Student

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First name:	Bjarke
Last name:	Liboriussen
Institution:	Syddansk Universitet
Address:	Campusvej 55
Post code:	5230
City:	Odense M
Tel.:	6130 1895
E-Mail:	bl1895@gmail.com
Project title:	The Mechanics of Place: Body, Landscape, and Building in Online Worlds
Advisor:	Bo Kampmann Walther
Starting date:	2006-09-01
Expected completion date:	2009-09-01
Danish short presentation: Jeg arbejder med at flytte viden fra felter som landskabsæstetik og arkitekturteori til medievidenskaben, for at kunne beskrive online-verdener à la "Second Life" og "World of Warcraft".
Full Presentation: Online-verdener byder på oplevelser af landskaber og bygninger på en meget direkte måde; en måde der ligger forholdsvis tæt på hvordan vi oplever landskaber og bygninger i offline-verdenen. Det der er tænkt og sagt om vores oplevelse af steder må med andre ord have relevans for det nye medium. Ville det ikke være mere nærliggende at lade en arkitekturteoretiker eller en landskabsdesigner, snarere end en litterat, sige noget begavet om "World of Warcraft"? Nu er et online-sted og et offline-sted naturligvis ikke det samme: hvis der skal overføres arkitekturteori og landskabsæstetik til medievidenskaben på en meningsfuld måde, skal de særlige, digitale betingelserne for stedoplevelse i online-verdener tages i betragtning. Jeg forsøger at klare mig igennem problemet ved at beskrive fire komponenter, hvis dynamiske samspil danner oplevelsen af sted. Listen er ikke komplet, og heller ikke et forsøg på at stable endnu en sted-filosofi på benene, men et pragmatisk forsøg på at skabe en ramme for min læsning af landskabsæstetik og arkitekturteori (diverse teoretiske ressourcer i parentes): - KROP (kognitivistisk medieforskning ["embodied agency"]) - LANDSKAB (klassisk landskabsæstetik [landskabet som objekt for kontemplation] vs. moderne, evolutionært funderet landskabsæstetik [landskabet som ramme for overlevelse]) - KORT (kartografiske såvel som teskstuelle hjælpebeskrivelser; kognitiv kortlægning ["cognitive/mental mapping"]) - BYGNING (i dobbelt forstand: bygningen som ting og som kollektivt projekt) Undervejs er jeg blevet virkelig fascineret af de bygninger/byggeprojekter jeg er stødt på i "Second Life". Folk investerer utrolige mængder tid, kreativtet og følelse i at bygge i fællesskab - og skal man tro dem på ordet har de en udpræget følelse af at "bo" sammen online. Jeg er i færd med at dokumentere sammenvævningen af social samhørighed og byggeri med et par case-studier, som ser ud til at udgøre et nyttigt supplement til det formalistiske projekt.
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English presentation: ONLINE WORLDS, such as "World of Warcraft" and "Second Life" are economies, social worlds, and often games and stories too. They are all of those things at the same time, attracting a very diverse group of users with very diverse motives for participating. This gives the medium a unique, social dynamism, and presents the academic observer with interdisciplinary challenges. To truly understand online worlds, one has to keep aware of the economic, sociological, ludological and narratological perspectives at all times. In that interdisciplinary spirit, my project focuses on LANDSCAPE and BUILDING in online worlds. Roughly speaking, I attempt to make unexplored, theoretical resources within landscape aesthetics and architectural theory available for media studies. This entails explicating the special conditions under which landscape and building are experienced in online worlds; obviously, the Redridge Mountains (WoW) and the Alps are nor experienced in the same way. I attempt to describe the experiental conditions of online worlds by focusing on the following elements, primarily chosen for pragmatic reasons: - BODY - LANDSCAPE - MAP - BUILDING The role of the BODY is a cornerstone of contemporary game scholarship. If something is to be called a game at all it must afford its user some sort of embodied agency in the game world. Through the agency of your body you can act in and upon the online world, but the online world might also act on you. This puts you directly into place, as opposed to the indirect sense a movie or book puts you in place. LANDSCAPE is important in two ways. Firstly, there are parallels between the way landscape is conceptualized within landscape painting and photography, and the way it is conceptualized in most online worlds. Namely, as something primarily visual. Meeting an online world and looking at a landscape painting can have a lot in common. Secondly, landscape can also be understood as a framework holding various elements of the world organized. The MAP plays a role of evident importance in the experience of place in online worlds. Whereas the offline world is often met without the support of maps, this is rule rather than exception in online worlds. Understanding place in online worlds requires understanding the supportive role of the map. This raises the issue of whether or not to analytically include maps and other supportive descriptions found outside of the online world proper, for example on websites such as Allakhazam or Thottbot, in the experience of place. In everyday language a BUILDING, a landscape and a map are things, and belong to the same level of reality. In architectural theory, however, the act of building seems inescapable when considering the thing building. Thus building entails dwelling, at least if your theory is informed my Martin HEIDEGGER. Since many online worlds provide their users with the means of building, it seems reasonable to consider to what degree those builders in online worlds are also dwellers in online worlds. Or to pose the question from a design angle: In what way is the user’s engagement with the world strengthened by providing him or her with building tools? Can we understand this engagement better by likening it to dwelling in the offline world?