Submitted by Nonny de la Peña and Peggy Weil
2008
1. Summarize your idea and vision for this project.
Mauerkrankheit (Wallsickness) is a virtual reality installation, set in Second Life, of current and historical walls dividing nations. It will begin with a section of the proposed “border fence” dividing Mexico from the U.S. and continue with segments from Gaza Fence, the Melilla Fence (the E.U. funded wall to separate Spanish territories from Morroco), the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China and other important political and historical border walls. Our wall, with embedded guest books and video screens, will anchor community dialogue with the aim to unite a divided populace. This project will not only integrate documentary video and news footage into the installation to augment the virtual landscape, it will use the virtual landscape to enable a new type of machinima documentary: veritar documentary – the filming of a true name avatar bearing witness to an experience of wallsickeness.
In the case of the U.S. border fence, even the real (physical) wall is virtual, existing as (controversial) legislation. A virtual version of one or more of the proposed designs in the landscape (Mexico on one side, the U.S. on the other) offers viewers a perspective not possible on the ground; the interplay of the Rio Grande, private ranches and public lands. Continuing the U.S. / Mexican border into the E.U / African border, the Palestinian / Israeli border, Berlin and China exploits the virtual world capacity to bend space to represent not one wall, but the shared topography of political walls in general. The lack of physicality diffuses the physical danger represented in transgressing the boundary allowing a “safe” meeting space to share personal stories and explore community dialogue.
2. Who is your intended audience and who will participate directly?
Our intended audience is local citizenry affected by the divisions. The proposed U.S. / Mexican border fence has a robust group of community activists on both sides of the issue and we welcome them to use the site as a staging ground for dialogue. With the possible exception of The Great Wall of China, the other initial four walls we plan to build all lend themselves to community involvement. The installation will provide an avenue for citizens to tell their stories, document them with machinima, and “exhibit them as embedded stories in a 3D landscape. The same material can achieve wider distribution via video aggregation sites.
3. What is the scope of your endeavor and what would you most like to accomplish?
We intend for this project to live beyond the grant period and, eventually, be “handed over” to local citizenry to explore to their best advantage. We hope to complete the build (including the inclusion of video and the embedded guestbook), contact local groups, introduce them to the site, and prep the site for conducting “veritar” documentary interviews. We intend to document local involvement and interview participants to assess the effectiveness of both virtual community dialogue , documentary and storytelling.
4. What *public good* benefits do you see created through your proposed endeavor?
The installation will fully explore the potential of community to come together (as opposed to being split apart) by walls. Europe has been transformed by the dissolution of its borders --without loss of cultural identity. It is our aim to explore the benefits of such transformation. Once built, we will invite citizens affected by the physical wall to participate in dialogue with each other in formal and ad hoc events. An embedded guest book will allow citizens to write directly on the wall, effectively marking their opinion on the wall. We will introduce the notion of veritar documentaries, encouraging local citizens to tell their stories and embed them directly into the landscape – turning the site into a repository of personal stories.
5. At the end of this challenge, what "real world" impact will you measure as your basis for success?
Any increase in dialogue between two sides on either side of a wall, whether their original position was sympathetic or antagonistic, represents progress. We have been given introduction to several U.S. border organizations, which we would involve in our process. They include the Tijuana Cultural Center, the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, COLEF, which is a think tank just south of Tijuana, Casa del Migrant and CETYS University. On the American side, we have access to Border Meet-Up and Border Angels, which does activist work including helping family members search for missing migrants. At the end of the three months, we will conduct interviews to assess how any mixed reality involvement has impacted dialogue, education, as well as served as an introduction to the potential of virtual worlds.
6. Do you, or your team, have a solid track record and positive success stories in Second Life or other virtual spaces?
Gone Gitmo, our build of a virtual Guantanamo Bay Prison, has been written about in New Scientist, Der Spiegel, Vanity Fair, Chronicle for Higher Education and others. We have also hosted a mixed reality event in conjunction with Seton Hall Law School in which their conference on detainees and interrogation was simulcast into our “habeas commons” located within our site. In turn, Second Life was broadcast on a screen at the conference so that our attendees’ avatars were “live” at the conference. We would hope to have similar events associated with this build.
Budget
Include a list of in-world resources required to complete the Network Culture Project Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge within a three-month timeframe, including land. Be specific about how you would spend the L$100,000 per month for the three months award for this project.
We calculate L$100,000 as equivalent to U.S.$400.00 for a total of US$1200.00
We would allocate at least two thirds for building, hiring builders including Matthew Lee and Frank Fox. This includes any purchase of in world widgets or objects including embedded guestbooks, counters, etc. Another portion (roughly $100.00 U.S.) will be set aside for storage space for streaming media. We project that local groups might need Linden dollars to enhance their entrance into Second Life (in the case of veritar subjects, the cost is U.S.$75.00 to establish a true name account, and roughly $250.00 to fashion a realistic avatar – issues that may be circumvented by local involvement.)
Time Line for Project Completion
Include target dates for project milestones between July 16th through October 16, 2008 with clear benchmarks to measure success.
July 16-30:
Research reference material, stake plot, begin U.S. Mexican border fence, lay out U.S. and Mexico on either side to establish scale and style, begin Palestinian / Israeli segment
Aug 1-15:
Complete U.S. / Mexican and Palestinian / Israeli segments, begin Melillla Fence, Berlin Wall. Experiment with marking on wall and guestbook features.
Build Berlin Wall, Great Wall of China. Add gathering spaces.
Sept 1-15
Contact potential participants and establish relationships. Invite local groups to visit space (this may require extensive tutoring in Second Life skills) and gather feedback.
Continue Second Life introduction for local groups. Solicit feedback and observe attempts at community dialogue. Adjust build and spaces responsively.
Ensure that all builds are completed, finalize image and video choices, finalize guestbook decisions and prep site for machinima documentary shooting. Identify and interview veritar subjects for machinima documentaries.
Project Team
List team members, including any additional sponsors, partners, funders or allies to be associated with this project. Include any applicable information you would like to have considered, such as brief bios of participants, existing in-world locations or groups, existing URLs related to this project, or photos, videos, or other supplemental materials.
Co-Directors: Peggy Weil and Nonny de la Peña
Nonny de la Peña is a web and virtual world producer, documentary filmmaker, journalist, and writer. A former correspondent for Newsweek Magazine, she has written for the New York Times, Premiere Magazine, Time Magazine and many other print publications. She has authored multiple episodes of dramatic television, including two pilots for CBS. She has directed and produced four feature length documentaries which have been shown on national television and screened at theatres and festivals in more than fifty cities around the globe. The Los Angeles Times recently wrote that, “de la Peña expertly personalizes the stories” in her films and theNew York Times called her work, “a brave and necessary act of truth-telling.” Her latest project is GONE GITMO –was originated during a residency at the Bay Area Video Coalition which was funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
Peggy Weil, Visiting Assistant Professor of Intereactive Media at USC School of Cinematic Arts is a digital media artist and designer focusing on interactive design as immersive experience for perceptual and civic engagement. She’s produced interactive projects for The Voyager Company, Broderbund, Electronic Arts, Von Holtzbrinck and Ravensberger Interactive, and was awarded the MILIA D'OR in Cannes in 1998. She is the mind behind MrMind, a bot who administers the Blurring Test, challenging you to convince him that you are human. She has consulted for The Getty Institute and The Dia Foundation; for the later Weil designed The Roden Crater Website for artist James Turrell. She was creative producer/designer for USC’s Institute for Creative Technology E.L.E.C.T. project, a role playing game to train officers in bi-laterial negotiation skills. She acted as producer/designer for The Redistricting Game, a USC Annenberg Center sponsored project to increase voter awareness about redistricting, and is currently developing Gone Gitmo, a virtual installation of Guantánamo Prison in Second Life.
The SLURL to Gone Gitmo is: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Network%20Culture/229/87/25
More information on Gone Gitmo can be found at: www.gonegitmo.blogspot.com
A link to a report on youtube about the site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT7p231Cfxk
We have read and filled out this complete proposal to the best of our team's ability and certify that we have read the Network Culture Project Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge agreements.
SIGNATURE: Nonny de la Peña & Peggy Weil
DATE: May 29, 2008