Inside View from Ireland: Learning from Immersive Virtual Worlds

ONE OF THE MOST interesting discussions emerging from Limerick Open Coffee revolves around immersive virtual worlds for business and education. I have picked up some very innovative ideas from James Corbett and Keith Kennedy of Daynuv, two guys who have pointed out that I might not be seeing the impact that technology has on others. I spend more hours of each day working inside virtual worlds than working alongside people in the real world. Yet my connections to those in virtual space are often more sincere and meaningful than the casual small talk around the coffee pot. Where I work, people point out they track my Facebook banterings and my online tweets as evidence that I've got time on my hands to actually do things that benefit students.

It’s precisely because of some well-executed virtual experiences in online classrooms that I can see how technology can lift others to special places. But it's the special treatment that virtual worlds give to those in need that really impress me--people who need to be lifted from tragedy or illness. That’s part of the remit of the Puppet Portal Project, a creative use of art to address the effects of hospitalisation on children. I work with Helene Hugel, a world class puppeteer who was feted by Social Entrepreuers Ireland (in photo above left), watching her promote a sense of community and communication through creative activities. Some of those activities combine technology, connecting different hospital wards together with artists bringing artwork, puppetry, and storytelling together.

Part of my current work involves connecting artists through their web browsers. We use Online Meeting Rooms, an Irish-based video conferencing system, to open chat sessions with artists. They exchange ideas and push the boundaries of a typical web conference. Until I watched Helene at work, I never imagined using webcams to paint. But that’s what’s happening in one session. An artist on the east coast of Ireland points a webcam at a large wall as she sketches away. The webcam projects the artwork onto a large wall hundreds of miles away where young people can trace the wall-sized drawing onto canvas. This is tracing by webcam, complete with live audio chat between locations.

Four locations can have this wall-sized artwork projected in their spaces while a fifth location records the entire process as one gigantic video clip. The artists can replay the video clip time and again onto walls all over the world. It’s like having a pre-recorded session of a visiting artist on call.

The Puppet Portal Project will develop and promote long-term engagements with multi-skilled performing artists in paediatric hospital communities. I’m happy to help develop the virtual dimension of these heart-warming sessions by hooking up Online Meeting Rooms to them. As we spark creativity and resourcefulness, I know the technology involved is helping to reduce the time it takes for young children to recover in hospital. And I also know parts of our online meetings can be used to great effect in other areas as we enhance our creative multimedia skill sets.