The Abstract French Horn

Well, it's really starting to feel more intuitive creating items in OpenSim.  We created several items together as a class, including a URL (mine linked to a body percussion video on YouTube) and a slide show.  We were then given creative freedom to build anything we wanted for twenty minutes.

This activity was so much fun!  It allowed me to have a time constraint, so I had to be conscientious of how intricate (or not) my item would be.  I decided to make a French Horn since every time I open the build box, I see the cone and it reminds me of my horn bell.  I was able to make an abstract version and it looked pretty neat, despite my limited building abilities in the virtual world.  This experience allowed me to gain more confidence; I can successfully experiment with building items without fear or feeling like I need to have a jobaid to build something worthwhile.


We also discussed our final project and got to take a walk through a gorgeous project on Hawaiian language. This all got me thinking about collaboration...not with my upcoming project, but in regards to collaboration between disciplines in higher education.  Most of my research for utilizing VR has been music oriented.  One article I found talked about having students perform on stage using pre-recorded distractions to mimic an authentic performance or audience environment.  This is something I think is really needed in the music community, and I've blogged about it before.  If various stages could be built in a virtual environment, performers could gain experience in different settings.  This takes time and lots of work.  I wonder how often different departments collaborate with each other for things like this?  For example, acoustical engineering students could use a virtual world to design a theater or mimic the design of pre-existing theaters.  Then the music students could use those designs as their performance environment.