World Listening Day, July 18th

Listen up! Today is World Listening Day. So take a few minutes to really listen to sound around you whether you live in a city or the countryside. We are enveloped by soundscapes. - even in our virtual world - http://www.worldlisteningproject.org/world-listening-day/  This Saturday, you are welcome to an open house celebrating sound in Second Life at the UWA-SIU Virlantis sim [Machinima World - Sonic Lab].  It is part of an online course that I am teaching for my university, and tied to a much larger media project under development.

A few of us created the Sonic Lab where we teach sound online historically and culturally as art and practice. A multi-layer sound lab was constructed to help students develop critical listening skills, by virtually tuning into the modern origins of music and learning to appreciate the sonic environment, now and then, that contributes to our daily soundscapes. The virtual classroom experience leads students through time, place - and sound.

You enter the virtual world via a medieval realm soaked with layered sounds ignited by one's presence and touch. Visitors acoustically engage into a soundscape rich with nature's lush greens and harbor sounds, and perhaps stop into the local tavern for a chat and music.

Your travels take you to modern times, from Ragtime's Scott Joplin, to experimental masters Edgard Varèse and John Cage, to those they have influenced, Reich, Zappa, The Beatles, Hendrix, Ramones, Riot Grrrls, and New York's alternative scene to a mock up of Oblivion from the movie of the same title.

The sound installation was funded by a summer course development grant awarded by my university.  To learn about this project, attend the VWBPE Conference session, Sonic Immersion Part I: Hearing is Believing, Case Study: Sound Studies in Second Life, Friday, July 26, 8:05-8:55 AM SLT, Builder's Brewery Auditorium. Part II will be held at Virlantis during VWBPE's MOOC post-conference, with times to be announced soon. Admission is free.

Join us Saturday, July 20th, Noon to 2PM SLT for an Open House.  Musician and old friend AcousticEnergy Nitely and BOSL friend and colleague DJ CottonCandy will provide the entertainment. Visit the sim, spanning four levels and six regions, when we unearth the sonic mysteries of sound, as noise, music and art.  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/UWA%20Virlantis/107/126/23

Special thanks to *Belinda Barnes,* Lowe Runo and Kara Trapdoor, as well as Jay Jay Jegathesan (Jayjay Zifanwe) of UWA for their support and assistance on this project.