UPDATES

Welcome to the Global Underscore gathering of 2016. We are thrilled that we are all coming together this year with such full and rich variety. Thank you for your presence and organization!

We will be sending you the final list of Global Underscore sites and the Facing List for the Opening and Closing Stands by Friday, June 17.  But for now, here is some Technology* and Harvest information so you can prepare accordingly. 

*To Participate in Live Streaming and Second Life for GUS 2016 Isabel Valverde will need your tech info by June 15.  Keep reading to find out what to send her.

Dear Global Underscore Facilitators

We have some special technology components for our connections during the Global Underscore 2016. Isabel Valverde will be working with us to make it happen! 

Isabel will be hosting a virtual Global Underscore satellite through Second Life, a multi-user virtual environment.  Isabel will also help you post live streaming on the Global Underscore Blog.

We will also be posting Harvest on the blog. 

Read through the list of opportunities below.  You will have the option to either actively participate or to simply visit and observe any one of these technology components. 

OPTIONS FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE TECHNOLOGY COMPONENTS of the

Global Underscore 2016 (from simplest level to most complex):

1) Share material from your regular Harvest circle:
Send your Harvest-text and/or a small selection of photos or a short video from your Global Underscore experience- to underscorenyc@gmail.com for the Global Underscore blogspot. Nancy Hughes and Brandin Steffensen will be adding your harvest directly on the blog. 

2) Local real-time Harvest:
Have a computer somewhere in the space with a Word document open (or sheets of paper) for people to write (or draw) during the Underscore. This can be harvested afterward on the blog. (See #1.)

3) Live streaming video:This is live video streaming from any/every site that can manage it, collected for real-time viewing on http://globalunderscore.blogspot.com.
For this option, your site will need:
1. Two laptops (one to send and one to receive)
2. A webcam (the camera in the computer that's used for skyping is enough, or you can
input from a separate camera. Webcams are simpler and recommended.)
3. High-speed internet access (not a dial-up modem)
4. Someone capable of setting it up and testing it prior to the date of the Global
Underscore
For detailed instructions click This Link
What will happen:
You will establish a free individual video broadcast channel (on the ustream platform:  www.ustream.tv/about or bambuser.com) that will be gathered together with other Global Underscore video streams by Isabel.
***To simply view video streams without doing your own stream, visit: the Global Underscore Blogspot

4) Global Underscore 2016 on Second Life:

For Global Underscore 2016, Portuguese dancer/researcher Isabel Valverde will facilitate a Global Underscore satellite in Second Life, a multi-user 3D virtual environment. Senses Places project will be the virtual host for this Global Underscore site, Odyssey Contemporary and Performance Simulator at Second Life.
SL URL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Odyssey/31/147/681 

At this special location on Second Life, avatar Underscore participants and audience will join the Underscore practice from different remote places around the world. Also at this location, the Ustream and/or bambuser video channels from Global Underscores worldwide will be screened for viewing and possible interaction.

There will be a Ustream channel streaming the Second Life Global Underscore site at Odyssey Contemporary and Performance Simulator at Second Life. That stream will be embedded on Odyssey Contemporary Art and Performance Simulator SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Odyssey/31/147/681

For detailed instructions on joining the Global Underscore satellite in Second Life click  This Link 

YOUR JOB NOW:

1) Choose which of the 4 (it could be any or all) of the above technology components you want to use with your site.  

with anticipation, 
Global Underscore 2016 Coordinators (UnderscoreNYC: Brandin Steffensen and Nancy Hughes ) along with Nancy Stark Smith, Patrick Crowley, and Isabel Valverde

Underscore NYC

underscorenyc@gmail.com

Link to Additional Resource

Global Underscore 2012, Chichester, UK site (photographer unknown)

Technology Spotlight

Steps to set up your video stream

3.1. Create a channel for video streaming with USTREAM, or Bambuser.

Go to these links for instructions.

http://www.ustream.tv/abouthttp://www.ustream.tv/get-started
http://helpcenter.ustream.tv/category/category/broadcasting-getting-started

3.2. Name your channel as follows: gus2016_(your site's location).

3.3.  Test if you can broadcast.

Test the recording function:

Start broadcasting and go to the channel's link to check if you can see it, or click on the title of your channel at the top left corner of the broadcast window. This opens a new window where your live broadcast will show up.

Suggestion: If you want to record (and you are comfortable starting and ending the recording function without too much distraction) try recording at any of these three times:

a. opening small dance (00:50; 50 minutes into the 4 hour Underscore) 

b. 30 minutes during Open Score (2:15-2:45) 

c. closing small dance (3:55)

3.4. Send the URL of your channel to cilxjam@gmail.com in order to be gathered at the Global Underscore blog page.If you have any tech questions, email isabel at cilxjam@gmail.com

Steps to set up Second Life 

In order to visit and participate in the Global Underscore Satellite @ Second Life someone at your GU site needs to:

4.1. Have a computer with good graphics and  internet connection. Note that Mac stopped supporting video on SL.

4.2. Create an account and choose an avatar (free) @ http://secondlife.com/

4.3. Download and install Second Life (free) @ http://secondlife.com/ Please check the technical requirements.

4.4. Open the Second Life application and Go to the SL Underscore Satellite site at Senses Places space: SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Odyssey/31/147/681 
(You can also go to any other location at your choice, or simply login without choosing a place. You will be teleported to a welcome site where ava

tar hosts wait to help you ☺)

4.5. Get accustomed to the interface: the avatar and the 3d environment. It is not difficult, but it will require more or less practice, depending on your computer interface and videogame skills and literacy. 

Examples: a) learn to use the arrow keys to move the avatar in space, b) learn to use the chat window, voice, or animations to communicate, c) learn about the menus and Inventory, d) learn how to edit the avatar appearance, e) camera operation, f) learn to intera

ct with objects in the environment, g) learn how to teleport, etc. See a video demonstration. 

In principle, this will enable you to observe, interact, and improvise at the site with other avatars and video stream images of other GU sites projected on to screens/browser windows. 

4.6. At the VGU site we will share animations for your avatar to improvise with. You can play with then, including changing, accumulating, looping, and move your avatar in space while animated. The ideal is that you can put it to dance so you can dance also with the moving entities. Additionally, we share a webcam interface (from Senses Places) that allows your movement to interact with the ava

tar. This interface instructions and the animations are available in one object at the virtual site :D

4.7. If you are at one GU site streaming a channel, you will be able to see it there along with other streams. You will only have to copy paste your site's channel URL link onto one of the screens available at the site as server windows. 

4.8. Watch, experiment, improvise!

Link to Additional Resource