Museums and Phenomena

I went to two museums in SL for the first time. One was an art museum and the other one was kind of like a science museum, but I gave it the name of “phenomena museum” because it wasn’t easily classifiable. The phenomena museum had some really interesting exhibits, most of which were interactive. One exhibit demonstrated the different sounds that objects make in SL, based on the RL material that they simulate i.e. glass, metal, etc. You interacted with the exhibit by dropping different objects on the ground to hear the sound that they made. As simplistic as the interaction was, it made me think about the way aural cues are incorporated into SL to make simulated objects seem more “real.” Another exhibit demonstrated the “Muller Lyer” illusion, one of many 3D optical illusion exhibits they had – for this exhibit you tried to move an arrow in the exact center, between two other arrowheads on a line, where your depth perception was influenced by which direction the arrowheads on either end of the line were pointing. Some of the exhibits just kind of playfully contemplated on random phenomena – the note card that accompanied one exhibit (a visual representation of a cat that falls and lands on its feet), said this:

“How Far Can You Fall?

 

There have been studies conducted in New York City regarding cats falling out of high-rise buildings. During summer, pet owners often leave their windows open to enjoy the warm weather, and occasionally one of our furry little feline friends takes a dive.

The studies have shown:

> Cats have excellent survival instincts and they don’t deliberately jump from high places that would be dangerous.

> Because cats have little fear of heights and enjoy perching in high places, pet owners assume they can take care of themselves.

> And here’s the kicker: oddly enough, cats are more likely to survive falls from higher stories, and be killed from falls as low as two stories.

“We know the worst falls are from second to sixth stories in height,” say Dr. Louise Murray, director of medicine for the ASPCA’s Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in Manhattan. Over six stories, the cat has time to right himself. Landing on four feet instead of one point, the impact is spread out. And when they get into the correct falling position, they become more relaxed for landing.”

This strange and humorous exhibit reminded me distinctly of the web writings of William Poundstone, a very postmodern writer who writes a lot about obscure things and random phenomena (utilizing narrative!) that eerily generate humorous, surprising and sometimes profound connections. Another exhibit, located far above the museum building in the sky, was called “The Orbital Experience,” a simulation of the orbits of the planets in our solar system; you chose a planet and after sitting on it, went for a ride along its particular orbit around the sun (how accurate was this simulated trajectory? I don’t know). I really liked this museum a lot, and it made me think about all the latent educational properties of simulations, where you learn by interacting with a thing.

The art museum was nice as well – I enjoyed the Bob Dylan lyrics and e.e. cummings poems that popped out of some exhibits, although found it a little perplexing as to how they correlated with the exhibits. There was an interesting contrast in the types of art displayed in the sculpture garden; while all of it was essentially digital art, some of the art emulated “real” art, as in the referential Marilyn Monroe sculpture, and some of the art was…and I don’t really know how to articulate this well…but computer art, in the sense that they were 3D mathematical representations (algorithmic, geometric, etc.). Inside the building, there was a piano and I virtually played it; not surprisingly, it had little to zero comparison to playing a piano in real life, which is of course characterized by the body/embodiment tension. Inside, the art was mostly pictorial. I noticed that for me, the virtual pictorial art was much less engaging than the virtual, spatial sculptures (one of which, I was actually able to walk around inside of); in contrast, in RL museums I am normally more engaged with the pictorial rather than the sculptural, not counting contemporary installations and interactive art. I noticed the art museum was situated very similarly to an RL museum, with clear-cut path and sculpture garden leading up to the main building. The phenomena museum was less like RL, with a non-linear layout and of course, the exhibit in the sky. It was fun to roam around in the virtual museums, and I landmarked them so that I could return later, making a note to try to find more museums in the future.

~ by glycerine517 on October 10, 2007.