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UWS researchers create a virtual platform for Australian literature

Date: 22/08/2008

Every day, millions of people log-on to virtual worlds where they can buy houses, visit nightclubs and meet new people. Now, researchers from the University of Western Sydney have found a way to tap into these online communities to promote Australian literature.

UWS researcher Cristyn Davies and UWS senior lecturer in interactive design, Sarah Waterson, have worked with poet and audio-artist, Elena Knox, to create 'trope' - a new virtual space that can be visited and explored by residents of the 3D online world 'Second Life'.

Second Life, which was launched to the public in 2003, is now inhabited by millions of 'residents' from around the globe, who are immersed in virtual lives unhindered by the physical limitations of the real world.

Cristyn Davies, from the Narrative, Discourse and Pedagogy research node at UWS, says 'trope' will give Second Life residents access to new creative writing by Australian authors.

"Moving through the 'trope' environment, which is located on conVerge island owned by the School of Communication Arts at the University of Western Sydney, Second Life residents can interact with new Australian poetry and short fiction repositioned in a virtual world," says Ms Davies.

Sarah Waterson, from the UWS School of Communications Arts, says online writing environments such as blogs, live journal and myspace have remediated older print forms of autobiography and journals.

"The key idea behind 'trope' was to explore the design of textual treatments in virtual reality environments paying close attention to how people interact with them, and how writing can be re-presented in that context," says Ms Waterson.

Ms Davies says the project is launched at a time when there is ongoing debate surrounding the decline of literary paradigm in Australia.

"'trope' is one way of encouraging audiences to engage with literary texts and bring Australian literature to the forefront of people's minds by harnessing already captive online communities," she says.

'trope' is supported by the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and the School of Communication Arts and Narrative, Discourse and Pedagogy research node, at the University of Western Sydney.

Sponsored by the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, 'trope' will be presented at the Melbourne Writers' Festival. A panel of 'trope's' creators alongside the Melbourne-based writers selected for the first iteration, will discuss the dynamics of this intersection between literature and new media and the poetic possibilities of virtual spaces.

WHAT: 'trope' presentation at the Melbourne Writers' Festival
WHEN: 7-9pm Thursday 28th August 2008
WHERE: cinema one, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, Melbourne

Ends

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