Last Thursday the weekly public radio show, The Infinite Mind, opened its virtual broadcast center and studio in Second Life. To celebrate it, John Hockenberry, the host of the radio show, is interviewing four visionaries, simulcasting them in Second Life from the Infinite Mind “sim” (simulator).
This Monday and Tuesday, August 7 and 8, Hockenberry will be hosting futurist Howard Rheingold and best-selling author Kurt Vonnegut. Tickets to the events in Second Life are available beginning at 9:00 a.m. (PDT, Second Life Time) on the day of each event at the Infinite Mind in-world amphitheater. SL attendees will be able to ask questions of the guests during the events.
The interview series was kicked off last Thursday with Suzanne Vega, who is known as the “mother of the MP3.” She (and her avatar) performed live in-world to a virtual audience. It is another of the fascinating and growing list of Second Life firsts. Watch Suzanne perform one of her songs during the show in this video and a bit of the interview in this video.
To appreciate the talent, work and detail that goes into building a virtual object, watch this three-minute video on the building of Suzanne’s virtual guitar for her performance.
Both the broadcast center and the simulcasts are exciting experiments for radio media. There is lots of music broadcast in Second Life and the BBC’s Radio1 has held virtual concert events in-world. But The Infinite Mind has built their virtual broadcasting home here, with screening rooms, a studio with a viewing gallery, a lecture theater for PowerPoint and multimedia presentations, an archive library, the amphitheater and a transportation center (for a shuttle). The Infinite Mind’s goal is to “go beyond broadcasting,” making this the first interaction between Second Life residents and a First Life radio program.
Perhaps without coincidence, the radio show is about the human mind, brain and behaviors. Second Life is an excellent laboratory to explore human behavior through virtual environments and I suspect The Infinite Mind will be providing some intriguing insights on the topic as they operate here.
You don’t have to be a Second Lifer to listen to the upcoming shows. They are simulcast on the web here.
And you can find a terristrial radio station that airs the program here.
See the Flickr set for more images of the virtual broadcast center.
The Infinite Mind Sim is located at: secondlife://The Infinite Mind/208.745/76.4281/0
The video on the making of Vega's guitar was one of the most odd yet inspiring things I've seen in a while -- it was, dare I say, poetic. And using Flikr as a media kit was inspired as well. Great post!
Posted by: Gary Goldhammer | Aug 06, 2006 at 08:44 PM