Toni Sant: A Second Life for Online Performance History

Toni Sant is exploring Second Life as a 'venue for performance' by looking at examples of theatre groups performing online within the 3-D online virtual environment. The event will take place at De Montfort University in Leicester this Thursday. Visit the cultural eXchanges website to reserve a seat. From IOCT Salon:

In addition to activities presented as theatre he is also observing broader performance activities within this online space. Additionally, this project involves an attempt to use Second Life as a pedagogical tool for generating an archive of work related to a history of performance on the Internet by relating it to previous work on other online virtual environments, such as IRC, MUDs, MOOs, and 2-D graphic chat networks like The Palace. Presently, the work revolves around a planned Second Life production of Shakespeare's Hamlet in one of three simulations of The Globe in this popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

This event takes place as part of cultural eXchanges, an annual event hosted by the Faculty of Humanities at De Montfort University. The week long programme includes lectures, performances, debates, presentations and readings from a diverse body of artists, academics, practioners and those working in the cultural industries. Previous guests have included Janet Street-Porter, Alastair Campbell, Andrew Davies, Corin Redgrave, Matthew Sweeney, Jenny Colgan, Sue Mcgregor, Roy Hattersley, Tony Hawks, Germaine Greer, Jackie Kay and Colin Dexter.