~~~~~~ SL Art Educator Series ~~~~~

#1 January 22  (Friday) @ 8pm CST
Mary Stokrocki & Sandra Andrews will present "Empowering the Disenfranchised Through Art: Explorations in Building Sites and Futures in Second Life".

This ongoing, participatory action research project began with three sets of variously disempowered participants as co-researchers, and each participant has an equal voice. We will provide a transitions program in which people can build a virtual home while going through a curriculum that includes sustainability and planning for a new life, including a virtual business. Our base on Second Life is Floaters, a community technology center, on Non-Profit Island. This digital Montessori playground for big kids attracts several issues: some are technical; others involve stereotypes and loss of political identity; and some are related to security and morals.

#2 February 19 (Friday) @ 8pm CST
Karen Keifer-Boyd will present "Body<self-referential organization>Landmark: Limit-case Movements in Art Education".

Working with the poststructural culture theories of Brian Massumi (2002) and Elizabeth Ellsworth (2005, 2007, 2009), this presentation concerns movement, affect, and sensation in the self-referential organization of the body and landmark in Second Life in search of "limit-cases" as art education. Ellsworth & Kruse's limit-case postcards from their 28-day travels in southwestern United States are at http://www.polarinertia.com/aug07/limit01.htm. They define limit-case as "intense points where natural and built forces mutually contaminate as they play out to their most extreme forms, levels, and junctures"  (Ellsworth & Kruse, 2007, p3).

#3 March 19 (Friday) @ 8pm CST
Stephen Carpenter will present “Real World Reflections on Virtual World Instruction: (Re)Thinking Distance
Education, Pedagogy, and Visual Culture”.

Much like the postmodern worldview described by Slattery (2006), the online virtual world of Second Life “…allows educators to envision an alternative way out of the turmoil of contemporary schooling” (p. 21). This reflexive presentation will offer insights about how Second Life has been used over the past three years as a pedagogical space for graduate students in curriculum and instruction to envision and (re)think theoretical, practical, and constructed aspects of distance education, pedagogy, and visual culture.

#4 May 14 (Friday) @ 8pm CST
Lilly Lu will present “Exploring SL Art: A Virtual Field Trip”

As a contemporary art medium, SL allows artists to create not only static and animated but also interactive 3D art with which viewers can interact. The presenter will take participants on a virtual field trip to explore and experience different SL art exhibits and spaces.

~~~~~~ NIU Student SL Project Exhibits ~~~~~~
Art Education students at Northern Illinois University will host three events to exhibit their SL projects in a technology course taught by Lilly Lu.

#5 April 2 (Friday) @ 8pm CST
#6 April 9 (Friday) @ 8pm CST
#7 May 6 (Thursday)@ 8pm CST

These events are free!!! To allow us to provide you with a great Art Café experience by managing the number of participants, please register in advance by sending an email to art.cafe.sl@gmail.com. In the email, indicate the event # you would like to attend. The instructions and specific SLurls for the events will be sent to you.