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Wayne Ashley, who helped curate a set of recent workshops and symposia known as Breaking the Game, sends along a link to what looks like an interesting collection of recorded conversations, interviews and guided tours from those sessions, which were devoted to things like the intersection of the real and virtual where 3D design is concerned, “virtual worlds, computer gaming, immersive technologies, and new possibilities for artistic practice and experience,” and ways to “open up the art of game modification to the contingencies of everyday life, where virtual technologies increasingly mediate physical spaces and human movements in very complex and dynamic ways.” I’ve dipped into a few of the recordings here and there and they do promise a rich trove of thought to mine. Jerry, of course, seems to have weaseled his way onto the roster, as ever, but there are also a number of less ubiquitous thinkers you may not have encountered before, whose thoughts are just as well worth watching. Enjoy.

For those 3pointD readers who are also resident in the virtual world of Second Life, I’ve created a 3pointD group there that you can join to get announcements of upcoming events or other items of interest to the 3pointD crowd. While I doubt I’ll have much to say there very often, I’m thinking it will serve as a nice way to keep in touch for future meetups and things of that nature. Speaking of which, various people have been chatting here on the site and in email about a Second Life 3pointD meetup devoted to virtual world sustainability and related issues. I’ll throw a tentative date out there: How’s the evening of Sunday, October 8?

Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, fresh from the 3D printer and ready for his close-up, it’s the Walker Spaight avatar we’ve all been waiting for! While I haven’t yet seen him in person, Walker was produced by the Fabjectory 3D printing service of Second Life resident Hal9k Andalso (aka Mike Buckbee). I’m eager to see what Walker is like in real life, having occupied him virtually for almost two years now. (Is this a 3D model of Walker, or of me?) I love the idea of a 3D printing service for avatars, especially in full color; seems a sure thing to take off among SL residents, who are already obsessed with their in-world appearance. You can see a full-length pic of Walker after the jump. Both images are stolen from the Fabjectory set on Flickr. (more…)

We’ve been twisting the arm of Brian Chirls, who works with Susan and Arin of the Four Eyed Monsters film, to get him to add the virtual world of Second Life to the map of cities in which the film has been requested. (See these two posts for more details; if you can garner 150 requests on the Web site, they’ll show the film in your town.) As you can see above, he’s done it. Thanks, Brian! Just dial up the map to see how many requests have been made (you have to zoom way out to see where on the earth SL has ended up), and don’t forget to put your request in. It would be great to see a movie as interesting as Four Eyed Monsters have a screening in Second Life as part of its worldwide rollout. Only 83 requests to go!

I won’t be able to check this out for an hour or two, but wanted to quickly flag the fact (flagged to me by Second Life resident Troy McLuhan) that Amazon.com’s Jeff Barr has hacked up a system whereby he can put a Web page on the surface of a prim (one of the “primitive” objects that are the building blocks of SL objects). It doesn’t appear to have all the functionality Linden Lab plans for Web-on-a-prim (which seems to have an infinite development horizon), but it’s a damn sight better than anything in SL at the moment. I’m not entirely clear on how it works or whether it’s open for anyone to copy and use (more on all this later), but I’m looking forward to checking it out. Jeff did text on a prim last week. Nice job.