The Macondo Dance Connect project was a mixed reality performance project created in collaboration with Cabula 6, ZoomLab/Kidz Connect and the dance organization Tanzquartier Wien and involved bringing kids together from the Macondo refugee community using dance, mapping, storytelling and the virtual world Second Life.

The objective of the Macondo Dance Connect project was to re-connect youth from the refugee community to their native cultures by allowing them to creatively explore their own history and current living circumstances, while allowing them to discover the nature of cultural identity through creative collaboration and performance in virtual space.

We facilitated a process in which we asked the students to take pictures in their neighborhood, make dance phrases, and write about their family’s journey to the Macondo, thereby providing an outlet for expression and sharing between cultures.

We hoped to provide a cultural exchange through shared creativity that would enable the youth to gain a sense of empowerment as they explored their identities through mapping, storytelling and dance, inspired by their native cultures as well as their newly acquired cultures.

There was a workshop component inside the virtual world Teen Second Life which provided the students with the ability to explore identity through the use of avatars and roleplaying. The workshop enabled them to expand their notions of evolving identity, making it dynamic and creative precisely at a moment in their lives when their multiple identities are both in flux and in danger.

Cabula6 had been working within the Macondo community, creating some interesting installations – one of which involved mapping. Their Living Maps exhibition entailed “individual maps, fantasies and visions of Macondo drawn by different people who have lived in the neighborhood anywhere from fifty years to 1 month…fused into a single massive map and displayed on the billboard wall of the Zinnergasse-Kaserne bus stop.”

This is a shot of a graphic on the Zinnergasse-Kaserne bus stop that was part of Cabula6′s Living Maps installation. The bus stop, which is the only bus stop into and out of the Macondo, became inspiration for digital storytelling; we made virtual replicas of the bus stop in Second Life and students applied their images and stories to them (see below):

Below is a shot of one of the virtual bus stops in Teen Second Life. Each student had their own virtual bus stop and mapped their story and images onto them. When you click on the virtual bus stop, it displays the story of each student’s journey to the Macondo, i.e., “My name is Suzan and I am from Syria. On my journey to Macondo I have been to so many places: Syria, Turkey 2 days, Bulgaria 2 days, in Germany half a day, in Austria and here I am now.” By encouraging students to map aspects of their neighborhood and history onto objects in the Teen Second Life environment, a virtual extension of their experiences became part of the online performance.

Below is a shot from the performance in which you can see the students dancing as avatars in Teen Second Life as well as in real life on the video screens above the stage:

In a series of progressive sessions within a workshop from 8-16 May 2009, the students explored cultural identity through avatar roleplaying and learned performance skills involving dance, while also learning technical skills such as digital storytelling in Teen Second Life, in order to create a mixed reality performance that occurred both live and online simultaneously. The performance was on saturday, 16 May, live and online at 12:00pm GMT+1. Viewers were able to view it on a regular web page as well as within Teen Second Life.

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(in deutsch)

Das Macondo Dance Connect-Projekt ist ein mixed reality performance-Projekt, was etwa soviel wie „vermischte Realitäten-Darbietung“ bedeutet, und wurde durch die Kooperation von Cabula 6, ZoomLab/Kidz Connect und der Tanzorganisation Tanzquartier Wien geschaffen. Es beinhaltet das Zusammenbringen von Kindern aus der gesamten Macondo-Flüchtlingscommunity durch ihre jeweiligen Tänze, Erzählungen und Fotos ihrer Umgebung und die Einbindung der virtuellen Welt von Second Life.

Das Ziel des Macondo Dance Connect-Projekts ist das Wiederverbinden der jungen Flüchtlinge mit ihren ursprünglichen Kulturen durch die Möglichkeit innerhalb eines kreativen Prozesse ihre eigene Geschichte und ihre aktuellen Lebensumstände und Umgebung zu erforschen. Dabei sollen sie die Natur der kulturellen Identität durch kreatives Zusammenarbeiten im virtuellen Raum entdecken.

Wir werden den Prozess erleichtern, indem wir die Schüler bitten, ihre Umgebung zu fotografieren, kleine Tanzeinheiten zu gestalten, und Geschichten über ihre Reise nach Macondo zu schreiben.

Wir wollen einen kulturellen Austausch durch gemeinsame Kreativität ermöglichen, der die Jugendlichen befähigt, ein Gefühl für ihre eigenen Stärken zu bekommen, während sie ihre Identitäten durch Mapping, Storytelling und Tanz erforschen.

Eine Workshopkomponente findet innerhalb der virtuellen Welt von Teen Second Life statt, welche den Schülern erlaubt, ihre Persönlichkeiten durch das Benutzen von Avataren und Rollenspielen zu erleben. Der Workshop soll ihre Auffassung von Persönlichkeitsentwicklung dynamisch und kreativ erweitern und das an einem Punkt ihres Lebens, an dem ihre verschiedenen Persönlichkeiten sowohl in Fluss als auch in Gefahr sind.

Cabula6 arbeiten innerhalb der Macondocommunity und hat dabei einige interessante Installationen geschaffen – eine davon beinhaltet Mapping. Ihre Living Maps-Ausstellung („Lebende Karten“) führte zu „individuellen Maps (Karten), Fantasien und Visionen von Macondo gezeichnet von verschiedenen Menschen, die zwischen bereits 50 Jahren oder erst einem Monat in der Nachbarschaft leben. Alles zusammengeführt in einer großen Karte und gezeigt auf der großen Plakatwand der Bushaltestelle Zinnergasse-Kaserne.“

Dies ist ein Bild von einer Grafik auf der Bushaltestelle Zinnergasse-Kaserne, von der Living Maps-Ausstellung („Lebende Karten“) von Cabula6. Der Bushaltestelle, die einzige Bushaltestelle zum und vom Macondo zu stoppen, wurde Inspiration für digitales Geschichtenerzählen: machten wir virtuelle Nachbildungen der Bushaltestelle in Second Life und Schüler stellten ihre Bilder und Geschichten auf sie (siehe unten):

Das Bild unten ist eine der virtuellen Bushaltestellen in Teen Second Life. Jeder Student hatte ihre eigene virtuelle Bushaltestelle und stellte ihre Geschichte und Bilder auf sie. Wenn Sie auf den virtuellen Bushaltestelle klicken, wird die Geschichte des Schülers Reise in die Macondo Anzeige: z. B. « Ich heisse Suzan und ich komme aus Syrien. Auf meinem Weg nach Macondo war ich an so vielen Orten: Syrien, Tuerkei 2 Tage, in Bulgarien 2 Tage, in Deutschland einen halben Tag, in Oesterreich und hier bin ich jetzt.» Das Macondo Dance Connect-Programm baut auf diesem Erfolg auf und ermutig die Schüler Aspekte ihrer Nachbarschaft auf Objekten in Teen Second Life abzubilden, sodass die virtuelle Erweiterung ihrer Erfahrungen ein Teil des Onlineauftritts wird.

Das Bild unten ist von der Präsentation. Die Studierenden sind als Avataren in Teen Second Life Tanzen und auch im wirklichen Leben auf der Video-Bildschirme über der Bühne:

In einer aufbauenden Serie von Sitzungen während des Workshops vom 8. bis 16 Mai werden die Schüler Fähigkeiten für den Auftritt lernen, wie etwa Tanzen, aber auch technische Fähigkeiten wie digitales Geschichtenerzählen und Kreieren in der virtuellen Welt von Teen Second Life, wodurch ein Auftritt mit gemischten Realitäten entsteht, der sowohl live als auch online gleichzeitig stattfindet. Dieser Auftritt wird am Samstag, 16.Mai, 12:00 GMT+1, vor Ort und online zu sehen sein. Du kann kannst es dir über eine normale Webpage ansehen, genauso wie auch in Teen Second Life.

The objective of the Macondo Dance Connect project is to re-connect youth from the refugee community to their native cultures by allowing them to explore and identify with folk dance from their native countries, while allowing them to discover the nature of cultural identity through creative collaboration in virtual space.

[Image from Cabula6 in the Macondo]

We will facilitate a process in which we ask the students to make dance phrases based on the kind of movement and folk dances they may have learned in their native countries, thereby allowing them to reconnect with their native cultures through dance and providing an outlet for expression and sharing between cultures.

We hope to provide a cultural exchange through shared creativity that will enable the youth to gain a sense of empowerment as they explore their identities through dance, inspired by their native cultures as well as their newly acquired cultures.

There will be a workshop component inside the virtual world Teen Second Life which will provide the students with the ability to explore identity through the use of avatars and roleplaying. The workshop will enable them to expand their notions of evolving identity, making it dynamic and creative precisely at a moment in their lives when their multiple identities are both in flux and in danger.

Cabula6 has been working within the Macondo community, creating some interesting installations – one of which involves mapping. Their Living Maps exhibition entails “individual maps, fantasies and visions of Macondo drawn by different people who have lived in the neighborhood anywhere from fifty years to 1 month…fused into a single massive map and displayed on the billboard wall of the Zinnergasse-Kaserne bus stop.” The Macondo Dance Connect program will build upon this effort, encouraging the students to map aspects of their neighborhood onto objects in the Teen Second Life environment, so that a virtual extension of their experiences becomes part of the online performance.

In a series of progressive sessions within a workshop from 8-16 May, the students will learn performance skills involving dance, while also learning technical skills such as digital storytelling and creating in the online virtual world Teen Second Life, in order to create a mixed reality performance that will occur both live and online simultaneously. The performance will be on saturday, 16 May, live and online. You’ll be able to view it on a regular web page as well as within Teen Second Life. Stay tuned for more details…

The teens will meet via videoconferencing to create a dance theater performance together online. We will facilitate a process in which we ask the kids to make dance phrases based on the kind of movement and folk dances they may have learned in their native countries, thereby allowing them to reconnect with their native cultures through dance and providing an outlet for expression and sharing between cultures.

[Images from Cabula6 in the Macondo]

What they all have in common is that they have fled their native countries due to violence and hardship. As refugees, acclimating to a new culture can be a jarring experience. We hope to provide a virtual cultural exchange through shared creativity that will enable the youth to gain a sense of empowerment as they explore their identities through dance, inspired by their native cultures as well as their newly acquired cultures.

There will also be a workshop element inside the virtual world Second Life which will provide the students with the ability to explore identity through the use of avatars and roleplaying. The workshop will enable them to expand their notions of evolving identity, making it dynamic and creative precisely at a moment in their lives when their multiple identities are both in flux and in danger.

Kidz Connect Vienna<>Berlin will focus on questions about the complexity of contemporary identity while acclimating to a new place, meeting new people, and adjusting to culture shock, and will offer the space for alternate, expansive identity through shared creation in a virtual world, independent of their bodies and histories and hinged, rather, on the scope of their fantasies and dreams. They will be able to locate their past identity through personal memories and “traditional” dance and storytelling, while exploring ideas of current identity and cultural confluence by sharing these stories and dances in a virtual space which encourages collaboration and transcends cultural boundaries, thus offering the basis for creative interaction within their various “real life” worlds.

Kidz Connect will be part of a project called The Island, an alternate reality game that will take place simultaneously in the real and the virtual world, connecting students in New York and Amsterdam in a shared experience of discovery while imbuing historical narratives of New York’s Dutch origins with a sense of adventure and cultural connection.

Students will play by using GPS-based mobile phones on the streets, receiving assignments based on their location. These assignments relate to historical events which link their current location to the past. They unravel the mystery together. The game is a giant puzzle – a treasure hunt where students and their companion players solve a mystery while being connected in real-time to their peers. Each game is an episode of a bigger story, so the students must finish an episode for the next to be revealed.

The information collected must be shared with students abroad in order to advance. The game continues online where players collaborate on the web and in virtual worlds, i.e., in virtual Amsterdam and 17th century New Amsterdam (New York) in Second Life. The virtual world component is where Kidz Connect will come into play.

The main storyline is based on the ‘lost’ history and cultural connection between Amsterdam and New York City, largely inspired by the narrative in Russell Shorto’s book, The Island at the Center of the World. In 1609, Henry Hudson was chosen by the Dutch East India Company to find an easterly passage to Asia. While Hudson only made it as far as Albany, New York, his first steps on the tip of Manhattan eventually gave rise to a thriving settlement on what is today New York City. Much of the history of this early colony was lost, until thousands of 17th century Dutch documents were recently unearthed, revealing stories about early leaders and settlers – seminal figures in the development of Dutch Manhattan, the first place in the New World where men and women of different races and creeds lived in relative harmony.

In 2009, the Henry Hudson 400 Festival will commemorate the legendary voyage in both Amsterdam and in New York.

The Island celebrates this bond between the Dutch and Americans that began with Hudson’s discovery of New York, by creating three episodes of this historic narrative within an alternate reality game environment. The first episode is a real-time collaborative location-based game using GPS technology. The second episode extends the historic narratives and gameplay into an interactive web environment and the third episode occurs in a virtual world (Second Life).

The goals of the project are

• To commemorate the historic voyage of Henry Hudson by celebrating the tolerant and diverse traditions of both Amsterdam and New York and to reinforce how important diversity and tolerance are to the expansion and prosperity of great cities.
• To intensify and renew historic, cultural, and commercial ties between New York and Amsterdam by creating productive cultural relationships and youth entrepreneurship.
• To promote the learning of social, historical and cultural facts through gameplay.

We are partnering with area/code, the Institute of Play, the John Adams Institute, and the Waag Society, among others.

This is a live mix recording of our show yesterday in Tampa, Amsterdam and Teen Second Life. We haven’t fixed the audio levels yet — and we will — but in the meantime, enjoy the show.

I’ll be sad to see this all end. It’s been a blast getting to watch this whole amazing process develop into an actual show, involving technology and traditional theater. Until next year when hopefully, we’ll meet again. And in Second Life, we can meet anywhere, anytime!

be part of Amsterdam’s show– funny we’re having two separate (yet connected) shows.

BUT! That’s how these things go- dealing with our distinct cultural situations,

and making it work in our own unique way! Now, THAT’S brilliant collaboration!

(If we do say so ourselves) haha! )) I am on a theater/networked performance high…!

As tired as I am from the rigorous techno-troubleshooting, rehearsing, and long days of

constant creatingI am living in a state of ultra-awareness- HYPER-reality.

I am so proud of our students, of their diligence, energy, genius creations, and beautiful

ways of working things out together every day… what a joy to watch and hopefully help along

the way! I hope that they are inspired to fly- to create on their own-

to take what bit of knowlege we can provide, and expand on it. I have learned so very much from

this gigantic, yet intimate project.

The process has brought great rewards & the show is going to be AWESOME!

Okay, now, take that image and add to it.  What you’re looking at now is an island full of avatars (the little virtual people from before) who are building their own society on the island (think Swiss Family Robinson without all of the struggling for food).  And then, if that is not enough, add on the fact that each of these avatars have a real life counterpart and that some of these counterparts are from right here in Tampa, FL and some of them are from Amsterdam!  It really is the cross-section of techonology and really awesome internet communities.

These kids have quickly learned how to operate this complex program and have been communicating regularly across the ocean with kids doing the same thing.  And *cool tidbit warning* one of the kids involved in the Amsterdam program is a popular television actor in the Netherlands.  Think the Zac Efron of Amsterdam.

So, today these kids were rehearsing for their part in the Amsterdam show tomorrow and they danced and performed a song together.  It was funny to watch the Amsterdam students dance to the music and then move to talk and interact with them as avatars.  Talk about multiple personalities!

So, their big performance is this weekend and it will be live here at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and also streamed online.  They have rehearsals, more song and dance routines, and a world all of their own.  

What would I do if I had my very own virtual island?  I don’t know, but I’m sure that I would begin with the question: How do I make myself taller?

15-year-old Ivaniel had thought the workshop might be boring and he has been more than pleasantly surprised. Turns out he’s having a great time and the workshop has been anything but boring. Eight hours a day for two weeks these students been working, creating avatars and building spaces in Teen Second Life, learning songs and dance moves, getting to know each other here and video streaming and bonding with teens in Europe.

Vanessa had previously researched Teen Second Life and says she knew a bit what to expect. “It’s been fun learning what things are like over there because it’s different than here,” Vanessa says. Meghan, 13, plans to keep her avatar and stay in touch with her new friends in Holland.

Like them, the Dutch teens go to school and like to hang out with their friends, Vanessa observes. Director Lisa Powers has noticed that the teens are focusing on similarities, ties that bind them, so to speak. Then, they notice the differences, which have mostly been about styles of living, such as transportation. The Floridian youth are primarily driven from place to place, while the Dutch ride more bicycles and walk, Lisa says.

This whole cultural exchanges helps to prepare them to live together, to live in a world where we have many differences, but where fundamentally, we’re all alike. The way it’s going, these students have a real shot at making the “real” world better for us all.

“We can change the world, today, if we mean just what we say…
If we want to come together, the solution depends on whether…
We are real, let’s be real; there’s a bond that can be sealed-
Let’s be real, it is time for the world…to be real!”
–from the song, “What is Real?” written for Kidz Connect by James Crumbly