Sorry, I have to resend, it seems that the listserver automatic
does not let me send the message to the list from my weber account.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 02:20:58 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Christine Happle <chapple who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu>
To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: Of interest to at least some
virtual reality-real virtuality
What is reality? What is a real virtuality? These questions emerged
because my perception of the ongoing virtual discussion on the XMCA list
changed. It might be interesting for some of you.
We do so many things in our life the first time! There is a first breath,
when we are born, there is a first step, when we learn to walk, there is a
first schoolday, there is a first kiss, and so on. I want to share with
you my experience with this list, which is my first maillist. Since spring
97 I did know that this list exists and since November 97 I was a quiet
reader or 'lurker' on these virtual discussion. As a novice with
maillists, I first had to figure out some strategies, how I wanted to
handle this large amount of messages in a foreign language. Slowly I
recognised patterns, characters, styles, registers, voices,... in the
messages, which allowed me to recognise the prolific writers of this
virtual community . I never consciously made up my mind, how all these
people would look, speak, wear, behave, smell or taste. The list was for
me an 'emo-cognitive' and sometimes a 'cog-emotive', intellectual highly
stimulating virtuality, which did not respond. Some messages, in this
computer mediated activity were more affin to (in line with) my way of
thinking and feeling than others. In contrast with the way some others
described this virtual community, I did not have this feeling, that the
people were 'out there', for me they were "in there or rather between
there'.
On December 15.th 97 I came to the LCHC, where I still stay for this week.
My stay at the LCHC and my very peripheral participation at the AERA
brought me together with some of the writers of XMCA. On one hand
experiencing the virtual XMCA-writers in reality suddendly uncoverd, that
I had built, obviously unconsciously, some kind of expectation or image of
the XMCA prolific writers. What else could explain my reaction, which
varied from surprise to that is 'exactly my expectation'. It became a
fascinating game to discover what aspects in the real personality were
related to the virtual personality. What made the surprise or confirmed
the expectation going from virtuality to reality?
On the other hand my perception of the messages of the persons I met
changed, that means experiencing their self-presentation in reality
transformed my perception of their virtual written self-presentation. I
added information I did not have before. I heard their voices, saw their
faces and found myself much more comfortable with the fact that the
virtuality became more real.
christine
On Mon, 20 Apr 1998, Eva Ekeblad wrote:
> Eva
> Re-sending:
>
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 16:15:55 +0200
> To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
> From: Eva Ekeblad <eekeblad who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu>
> Subject: Of interest to at least some
> Cc: eva.ekeblad who-is-at ped.gu.se
>
> At 11.52 -0400 98-04-16, Bill Barowy wrote:
> >"How long can a thread last on nothing?"
>
> The list has been kinda quiet after that... unless it is the ped.gu.se POP
> server playing selective tricks on my message reception. The Gothenburg
> SMTP server is plain refusing to send anything today, that's why I'm trying
> the weber path instead, a bit uncomfortably.
>
> Now, the xmca is usually pretty quiet when it's AERA time: a lot of the
> list population unplug from this cyberplace and go to meet face to face, in
> circumstances of noise, glaring light and/or oxygen deprivation. For me,
> who went to the "Cultural-Historical Activity Theory Pre-session Institute"
> Saturday-Monday and then participated very peripherally by hanging around
> illegitimately on a few sessions Monday and Thursday it was a pretty
> magical experience to see all these people who I have known for years
> through their written interactions materialize in the same room with me,
> being very recognizable, especially as soon as they got into talking.
> Convinced me even more of how the way(s) we perform ourselves in written
> interaction bears out in a different medium the way(s) we perform ourselves
> in the body and voice...
>
>
> The experience was very different from one I had last year, when I saw for
> the first time in fifteen years (in some cases twenty) the fifteen or so
> young women I went to art school with back in the late sixties-early
> seventies.
>
> THAT produced a strange oscillation between recognizing them from as they
> were THEN and relating to them as they were NOW: seeing in one moment these
> middleage women, with whom I was now exchanging the ToCs of some rich life
> experiences (as if they were new acquaintances) and seeing in the next
> moment these girlish faces and bodies I had known so well for four crucial
> years, but OH so worn by time and life... what has HAPPENED to us (while I
> was sleeping in the cave)??
>
> Going back and forth between the past and the present like this was very
> uncomfortable in the beginning of the afternoon, but as the evening went on
> the two takes eventually merged.
>
> Seeing the xpeople required much less adjustment, as cyberprojection merged
> into copresence.
>
>
> Now... the conference should also be written about, but I'm not too clear
> on what to say...
>
> Eugene, on lunch break, reminded me that I used to be the one to keep asking:
> Why are we doing this?
>
> And the whole thing (with notable input from Mary Bryson and Charles
> Bazerman) reminded me also that the question: Who are we doing this for?
> is even more important to ask.
>
> Eva
> wondering if this gets through
>
>