IOCT Salon: Toni Sant, Performance in Second Life, Leicester, 28 February 2008, 6.00pm – 7.15pm



www.ioctsalon.com

Toni Sant: A Second Life for Online Performance History

Doors open at 5.30pm for drinks. This event is free and open to the public, however places are limited – visit the cultural eXchanges website to reserve a seat.

Download the flyer for this event (PDF)

Toni Sant in Second LifeToni Sant is exploring the 3-D online virtual environment called Second Life as a venue for performance by looking at examples of theatre groups performing online within Second Life. 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.

Toni Sant in Second LifeThis 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.

About Toni:

Dr Toni Sant is Lecturer in Performance and Creative Technologies at the University of Hull’s School of Arts and New Media on the Scarborough Campus. Since 1998 he has served as executive editor for the Applied and Interactive Theatre Guide. His writing has appeared in TDR: The Drama Review, Leonardo, the Encyclopedia of Politics, the Dictionary of Literary Biography, and other scholarly publications, as well as in the popular press in New York and Malta.

He is currently writing a book called A History of the Future: Franklin Furnace & the Spirit of the Avant-Garde. His blog and weekly podcast are available at www.tonisant.com and he can be found on Second Life as Not Merlin.

Links:

Toni Sant – www.tonisant.com

Second Life – www.secondlife.com

cultural eXchanges – www.dmu.ac.uk/culturalexchanges/

The IOCT Salon (www.ioctsalon.com) is held at and staged by De Montfort University and The Institute of Creative Technologies, and is supported by Arts Council England and the Literature Development Network. It is managed by Chris Joseph, Digital Writer in Residence at the Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University. This residency is funded by Arts Council England: East Midlands. For further information about the IOCT Salon please email Chris: info [at] ioctsalon.com.