Re: purpose of the vworlds list

Brandon Van every (vanevery@rbdc.rbdc.com)
Sat, 22 Apr 95 14:02 EDT

I don't know about the rest of you folks, but as 'an artist' (whatever that
means) I think theory through the artworks I create. Any creation of mine
embodies a lot of theory. Theory without creation is not only nearly
impossible (an "I theorize with my hands" sort of situation, here) but
pretty uninteresting.

But you don't necessarily have to have a VR system on-hand, to talk
about multi-player dramatic possibilities. Or architectural ideas
about scene construction and visibility. Sure, you will at some point
need a system to test the ideas, someday. But there's an awful lot of
work that can be done, that doesn't involve having the perfect VR
system at your disposal.

I would think that by separating 'theory' and 'practice' into two lists,
we're unnecessarily propogating a mythical separation of thought-processes
which isn't real, or useful.

I disagree. Most things have about as much "reality" in them as
people choose to believe they have. Sometimes the distinction between
theory and practice is useful, sometimes it isn't. As one of my
Anthropology professors once said, "nothing is as practical as a good
theory."

For the moment, I think it's useful here. If nothing else, it is
polite. Let the vr-art people try having their own list for awhile.
Since they think they have a different focus to start with, maybe
they'll develop something completely different than this list. Or
maybe in 2 months, they'll be more amenable to merging the lists.

Cheers,
Brandon