If you've played games, you're undoubtedly used to controlling an avatar in a virtual world. No matter how immersed you become in a game world on the television screen, though, your mind stays firmly on the sofa, fully aware that your hands are holding a controller. Yet it turns out to be surprisingly easy to fool your brain into thinking it's somewhere else entirely. Two people from completely different backgrounds have both discovered that 'freeing your mind' simply requires a few leads and a camera - and that merging video games with real life can have profound effects.
Marc Owens' background is in craft. His initial training was in manipulating metals, ceramics and plastics, but in 2006 he began an MA at the Royal College of Art in design products, a course that focused on how to approach functional items from unique perspectives. It was at this point that he became interested in objects that bridge the physical and virtual worlds, and for his 2008 project he hit on an idea that stood out as radical even among the cutting-edge work of his RCA colleagues.
Marc had always been a keen gamer, and he had a particular fondness for third-person games such as Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne. He'd also become interested in networked games like World of Warcraft and Second Life, and was especially fascinated by the way that people behaved in these worlds compared to how they behaved in real life. The phenomenon of 'griefers' as they were then often known (nowadays more commonly called 'trolls') interested him: what allowed people to behave in such an aggressive and disruptive way?
from Eurogamer.net http://ift.tt/1loPb88
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