[Nettime-nl] openbare lezing mark meadows, a.s. woensdag hva

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

Openbare lezing > Mark Meadows – HeadCase Humanufacturing Inc.

Tijdstip> woensdag  25 april 2007 – 16.30 – 17.30 uur – C1.02
Lokatie> Instituut voor Interactieve Media – Hogeschool van Amsterdam 
(Leeuwenburg, Amstelstation)

L.A. based artist, writer and interactive architect Mark Meadows geeft 
a.s. woensdag een lezing over "Humanufacturing: The Automation of 
Humans" .

Voor meer informatie over Mark Meadows en zijn werk zie > www.bore.com 
en hieronder.

* * *

------------the write up from a Wall Street Journal article that came 
out last week-----------------------

Virtual Intelligence

Avatars, the digital characters that represent computer users online, 
are increasingly popular on social-networking sites, in instant 
messaging and in multiplayer games. They allow people to craft a visual 
stand-in for themselves that they can direct to speak or act however 
they want in a given situation. Now, HeadCase Humanufacturing Inc. is 
attempting to take that concept a step further and create what it calls 
"digital humans" -- avatars that can interact with other avatars and 
with humans without every response being preprogrammed or directed by a 
person behind the character.

Los Angeles-based HeadCase, which plans to launch a beta version of its 
product by the end of the year, initially will focus on developing 
avatars for the gaming world but envisions other possible applications 
as well, including educational products.

One key feature of the avatars HeadCase aims to develop would be the 
ability to hold conversations with computer users. For instance, an 
avatar might act as a substitute for written instructions to games 
where players live in virtual worlds. The avatar could give the player 
an overview of the game and then answer the player's questions as they 
come up.

In education, avatars could represent historical characters. "Imagine 
telling your kids, 'I want you to go to this Web site and talk to this 
character named Plato,' " says HeadCase Chief Executive Cathi Cox. "A 
digital Plato could ostensibly serve as an educational tool, holding 
conversations about his life and writing."

Customer-service systems are another possibility, with avatars that 
could answer questions online -- and know when to give way to a human. 
"What if the system was smart enough to sense you swearing at it and 
brought on a human immediately?" Ms. Cox says.

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