

The design case presents the developed chain reaction game Creative Gears Laboratory based on problem-solving situations. The entire process of chain reaction consists of various scientific components, such as gear devices and tool modules, and game scenarios are created. There are ten sets of tool modules designed as referring operational behaviours in chain reaction games. The problem-solving situations in the chain reaction game designed four game scenarios: Risk Precaution, Obstacle Elimination, Situation Balance and Confidence Challenges. There were sixteen topical situations created by brainstorming methods and related solutions of scenarios based on problem-solving situations. The future study will conduct the narrative interview to investigate on the cognitive process during problem-solving procedure.