Submitted/Stacey Fox
Stacey Fox, technical director for the Department of Theatre and Film, with her Second Life avatar, Sage Duncan.
Fox brings virtual art, education to KU
As an artist who has performed in museums, concert halls, classrooms, public spaces and auditoriums around the world, Stacey Fox thought she had played every sort of venue possible. That is, until friends told her about a new world.
"Some friends of mine said, 'There's another venue for you,'" Fox said. "I asked what it was and they said, 'virtual worlds.' "
The friendly suggestion was her introduction to Second Life, a synthetic metaverse in which people create avatars, or digital representations of themselves, to interact with others in just about any imaginable scenario. The more Fox learned about Second Life, the more she realized it was not only an avenue for her art but a potentially amazing educational tool. She's now bringing the virtual world to students and using it to show KU and herself to the rest of the world.
Fox, technical director for the Department of Theatre and Film, is a trained interdisciplinary artist. She produces works that combine music, choreography, painting, film and various other disciplines. One of her most recent works, a film titled "Chunag Tzu's Pow wow Drum" juxtaposes her work with that of a team of collaborators. Set to her own score, the film opens with a young Native American dancer performing a traditional dance atop a sun splashed hill. As the film unfolds, images of a Chinese calligrapher's work are overlaid on the screen, and images she filmed across the country, such as a monk in New York City, follow.
"People often ask what it is I do. I tell them: 'It depends on the day,' " Fox said of her creative work. "I'm not interested in putting things in certain mediums or categories. To me, they're all tools for the artist to use. The exciting part is that by using all of these tools, I get to collaborate with a lot of great artists and bring my creative vision to fruition."
When Fox premieres such a production, her music ensemble performs the score live. Before the performance, she talks about the production of her films and likes to give audience members a chance to play instruments they may not be familiar with to help them understand and appreciate what they are about to hear and see.
The spirit of outreach is what led Fox to bring Second Life to students. This summer, she will begin teaching classes in the Department of Art. Fox hopes to tap into the educational potential of the virtual world and bring her international collaborative relations to students at KU.
One of the first things Fox did in Second Life after creating her avatar, Sage Duncan, was to construct an interdisciplinary research institute. In the virtual studio, visitors can watch her films, view her art, take a master class with her or travel across a map of the world that has musical instruments from around the world in the region of their origin. For example, a visitor can sit down and play the sitar located in India.
Her performances in Second Life opened Fox's eyes to its value to education. She can stream live video and audio, and users watch and listen in real time. The technology would allow students to attend a KU class broadcast into Second Life from anywhere in the world or view a performance from another continent from KU's campus.
While researching the virtual world, Fox found such innovative educational uses as biology classes who have constructed and held class inside of a cell. Medical schools are performing virtual surgeries, and arts classes have recreated the Sistine Chapel for students to view and discuss.
Fox is also using the virtual realm to show KU to the rest of the world. She worked with Simran Sethi, professional-in-residence at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication, in presenting the virtual world to journalism students and she co-instructed a new media graduate course with Catherine Preston, associate professor of theatre and film. Fox created an avatar for John Tibbetts, associate professor of theatre and film, and interviewed him on her Second Life Cable Network Broadcast she co- produces with David Schwartz, CEO of Music Academy Online in collaboration with a production team from Australia. As Second Life becomes more mainstream — everyone from presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to companies such as Sony, General Motors and Ford Motor Co. are involved in Second Life — Fox says the need to use it as an educational tool will increase. The next generation of students will increasingly be "digital natives," those who have grown up with the technology.
"It's not going away," Fox said of Second Life and virtual worlds. "If anything, it's going to become more prominent, and it's already being used by all segments of society. This is an amazing opportunity."
Email Page
Print Page
[an error occurred while processing this directive]