mi casa/su casa

Mike Cole (mcole who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Tue, 18 Jun 1996 11:23:02 -0700 (PDT)

Dear Linkers--
This seems worth knowing about for lots of sites
mike

"Mi Casa Es Tu Casa/My House Is Your House."

The Center for Research in Computing & the Arts (CRCA) is
pleased to announce a new and imaginative research project by
Assistant Professor (Visual Arts) Sheldon Brown.

"Mi Casa Es Tu Casa/My House Is Your House" is planned as a
networked virtual reality environment involving two physical
locations, The San Diego Children's Museum and the Centro
Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City, and a third, virtual,
space that is created by a computer-mediated interchange of
activities between these two places.

Initial stages of this project begin this summer with the
establishment of the physical installations here and in Mexico,
and are followed, over the next year, by a development cycle.
This process is detailed in the attached project description,
written by Sheldon Brown, which also provides an extensive
list of participants supporting the project in Mexico and in
the United States.

It is clear that this project can provide a rich and unusual
opportunity for a broad spectrum of researchers from the
humanities, the engineering sciences, the Center for
US/Mexican Studies and from CILAS, to engage cooperatively
in forums, programs and outreach efforts. Sheldon Brown
wishes to identify those units and individuals on campus
who are interested in participating in these efforts.

The Children's Museum and San Diego's Installation Gallery
will be coordinating a large number of opportunities for
promotion and dialogue around the project.

CRCA is serving as the campus facilitator for extra-mural
funding and to support intra-campus connections for the
development of associated programming. Our contact person
is Carol Hobson, who will be sending you a more detailed
information package within the next few days.

Campus representatives are encouraged to contact either
Sheldon Brown or Carol Hobson with ideas for future programs
or support.

Harold Cohen
Director.

__________________________________________________________

Mi Casa Es Tu Casa/My House Is Your House

A networked, virtual reality environment for the San Diego
Children's Museum and the National Center for the Arts in Mexico City.

Sheldon Brown

__________________________________________________________

"Mi casa es tu casa/My house is your house" is an art project that
will take place in two physical locations: the San Diego Children's
Museum and the Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City; as well
as in a third, computer-mediated virtual space, created to provide for an
interchange and a sharing of activities at these sites.

Each site will contain items and objects, expressing ideas of house and
home, selected to enable and encourage play activity within both the
physical environments and within the shared virtual space. "Playing
house" is a natural form of play for children, and it provides the central
theme for this project, serving as a revelatory activity into aspects of
acculturation.

The project will facilitate interactions and activities for diverse age
groups of participants, structured to engage recognition of cultural
similarities and differences between the two sites. Issues of economic
class, heritage, nationality, community, urban, rural and suburban
distinctions will be highlighted in the project to show the complexity of
the concept of what is "my house", and how it relates to the development
of notions of what is "my world".

Computer interfaces will be constructed that are connected to
specific activities within the physical and virtual environments.
Technically this will be achieved through the construction of a
networked, virtual-reality environment using Silicon Graphics
workstations running an application based on a core set of existing
virtual reality libraries that I have developed. The final project
will then run on a closed network system between the two sites with a
corollary World Wide Web site.

From the standpoint of research, the project represents a new kind of
environment and opens the way to the development of novel research
tools. It allows for the examination of the complex conceptual
underpinnings of cultures -- notions of home, nation, heritage,
community, class and culture -- as they are expressed through
children's play in their own and in anothers' country and culture.

Viewed as a way of de-emphasizing the distinctions which keep
societies separated from each other, the project has already won the
attention of institutions in both countries. It is being developed
with support from the Consejo Nacional para y Cultura y las Artes,
the Centro de las Artes Nacional, the Centro de Multimedia, the San
Diego Children's Museum, Installation Gallery, and the Center for
Research in Computing and the Arts at UCSD.

The project is slated to begin August 1, 1996 with a residency of
children from Mexico City, San Diego and Tijuana at the San Diego
Children's Museum. A one year development cycle will follow before
the project opens in fall of 1997. It will then exist as a permanent
installation at both sites and will provide long term opportunities
for exchange and collaborations between the two sites and
participating institutions.

Sheldon Brown
Assistant Professor, Visual Arts Dept.
Faculty Researcher, Center for Research in Computing and the Arts.
University of California at San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093
voice/fax (619) 534-2423

sgbrown who-is-at ucsd.edu
http://grasshopper.ucsd.edu/95_96/FACULTY/sheldon.html

-- 
Sheldon Brown
Assistant Professor
Visual Arts Dept.
University of California at San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093
voice/fax (619) 534-2423

sgbrown who-is-at ucsd.edu http://grasshopper.ucsd.edu/95_96/FACULTY/sheldon.html