Join Smithsonian LVM at the Virtual World Best Practices in Education Conference

Join the Smithsonian LVM at the 5th Annual Virtual World Best Practices in Education Conference this Saturday, March 17th at 10 AM SL Time (Pacific Time). LVM's Creative Director, Melissa Carrillo, will spearhead the session titled "Representing Latino Cultural Heritage in the Age of Social Media." Ms. Carrillo will be joined by research scholar from the Smithsonian National Museum of American Indian (NMAI) Cynthia Vidaurri and LVM lead artist Stacy Fox to share behind the scenes best practices curating in virtual spaces and the power of virtual worlds as learning spaces. Other special guests include artist/poet/musician Nancy Lorenza Green and writer/founder of Mouthfeel Press Maria Miranda Maloney.

The session will be followed by a tour at the Smithsonian LVM site. 

For more information about this session and the Virtual World Best Practices in Education Conference, Click Here. 

See you there!

Presence in the Virtual World

I find myself looking at her intensely. One key stroke and she turns around and looks at me. Her almond-shaped, dark eyes lock with mine. At times, she seems to fidget. Nervously, she turns left then right. Behind her, the museum stretches into a virtual horizon. This virtual woman is me.  In the past, I have spent more than a few hours and a few Linden dollars modifying her body dimensions and shopping for the clothes and hair styles. It seems that being comfortable in a virtual body contributes to my sense of presence in the virtual world.  And while I marvel at how well some folks can inhabit the shape of a nonhuman, I must confess I’m still confined to my human form as the best skin to help me feel I’m “there.” Only once did my virtual body take the shape of a calavera or skeleton during the Smithsonian LVM Dia de los Muertos Halloween Costume Contest. Needless to say, the feeling of incognito was liberating and just as fun as wearing a costume in the real world, further enhancing my sense of presence.  

          Duplicating real world experiences in virtual reality seems to be a key factor in developing presence, something LVM has mastered over the past three years of organizing and hosting Dia de los Muertos festivities. Not only are these events helpful in understanding, appreciating and learning about cultura, but one has the opportunity to explore the concept of self identity. My virtual self has taught me a thing or two about my real self that I had no idea existed, and while I will not get into those moment of revelation here, I will say that I have applied those new found traits of my virtual self out in the real world. But the experience of developing presence in virtual reality is not a solitary activity. Virtual reality is a social media, after all. Interaction with other avatars is an important element in developing a sense of presence. I feel “there” when I’m acknowledged by another avatar, a simple interchange of hellos seems to suffice, but events like the LVM’s Cafe Sin Fronteras poetry readings and workshops where groups of avatars are gathered gives me a sense of community. I feel connected. We socialize, exchange, read and discuss poetry and/or other topics just as we would in real life somewhere in a cafe, and more than once, we forget we are not physically sitting together, or are we? I have found, too, that returning to familiar virtual surroundings has been detrimental in my sense of presence. Experience and familiarity with the place seems to help in blurring the “there” and “here.” Perhaps this is the reason why I love returning to La Pacita and the Sin Fronteras Cafe over and over again even when there are no events scheduled. The place feels like my second home away from home. 

by MMM

Notes on the Narrative of Virtual Reality

“The virtual is beyond photographic. The image is not recalled; rather we re-sense the intensities of experience. Virtuality, vitality, virtuosity is embedded and distributed like a rash of scarlet fever under my skin.”--Melinda Rackham, “They are reality”, The Australian Journal of Virtual Art


Enter my semi-permeable body, pliable. I register the colors of multi-colored, papel picado flags that hang across la plaza, and the brick pathways below my feet. I hang back momentarily to hear the quiet, to breath my presence in. I am both here and there. There, surrounded by blue sky, cobbled pathways, art and music. The distant sound of a hummingbird. Here, in my room of blank walls and mismatched coverlets and scattered clothes. There, I am dressed like Spring. My flowing skirt, the color of peaches, graze my legs, my short-sleeved shirt is tight across my waist. Here, I wear sweat pants and an old t-shirt, and I am wrapped in a worn-out shawl to keep the cold at bay. If I stand in this virtual space a bit longer, I will surrender to the potential pleasure of this virtual cartography. I will reach ambiguity--the space where art is born, where reality and memory are blurred. I breathe. Wait. I am present now.

I reach my arms to the sky and I fly across a blue sky. Below me is the ocean, a sprinkle of buildings, and the cafe where I’ve held poetry readings and workshops for the past year and a half. This virtual world, intended for collaboration, entertainment and education, has served our group of writers well. The engaging surroundings of La Placita and the hacienda-style buildings, artwork and music exhibitions feel like something out of our memory, or the stories of our elders, or the pueblos we’ve visited in Mexico, or lived in across the U.S. borderlands. As I fly pass La Placita, I am reminded of San Elizario, Texas, one of the first presidios in Texas established in 1789. The setting evokes a real feeling of nostalgia in me and a need to write about my abuela. I stop flying and sit in a familiar spot outside the Sin Fronteras Cafe, and I begin to write. I am present now.

Dr. Frank Biocca writes in his essay, “The Evolution of Interactive Media Towards “Being There” in Non-Linear Narrative Worlds”, that the virtual world has altered the narrative space. He states that “the original narrative medium was the body and the spoken word.” With the advent of new technologies, “the narrative virtual environments are now...the leading edge vehicle for artistic expression in our culture.” The Smithsonian LVM is perhaps one of the best spaces where artistic expression has thrived since its conception. The space has played a role in “expanding our experience of other lives, other spaces, and other ways of being.” (Biocca). Upon entering this space, the user whether artist, writer, musician or visitor, becomes a participant. He or she becomes the conductor. The director of his/her virtual destiny. Dreams and reality become a blur. The immersion and sensory-rich experiences, such as writing, reading poetry, performing music in a world outside of our real world is transformative. For a brief second, the outside world, my blank walls and unmade bed is diminished. The virtual cartography evokes real feelings of nostalgia, excitement and peace. A real sense of “being there" in a virtual space that is no longer virtual but feels real. I am filled with emotion as I write a poem about memory. My senses are alive. Biocca writes that virtual environments should be designed to create experiences and "moments when our awareness of the medium disappears and we are pushed through the medium to sensations that approach direct experience." I believe Smithsonian LVM has created such space-- a space where artists, writers and musicians can gather to tap into the sense of being inside a narrative space.



MMM

Biocca, Frank. “The Evolution of Interactive Media Towards “Being There” in Non-Linear Narrative Worlds.” 11/4/01.

Check this out!

I just visited the Smithsonian LVM Interactive Archive this morning and found a wonderful, nifty educational tool: the ¡Chequea esto! series, a compilation of animated shorts that focus on issues being discussed by Latino youth. I opened the link of the latest clip and was immediately met by Ana and Teresa, two animated youth standing in a backdrop of green trees and purple-trimmed windows. Teresa proceeds to ask Ana what she is watching on her smart device. Ana says she is watching a video of a scientist. Turns out the scientist is Liz Cottrell, a curator at the National Museum of Natural History. My 8-year-old daughter, who was standing three feet away, was immediately drawn to the voices and dropping what she was doing, sat next to me to watch Cottrell discuss her scientific career. In less than five minutes, Cottrell introduced my daughter to the wonderful world of scientific skills, study, and exploration. At the end of the short my daughter asked me if she could be a scientist too. My answer: Why yes! I think I'm going to love these ¡Chequea esto! clips. I'm looking forward to the next one.

To view the ¡Chequea  esto! clips click here.

-- M. Miranda Maloney, contributor to Smithsonian LVM

LVM Interactive Archive- A Good Resource for Educators!

The Smithsonian LVM Interactive Archive is a great resource for educators looking for interactive, historical and ecological student materials. Here you will not only find videos related to the Latino experience, but also great downloadable 3D books such as the  Eco Explorer that introduces students to the Smithsonian SI Pre-Colombian collections. The student will be fully immersed in exploration and discovery of a 3D environment, complete with archealogical sites, maps, and anthropological journals.

The LVM Watershed allows students to investigate land use, water quality, and examine various animal habitats, as well as industrial sites. One of the goals is to encourage students to participate in sustaining our biodiverse planet. We invite you to continue to explore this and many other resources available to you and your students. For more information, visit LVM Interactive Archive.

Smithsonian LVM Dia de los Muertos Festival Highlights

The Smithsonian LVM wishes to thank everyone who attended and participated in the third annual Dia de los Muertos Festival in Second Life. We congratulate the winners of our Costume Contest: Xico (First Place), Harleywood Guru (Second Place), Adrn (Third Place), and runners up ZeroPercentBodyLead and DonConejo. The winners and runner-ups received prize money in Linden dollars, the currency used in Second Life. The contest, hosted by LVM’s creative director Pennelope Wiggles, and Ninfa Blackheart, took place at the Sin Fronteras Café in front of La Placita. While the audience cheered on and voted with applause, the contestants displayed ingenious creativity in costume design and also proved to be very talented dancers. Congratulations!

Costume Contest winners

Visit from La Muerte

La Placita on Nov. 2nd

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On Tuesday poets and musicians took the stage at the Dead Poets Reading. Readers included Ire’ne Lara Silva, author of furia; musician and writer Nancy Lorenza Green, Juan Manuel Portillo, author of passwords_; Amit Ghosh and Moisés S.L. Lara, and audience members like BluSky. Artist and musician César Ivan played guitar live from El Paso, Texas. The reading was followed by a CD Release Party with Radio La Chusma at the Drink Cultura Cabana

Dead Poets Reading

Radio La Chusma in-word presentation

Congratulations to team Muertos del Sol for being this year’s Ballcourt Tournament champions. Team Muertos del Sol triumphed with a score of 2-1 over mighty opponents- the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. The 3,500 year-old, Mesoamerican game was played at the Ballcourt of the Sun, an accurate pixel by pixel  reconstruction of the court, from its “I”-shape to the walls made of cut stone.  

Team Muertos del Sol and Team Notre Dame

Game play

Muertos del Sol members

Team Notre Dame at Opening Remarks

Another festival highlight was a tribute to Chicano artist  Gilbert “Magu” Luján (1940-2011), the exuberant artist whose exploration and incorporation of Chicano imagery helped to promote and advance Chicano culture and aesthetics into the mainstream arts. Luján was  known for his mixed-media car sculptures, or carritos. Visitors rode replicas of Magu's carritos during the festival.

 

Gilbert "Magu" Lujan

Carritos Race

Final Day of Dia de los Muertos Festival!



The Smithsonian LVM in Second Life continues its Dia de los Muertos programming with a Ballgame Tournament at 3 p.m. EST. The Mesoamerican game is known to have been played as early as 1000 B.C. by people of Mexico and Central America. To learn more about this game, visit Mesoamerican Ballgame: An Educational Website

At 9 p.m. EST the fun commences with a Costume Contest and Calaveras on Wheels, followed by a tribute to artist Gilbert "Magu" Lujan, and Calaveras and Carritos Race.


Come mingle with us during the day, learn the traditions of this long standing celebration, enjoy the ofrendas, cultural videos, and art exhibits and interviews.

The Dia de los Muertos Festival Continues Today!

It was a great turn out yesterday at the Smithsonian LVM island in Second Life. Visitors streamed in and out all day, and many stayed well into the night, lingering at La Placita with friends and visiting the various cultural displays. The atmosphere was energetic and festive.  The elaborate display of Halloween costumes was a true display of the spirit and creativity surrounding these days. The opening procession, orchestrated by Smithsonian LVM's Creative Director Melissa Carrillo, was exquisitely curated, and touched upon all the historical and cultural elements of the Dia de los Muertos celebration. The participating artists, musicians, and authors represented the various facets of this tradition in their presentations.

The Smithsonian LVM continues to celebrate the spirit of Dia de los Muertos today with a great line-up of authors and musicians, starting at 8:30 p.m. EST with the Dead Poets Reading and guitar session with Cesar Ivan. The event will be followed by El Paso's Radio La Chusma. Sounds like a party to me!

Follow the link and we'll get you started: Dia de los Muertos Festival.

The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum Day of the Dead Festival Starts Today!



For the next three days, Smithsonian LVM has a great line-up of festivities in Second Life. The Day of the Dead Festival, or Dia de los Muertos Festival starts today with a procession at 8:30 p.m. EST and culminates with a Costume Contest and Carritos Fiesta on November 2. Please see  Schedule of Events for comprehensive list of events.

Tomorrow, we invite you to come and share a poem or two, or excerpt from your favorite writer/poet who has passed on to another life. Part of the tradition of Dia de los Muertos celebration is to honor the life of loved ones who have died. Tradition holds that our loved ones return to us on this day, and we, in wait, honor them with ofrendas or altars, spreading their favorite food and items. Although we can not set up an altar for each and every one of our favorite authors, we will honor them by reading one of their poems. So come and join us tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. EST in Second Life and read with us. Special musical guest is Cesar Ivan. Cesar is artist and guitarist from El Paso, Texas. His music is a fusion of world beats.

For more infomation on this and other events, you can visit our Dia de los Muertos page.  We also invite you to give us feedback on your virtual experience. Feel free to leave a comment.

Photo of Cesar Ivan courtesy of Eurydice Saucedo.

Here's an image from our in-world practice yesterday: Elena Diaz Bjorkquist as Teresita Urrea and me, M. Miranda Maloney, sharing a moment of downtime while we waited for Francisco X. Alarcon and Nancy Lorenza Green. Turns out, Elena is a natural in Second Life. Her avatar moves effortlessly and gracefully through La Placita. She was able to give me pointers on how to move across without staggering or bumping into objects. Like her, Francisco moved and gestured without effort.

Francisco will be giving the blessings to the four direction on Oct. 31st at 8:30 p.m. EST during the Dia de los Muertos' Opening Procession. Elena will give a presentation on Teresita Urrea, a.k.a The Saint of Cabora-- a widely known healer and mystic. Francisco and Griselda Munoz will be reciting poetry as Nancy Lorenza Green drums in the background. Introductions will be made by Melissa Carrillo (Pennelope Riggles), the creative director behind the artful setting of what is Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum.

Elena Diaz Bjorkquist as Teresita Urrea.

Francisco X. Alarcon

Nancy Lorenza Green practicing the drums.

Still missing in this create line-up of creative presenters is Griselda Munoz. I'll be getting to you soon with her avatar photo.

Please join us. There is still time to download the free Second Life software and create your avatar. Go to: The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum's website to download. 





Smithsonian Latino Center Celebrates Day of the Dead in the Virtual World

The Smithsonian Latino Center announces its third annual Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, Festival in its Latino Virtual Museum in Second Life, Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. This three-day celebration includes several online activities to celebrate this popular Latin American holiday. Día de los Muertos is celebrated throughout Mexico, Central America and in many Latino communities in the U.S. to honor deceased family and friends. Read the official Press Release here.

We invite you to learn and celebrate with us this time-honored tradition in Second Life by visiting the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum starting Oct. 31- Nov. 2.  Click here for Schedule of Event.

To participate, you will need to download the SL Client software and create an avatar from the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum. Click here and we'll get you started.

See you at the festival!

Elisa A. Garza's Virtual Reading Experience

Elisa A. Garza is the author of Familia and Frontera, forthcoming in November. She blogs about writing, food and life. To read more, visit her blog Tercets.

Excerpt:

I’m fresh from participating in my first virtual reading, which was also organized by Maria for the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum. I really enjoyed being able to share the stage with readers from other parts of Texas as well as two other states; such gatherings are more difficult to arrange in person. Several of us had to arrange for childcare, and one reader arrived late because she was stuck at work, but these arrangements are easier to organize than finding childcare for several days, paying for travel and hotel rooms, and requesting time off work in order to meet in person. I “met” my publisher Maria and two of the poets I will present with at the AWP Conference next year in Chicago, or perhaps I should say my avatar met their avatars! While we will still need to officially meet each other when we arrive in Chicago, I will now be able to recognize their voices.

I’m still adjusting to life inworld; since I don’t play video games or spend time in other on-line communities, this was a new experience for me. The best part was hearing the poets read and having a conversation as a group afterwards; the audio quality was excellent and it felt just like having in a room full of poets in my home office. The hardest part for me was moving around and adjusting the view. I’m not good at walking through the on-line environment, and I often make my avatar bump into things. The second time I was inworld, I got caught in quicksand! The inworld view you see on the computer screen can be adjusted by zooming in or out and changing your angle, but I found it awkward because I couldn’t always look someone in the face when my avatar was speaking to them, or adjust the view so I could see everyone from the computer screen. Maybe I’ll get better at manipulating the view with time.

Maria invited all of us to participate in future events and to design our own events and workshops, so I’ll probably plan something for next summer. Let me know if you have ideas or would like to participate in some kind of free inworld poetry workshop.

Ricardo Valencia and Nancy Lorenza Green

Tonight. 8 p.m. EST. Two fantastic music performers: Ricardo Valencia and Nancy Lorenza Green

Live in Second Life.

Performance will take place at Long Distance Center.

El Paso Community College: 2011 Hispanic Heritage Celebration

Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum is happy to announce the line-up of film and literary events ustreamed from El Paso Community College beginning, Thursday, Sept 29- 30. To see presentations, films and forums, see the Hispanic Heritage Month Series schedule. To participate you will need an avatar and SL client software here Smithsonian LVM website. In the meantime, Drink Cultura!

Sin Fronteras Virtual Reading and Open Mic

Date: Friday, Oct. 14
Time: 8:30 p.m.- 10 p:m EST
Location: Smithsonian LVM Distance Learning Center

To participate you will need an avatar and headset/microphone. Click here to get your avatar and download your SL software for free.

Smithsonian LVM in collaboration with Mouthfeel Press presents a virtual poetry read featuring:

Laura Cesarco Eglin (Llamar al agua por su nombre)
Elisa A. Garza (Fronteras)
Nancy Lorenza Green (Crucified River/ Rio Crucificado)
Katherine Hoerth (Among the Mariposas)
ire'ne lara silva (furia)
Cassandra Love (Swagger is a Woman)
Amalio Madueño (Cuyamungue)
Juan Manuel Portillo (passwords_)


The stage will be open to writers of all genres after the presentation.

For more information contact: (202) 633-1240, or Maria Miranda Maloney at (915)261-8502

Hispanic Heritage Month Series 2011 Presents:

Tendencies in Recent Mexican Poetry. Discussion and reading presented by Mexican poet Juan Manuel Portillo.

When: September 22, 2011
Time: 8:30 p.m.- 9:45 p.m. EST
Where: Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum Distance Learning Center- West Sim
Program Note: Discussion will focus on the position of the contemporary reader as a critic/historian/theoretician in regards to poetry. Bilingual (Spanish/English)presentation.


Participants will need an avatar and headset/microphone for this presentation. To create your avatar and download Second Life software, please follow click here.




Juan Manuel Portillo is a Mexican poet, educator, scholar and translator born in Ciudad Juárez in 1967. He was a full time professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (1999-2004), where he taught a variety of courses related to poetry and poetics, including Mexican Modern Poetry, and seminars on Octavio Paz and Latin American Contemporary Poetry. Portillo is currently a PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). He has taught courses in Hispanic Culture and Literature, Spanish for Heritage Speakers, and Chicano Culture at UC Davis. His poems and translations have been published in a variety of literary and cultural journals in México and the U.S., including Anuario de poesía mexicana 2004, edited by Luis Felipe Fabre and Tedy López Mills, and published by Fondo de Cultura Económica. His translations include poetry by John Taggart, Paul Celan and Goeffrey Hill. His scholarly papers in modern and contemporary Mexican poets, such as Coral Bracho, Octavio Paz, Xavier Villaurrutia, Jorge Cuesta, Jorge Esquina, Dolores Dorantes and Felipe Fabre, and Uruguayan poet and critic Eduardo Milán, and poet and translator Jen Hofer, have been presented in over twenty conferences throughout the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Portillo is co-editor of the broadside series Hoja Frugal. In collaboration with musicologist Ana Alonso Minutti, Portillo edited volume 6 of Brujula, Interdisciplinary Review on Latin American Studies, published by the Hemispheric Institute of the Americas of UC Davis. Also with Alonso Minutti, he has an ongoing interdisciplinary project that focuses on the intersection between music and poetry. His awards and fellowships include a 1994 David Alfaro Siqueiros Fellowship in poetry, and the 2009-2010 UC Davis Research Fellowship for the Humanities. His poetry collection, passwords_ , is forthcoming from Mouthfeel Press in 2011.

Portillo’s poetry can be found in the following journals:

Tierra Adentro
Oráculo
El Poeta y su a Aufgabe,
Paso del Río Grande del Norte
Solar

For more information, email: lvmfestival@ymail.com

Image and Poetry: The Work of Julio Molinet

Julio Molinet is an award-winning videographer, poet, journalist, editor, photographer, and radio and television producer, living in El Paso, Texas. A native son of Cuba, Molinet has received numerous awards including, the National Television Festival reporting award in La Habana (2008); the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists award for directing, script-writing, photography and editing (2007); and the national prize for poetry (Cuba). He completed undergraduate and graduate work in communications, journalism, and economics. Julio is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). It is with great pleasure that we share with our audiences this talented, artist's work on our site.

                     

"My work is influenced by every day life, the seemingless insignificant labors of our day. It is influenced by men and women who go about their chores unnoticed, unrecognized."

 "I am indebted to my teachers--the masters who taught

me that observation, criticism, errors, and even indifference

 are critical processes in the development of an artist."

"I believe every human being is a hero. My work seeks to document

the extraordinary, daily lives of ordinary citizens."

Julio Molinet is currently living in El Paso, Texas. He can be reached at:  uncubanoenmexico@gmail.com  or visit and subcribe to: http://www.youtube.com/user/JagoMolinet 



Tambú Luá

Women Who Dare to Write Their Stories

The workshop, Women Who Dare to Write Their Stories, sponsored by DEMAC and Cielo Portatil resumes next Wednesday, July 14 at 6:30 SL time. The workshop is held in Spanish and is geared toward women interested in learning the crux of conducting memoir workshops with women with little or no writing experience. The workshop is a 12-week experience of dialog, pedagogic exchanges, literary selections and writing. Participants, geared with microphone and headset, meet once a week at the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum every Wednesday for two hours. The workshop is directed by respected, Mexican poet and columnist Dolores Dorantes. There is still time to join this workshop. For more information, contact M. Miranda Maloney at lvmfestival@ymail.com.

Sin Fronteras Cafe Poetry Workshop

The monthly poetry workshop is scheduled for Friday, May 27th at 6 p.m. SL Time. Poet Katherine Hoerth, author of Among the Mariposas, will be presenting the workshop. The workshop is avatar-based and all participants must have a headset with microphone. If you have any questions and would like to RSVP to this event, please email Maria Miranda Maloney at lvmfestival@ymail.com.