Cal Day (April 12): Bridging Real, Imaginary and Virtual Worlds

A Public Archaeology Program produced by OKAPI and the Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk
12-3pm Pacific Time (8-11 pm GMT)

April 12, 2007

Locations

Archaeological Research Facility: http://arf.berkeley.edu/
Okapi Island in Second Life: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/

Program
12pm - 12:45 Lecture: “Bridging the gap between Real, Imagined and Virtual at the 9000-year old archaeological site of Çatalhöyük, Turkey” by Ruth Tringham, Professor of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, and Principal Investigator of the Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk
Room 108, Archaeological Research Facility (Webcast live in Okapi Island)
1pm - 3pm “Immersive 3D Visit to Catalhoyuk”
Visitors to the Archaeology Research Facillity will be guided by life-sized avatars (Cal faculty, students & staff) on a virtual tour of Catalhoyuk. Virtual visitors can join the tour as well.

Article in California Magazine notes the importance of “events” in Second Life

There’s an interesting article by Hubert Dreyfus in this month’s California magazine about Second Life. They never mention the educational aspects of Second Life - strange since it’s in a university magazine. But they do make one point about the role of Second Life in bringing together people and creating community for specific events. This resonates with what we are thinking for Okapi island. I’m not overly thrilled with the article, but I need to read it again more carefully

Okapi Island Spring 2008. Thoughts to start off with

What is our ultimate purpose?
Education (K-Grey)?
Sensual experience
Platform for showing remixes
Platform for communication?
Immersion in an archaeological site?
Immersion in the archaeological process?
Communication?

To Plan
Events, talks, movie shows, audio shows – not just the big event.
Building and other Competitions
Regular tours (eg every Friday when we are “in residence”
This includes events in Second Life that are around real-world happenings and performances (eg Catal team symposium at Sociaety For American Archaeology in March)
It also includes real worl events where we can bring Second Life to the Real World (eg Cal Day)
We need to do more serious advertising of these events

Signs
Update signs, esp about join us on Okapi Day
Results of Okapi Day

Museum etc.
Have Okapi island harvest media from database rather than upload them

Embedding/Mash-up of Remixing Catalhoyuk data in Okapi Island

Prehistoric Houses:
Clues to what is down below
Build some furniture in one

Playpen-Sandbox
Tidy up ie get rid of extraneous and irrelevant exercises
Commentary on the good one (revolving picture cube)

Graffiti Board
Change pictures?

BACH tent
Put active stuff on the floor that links to the pictures on the wall

New areas (invite Catal people from list)
Create 4040 area with new pics
Polish area
West Mound (SUNY Buffalo and Cambridge

Sounds
Incorporate Steve Mills Catalhoyuk sounds

VideoWalk
Add walks from BACH tent to South/Mellaart area

Some things for people to buy or win:
Avatar gestures such as
archaeological gestures (trowelling)
Turkish dancing
Keepsakes: images of artifacts, movies of digging
T-shirts for avatars

Okapi Island in Second Life - opportunities for students (and others) Spring 2008

Remixing Catalhoyuk Day on Okapi Island, 28 November, 2007

After our wildly successful Remixing Catalhoyuk Day at Okapi Island on November 28, 2007, we (Ruth Tringham and Noah Wittman) are looking for a renewed, enthusiastic team to join us in further developments and preparation for another big open day event during the Spring semester 2008. Our island is now beginning to gain public visibility.

Many of our team have participated through the sponsorship of the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program. If you will continue with us, please let me (Ruth Tringham tringham@berkeley.edu) know as soon as possible. If you are interested in applying to the project through URAP (where you can receive credit), go to the URAP portal at http://research.berkeley.edu/urap/.

You don’t have to be an undergraduate apprentice to collaborate with us. We have graduate students, staff members and other undergraduates working with us, and joyously welcome anyone with interest and/or skills to help us. These are the qualities we are looking for

• Knowledge of and/or strong desire to learn about archaeology
• Strong oral and written communications skills, including event organization
• Any special skills and/or interest in the senses of place: visual, soundscapes, haptic…
• Facility with digital media and multimedia production tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut, etc.)
• Experience with 3d modeling desirable for apprentices seeking to do modeling work
• Knowledge of Linden Script Language or experience in scripting/coding desirable for apprentices seeking to do in-world scripting
• Ability to work in a team

If you are interested in participating, please write to Noah Wittman (wittman@berkeley.edu) and Ruth Tringham (tringham@berkeley.edu). We also welcome skilled collaborators who are not on - or even near - Berkeley campus.

How do we share and communicate a sense of place to another person or a larger audience, who may be academics, professionals, different grades of K-16 learning, lifelong learners, or journalists–all of whom will re-contextualize our archaeological interpretations in one way or another? How do we express the senses of a place that in the past was alive with people, events and meaning, and now seems dead and empty (but perhaps it is not)? How do we convey to our different audiences the changing meaning and meaningfulness that a place may have for diverse actors through its life-history to its current life perhaps as a heritage site? This project comprises the development of one of the very very few archaeological sites in the on-line “world” of Second Life. We started this project in Spring 2006 because we believe that there is great potential of this platform for interactive educational and research projects about archaeological places. We are beginning to have many visitors and a public presence, and there is much room for student input and creativity.

Apprentices and other participants will work with Ruth Tringham, Noah Wittman. and other project team members to design and develop 3D model of Çatalhöyük, a 9000 year-old Neolithic village located in modern-day Turkey that has already been brought into Second Life on Okapi Island. Çatalhöyük is the focus of extensive archaeological investigation by Ruth Tringham and other scholars. This Second Life project grew out of a Web-based project to disseminate the media database of Çatalhöyük called Remixing Çatalhöyük. Depending on interests and skill sets, participants will be responsible for building 3D models, scripting interactive features, implementing virtual tours, designing museum exhibits or planning events (a Neolithic faire?) and other educational activities. We welcome your participation in this exciting, innovative project!

Remixing Çatalhöyük (the parent project)
http://okapi.berkeley.edu/remixing

Okapi Island, location of Çatalhöyük in Second Life (a work in progress _needs your help!)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/128/128/0
More Okapi Island info: at this website: http://okapi.wordpress.com/category/second-life/
and in this movie: http://okapi.dreamhosters.com/video/sl_short.mov

More on Çatalhöyük
http://www.catalhoyuk.com/
http://www.smm.org/catal/

Remixing Catalhoyuk Day

Remixing Catalhoyuk Day (watch the movie of the event)
9AM to 6PM Pacific Standard Time (5PM to 2AM GMT or Universal Time)
November 28, 2007
Location: Okapi Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/128/128/0
(You must have the free Second Life browser)

Join us for Remixing Catalhoyuk Day, a public program sponsored by OKAPI and the Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk. Visit OKAPI Island in the 3-D virtual environment of Second Life (see Getting Started below) and explore the past and present of Catalhoyuk, a 9000-year-old village located in present-day Turkey. OKAPI Island features virtual reconstructions of the excavation site and multimedia exhibits of research data. The Island was constructed by a team of undegraduate research apprentices during the Spring and Fall 2007 semester. The Remixing Catalhoyuk program includes lectures, guided tours, games, and much more. Mark your calendars!

Remixing Çatalhöyük Day Activities

(10-10:30 AM)
Guided Tour of OKAPI Island. Tours will be conducted by Ruth Tringham (Professor of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, and Principal Investigator of Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük) and the Remixing Çatalhöyük team.

(1 - 2 PM PST)
Lecture: “Cultural Heritage Interpretive Videowalks: Moving Through Present Past Places Physically and Virtually” Presented by Ruth Tringham to the UC Berkeley Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Colloquium and simulcast in Second Life.

(2 - 4 PM PST)
Turkish Music Mix. Visit OKAPI Island, learn about Çatalhöyük and build your own remixes in the OKAPI Island Sandbox while listening to DJ (and UCB Anthro grad) Burcu’s eclectic mix of classical and contemporary Turkish music.

(3-3:30 PM PST)
Guided Tour of OKAPI Island. Tours will be conducted by Ruth Tringham (Professor of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, and Principal Investigator of Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük) and the Remixing Çatalhöyük team.

(4-5 PM PST)
Remixing Çatalhöyük Video Festival. Nine video producers will share videos about Çatalhöyük. The Video Festival will be hosted by VJ (and UCB Anthro grad) Colleen Morgan.

(5 - 5:30 PM PST)
Remix Competition. The public is invited to use the OKAPI Island Sandbox or Graffiti Cube to build and share reconstructions of Catalhoyuk or “remixes” of archaeological research data. At 5pm PST, the Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk team will review and select top entries for virtual awards and exhibition on OKAPI Island.

What is Second Life?
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world created entirely by its residents. Okapi Island is owned and build by the OKAPI team (that’s us below!) and the Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk.

Getting Started
To visit Okapi Island, you will need to create a user account and download the client software–both free.

To create an account, visit www.secondlife.com, click on Join (in the upper right corner) and follow the instructions. Note: You do not need a premium account to use Second Life or visit Okapi Island.

Next, download and install the Second Life client for your computer:
http://secondlife.com/community/downloads.php

Launch the Second Life client and enter your password. You will likely begin in Orientation Island. To visit Okapi Island, click Map, enter “Okapi” in search field and click Search. Alternatively, you can click on the following slurl (second life url) in your browser, and you will be transported there:

SLURL:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/128/128/0
See you there!

Remixing Çatalhöyük Launches

Remixing Çatalhöyük
http://okapi.berkeley.edu/remixing
The OKAPI team is pleased to announce the launch of Remixing Çatalhöyük, a multimedia exhibition and research archive featuring the investigations and discoveries of the Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük and their colleagues. Located in central Turkey, Çatalhöyük (”cha-tal-hu-yuk”) is the site of a Neolithic farming community that flourished from 9,400 until 7,700 years ago. We invite the public to explore themed collections, create original projects, and contribute their own “remixes” of Çatalhöyük.

Remixing Çatalhöyük was constructed during the Spring 2007 semester by a team of UC Berkeley students, staff, and faculty, working in close collaboration with the Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük (BACH). Remixing Çatalhöyük highlights and supports a multi-vocal approach to history, where the global, online community is invited to participate in the dialogue alongside the physical, local community. The OKAPI and BACH teams hope that this project will inspire other researchers to openly share their research data and engage broad public audiences.

Web Site Design
Remixing Çatalhöyük features a tripartite design, including a research archive, themed collections and an interactive web exhibition.

The Research Archive includes more than 65,000 photos, videos, articles and other multimedia research materials–all freely available under Creative Commons NonCommercial Attribution licensing.

The Remixing team curated and adapted research materials into four Themed Collections designed to engage public in the process of archaeology and support a wide range of “k to grey” teaching and learning scenarios:
• Life Histories of People, Places and Things
• Senses of Place
• Archaeology at Different Scales
• The Public Face of Archaeology
The themed collections feature intro articles, intro videos, K-12 activities, and 200 carefully selected and annotated multimedia resources from the research archive.

The Web Exhibition was designed to spark interest and provide context for numerous research materials. The interactive Site Plan (at right) allows users to zoom in and roll-over excavation site features. The Timeline (at right), Map and People gallery orient visitors and highlight the project’s multi-vocal, multi-scalar approach to archaeology.

K-12 Activity
In this unique activity co-developed by a team of archaeologists, teachers, and curriculum developers, students use archaeological evidence and their own imaginations to reconstruct life in a Neolithic household, more than 9,000 years ago. The activity is designed for middle school students and can easily be adapted for other ages. This activity complies with Section 6.1 of the California History-Social Science Content Standards for sixth grade students, which requires that “Students describe what is known through archaeological studies of the early physical and cultural development of humankind from the Paleolithic era to the agricultural revolution.”

On Remixing
Remixing Çatalhöyük is designed to advance the discovery of new ideas by facilitating the reuse of resources and ideas developed by the Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük. The site features student projects, faculty presentations, multimedia websites, and other “remixes” of Çatalhöyük research data. We hope these examples inspire others to remix and reuse research data from this and other projects.

Archaeoblender
http://www.archaeoblender.com
Visitors are encouraged to download, remix materials, and share their remixes using Archaeoblender. Archaeoblender was developed by the OKAPI team using ccHost, an open-source application developed by the Creative Commons for sharing and remixing multimedia content.

OKAPI Island
Virtual Residents of Second Life –a multi-user online environment—can visit Okapi Island to explore 3D representations of Catalhoyuk as it exists today and as it may have looked in the past. During the Fall 2007 semester, a dozen students, faculty and staff will be completing construction of Okapi Island and preparing for a public program.

Okapi Island, location of Çatalhöyük in Second Life. Come Visit! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/128/128/0

Okapi Island Project Wiki (Join Us!)
http://okapiisland.pbwiki.com/

Accessibility
We provided a text version of the site to improve accessibility for users with low speed connections, screen readers, iPhones or other special needs.

Multilingual
The entire site (with the exception of the research database) was translated into Turkish by UC Berkeley Anthropology graduate student Burcu Tung and proofed by Stanford Anthropology graduate student Elif Babul. Tesekkür.

Dissemination
To maximize visibility and reuse, we have (or will soon) republished materials from Remixing Catalhoyuk in multiple locations, including Flickr, YouTube, Apple Learning Interchange, Connexions, Internet Archive, Wikiversity, WikiEducator, and CyArk. A future report will document the quantity and nature of traffic we receive from each site.

On Building Themed Collections
The design of our themed collections was greatly influenced by the process, products and findings of the Calisphere Themed Collections project as documented in “Handful of Things” article by Mankita et al in May 2006 issue of D-Lib Magazine.

Tips, Tools, and Templates
We paid special attention to documenting our process so that others could reuse our tools and techniques. This information is available in the Tips, Tools, and Templates section of the site.

Credits
Project Sponsors:
Paul Grey, Principal Investigator, Scholar’s Box; Professor of Engineering, UC Berkeley
David Greenbaum, Project Director, Scholar’s Box; Director of Data Services, UC BerkeleyRuth Tringham, Principal Investigator, Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk
Michael Ashley, Manager, New Programs, Office of the CIO, UC Berkeley

“Remixing” Team:
Noah Wittman, Project Director, Remixing Çatalhöyük
Ruth Tringham, Content Direction, Pilot Instructor; Professor of Anthropology, UC Berkeley; Principal Investigator, Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük (BACH) Project
Burcu Tung, Content Developer and Turkish Translations, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley
Elizabeth Ha, Media Manager, Video Production
Adrian Van Allen, Web & Interaction Designer
Ruth Tepper Brown, EditorOna Johnson, Curriculum Developer
Denise Phelps, Digital Media Specialist
Michael Ashley, Information Architect
Marc Moglen, Second Life Audio Producer
Daniel Wei, Second Life Scripting and Modeling
Elif Babul, Turkish Proofing
Joseph Coburn, Interactive Designer, Demonstration Tool
Rockman et al, Evaluators

Special thanks to the Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük and colleagues for sharing their content and expertise.

This project was made possible with funding from the US Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE Grant #P116B040739). Additional support was provided by the Gilbert Fund, UC Berkeley’s Office of the CIO, Open Knowledge and the Public Interest, Multimedia Authoring Center for Teaching Anthropology, and the Archaeological Research Facility.

Beyond EText: Remediated Places Final Draft

The final draft of “Senses of Places: Remediations from text to digital performance” by Ruth Tringham, Michael Ashley and Steve Mills has been posted on the Remediated Places blog. This article has been prepared for the upcoming (December 2007) electronic version of Visual Anthropology Review

Brown Bag Presentation: “Remixing Catal Höyük, Remediated Places and Second Life”

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Room 101 in the Archaeological Research Facility (2251 College Building)
Ruth Tringham, Michael Ashley and Noah Wittman (UC Berkeley): “Remixing Catal Höyük, Remediated Places and Second Life”

Okapi Island in Second Life: thoughts for Fall 2007

Posted by Ruth Tringham
We have three aspects of Çatalhöyük that can be built in Second Life. In principle, I would say that we will get more kudos from involving our modellling etc in the real world of the Catal project than if the reality is manipulated or Disneyfied:

1) Çatalhöyük Today
This plays on the idea that people are as interested in the process of what we do as they are in the results of our research and what we conclude. In Second Life we can do a great deal to express the process through:
• Videowalks, accurately across the site, guided or not
• Videos of archaeologists at work
• Interviews with archaeologists
• Conversations and meeting archaeologists and others working at the site
• Remediations of the sensuous experience and memories of the place
• Hand and tool ballet videos

2) Çatalhöyük Past
This enables a visualization of the past place at Çatalhöyük, but again transparency is the key, as well as accuracy rather than simplification, and should be based on the areas that have been excavated:
• Reconstructed buildings BUT the Mellaart reconstructions should be in the accurate “SOUTH” area – we have already talked this through. And the reconstructions should be problematised rather than presented as “correct” (this idea of using Second Life as a platform for making visualizations open to critique I think holds true for all of this section).
• Reconstructed sounds, and views, including the view of the mound from off the mound.
• Reconstructed walks through the prehistoric settlement, based on the excavated areas.
• It would be great to be able to model the mound to show its changing height and shape. But I’m not sure how this could be achieved since the archaeological data does not yet exist.

3) Çatalhöyük Mystery (this came up in Ruth Galileo’s two-hour meeting on Okapi Island with Zed Marseille)
This gives residents of the island an encouragement to explore those part of the mound that have not yet been explored (the . This could actually play into the more formal use of the island as an educational or learning platform:
• What might lie underneath, an opportunity for people to build their own imagined Çatalhöyük houses and things. An experimental miniSand Pit that we administer
• How do we investigate what lies beneath. An opportunity to create a learning platform for discussing/demonstrating method of field enquiry: reconnaissance, survey, excavation, labwork, funding (Anthro 2 style games cf BBC and OccanneechiTown)

4) Okapi Island Database
It occurred to me during the spring and especially the summer that the Okapi Island project in Second Life is yet another outerface or narrative for our Catal Research Media Archive that forms the basis for the narratives of Remixing Catalhoyuk and Remediated Places. If this is the case, then perhaps we should think of having a mirror database on Okapi Island from which to draw the many “narratives” that we and others will create on Okapi Island.

There are a couple of major challenges with this amazing idea. Both of these challenges seem as such because of my ignorance of the technology and protocols involved, so they may or may not be obstacles/challenges at all:
1. Can we run a database of media in Second Life without incurring enormous uploading expenses.
2. If in Second Life we wanted/needed to draw on an existing research archive (the Catal one, as with Remixing Catal), would that mean that our Second Life residents/visitors would be taken out of Second Life into the First Life of the WWW?

5) Museum/Exhibition/Meeting/Performance Space
At the moment some of us are referring to the Okapi Island structure at the bottom of the mound as a “museum”, others as an “Interpretive Center”; others as the meeting room. I see this place as very important and definitely multi-functional. I will show you the plans for the new Catal museum outside Kucukkoy which is also devised as a complex multi-functional space, not to use as a model, but to make sure we are thinking outside the box with our “museum”.

I think of this place more in terms of the functions I have put in the title to this section, perhaps more like the San Francisco Exploratorium or the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, but perhaps Noah will think these places even too conventional.

Should this place be our portal, where you arrive when you fly in – perhaps into an open air Atrium, where a number of guides await you….. Don’t lets forget a Turkish translation in some parts of this area. It should definitely have a conference area that will be a regular venue – perhaps another part of that lovely walled garden open to the sky…

6) Graffiti Wall
I like the idea, taken from one of the Flickr groups I am a member of called Graffiti, of having a wall somewhere on Okapi Island – maybe in that “Mystery Area” where the visitor remixes or ideas can be posted/uploaded. The uploads would be inspired by or recontextualizing the Catalhoyuk media, but might comprise art pieces, images, video, a poem, etc.

7) Times to meet
I think we need to different kinds of time to meet;
1. A regular meeting of the Okapi Island production and management team (officers and owner): RET would prefer Tuesday pm. I would be prepared to start at 4pm PST.
2. Meeting with our local and international collaborators, visitors, conferences etc. The best time for this is 11.0 am PST. This works for everyone to the Istanbul line. It won’t work so well for Australia, but at the moment our collaborators are not in that direction.

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Apprentices

Sharing a Sense of Place in the Past and the Present through Digital Media: Constructing a Neolithic Village in Second LifeHow do we share and communicate a sense of place to another person or a larger audience, who may be academics, professionals, different grades of K-16 learning, lifelong learners, or journalists–all of whom will re-contextualize our archaeological interpretations in one way or another? How do we express the senses of a place that in the past was alive with people, events and meaning, and now seems dead and empty (but perhaps it is not)? How do we convey to our different audiences the changing meaning and meaningfulness that a place may have for diverse actors through its life-history to its current life perhaps as a heritage site? We are currently exploring the on-line “world” of Second Life because we believe that there is great potential of this platform for interactive educational and research projects about archaeological places.Apprentices will work with Professor Tringham and other project team members to design and develop 3D model of Çatalhöyük, a 9000 year-old Neolithic village located in modern-day Turkey that has already been brought into Second Life on Okapi Island. Çatalhöyük is the focus of extensive archaeological investigation by Professor Tringham and other scholars. Depending on interests and skill sets, apprentices will be responsible for building 3D models, scripting interactive features, implementing virtual tours, designing museum exhibits or planning events (a Neolithic faire?) and other educational activities. We welcome your participation in this exciting, innovative project! Remixing Çatalhöyük (the parent project) http://okapi.berkeley.edu/remixingOkapi Island, location of Çatalhöyük in Second Life (a work in progress–needs your help!) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/128/128/0More on Çatalhöyük http://www.catalhoyuk.com/ http://www.smm.org/catal/Qualifications: Students with diverse skills and interests are encouraged to apply for this research apprentice program. The following knowledge/skills are desirable: Knowledge of and/or strong desire to learn about archaeology Strong oral and written communications skills Any special skills on the senses of place: visual, soundscapes, haptic… Facility with digital media and multimedia production tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut, etc.) Experience with 3d modeling desirable for apprentices seeking to do modeling work Knowledge of Linden Script Language or experience in scripting/coding desirable for apprentices seeking to do in-world scriptingWeekly Hours: 6-9 hrsYou can apply for this position online at the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program Website: http://research.berkeley.edu/urap/index.htmlPlease include with your application samples of relevant work (2d or 3d artwork, software, writing, etc.) and explain your interest in this project.