John Fillwalk presented recent IDIA research in virtual worlds at the 2009 Mardi Gras Conference. Fillwalk and Allison, together with the IDIA, have been exploring hybrid-reality approaches to their work in pedagogy, performance, installation, and interface over the last several years at BSU. They have incorporated approaches to bridging worlds in such applications as streaming media, external webserver communications, and human-computer interaction.
The LSU Center for Computation & Technology , in cooperation with the LSU Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technologies and Research (AVATAR) Initiative , is hosting the 16th annual Mardi Gras Conference, February 19-21, 2009, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Mardi Gras conferences take place annually, concentrating each year on a different computational theme of current relevance. This year’s theme will be: “Virtual Worlds: New Realms for Culture, Creativity, Commerce, Computation and Communication.” As always, the conference concludes with an afternoon trip to New Orleans for one of the city’s largest Mardi Gras parades, Endymion.
Although the concept of virtual worlds has deep roots within the world of networked computing, it is only within the past few years that virtual worlds have captured the imagination of so many in such diverse fields as art, music, business, philosophy, psychology, sociology and mass communication. Moreover, there have been very few events that have tried to organize a broad interdisciplinary perspective around virtual worlds, their adoption by various constituencies, and their use by artists, musicians, historians, designers, educators, archivists, computer scientists, gamers, businesses and entrepreneurs.
The 2009 Mardi Gras Conference will bring together individuals working in this broad area in an attempt to foster information exchange, enable community building and project future trends across the multitude of disciplines that have engaged this technology. This event can be seen as a follow-on to the Emory University workshop in February 2008 on “Virtual Worlds and New Realities in Commerce, Politics, and Society.” The 2009 Mardi Gras Conference will feature workshops on the various technologies, panels, posters and papers in addition to several invited keynote speakers.
More Information: http://www.mardigrasconference.org/