Just saw this today on the Second Life Education List, regarding the Çatalhöyük project. I’ve written about this project in Second Life before, so am very glad to see it moving on like this!. If only my bloody laptop had a fast enough graphics card so that I could visit it too! Somebody send me a postcard.
Remixing Catalhoyuk Day
Remixing Catalhoyuk Day
10am to 6pm Pacific Standard Time (GMT-8)
November 28, 2007
Location: Okapi Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/128/128/0Join us for Remixing Catalhoyuk Day, a public program sponsored by
OKAPI and the Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk. Visit OKAPI
Island in the 3-D virtual environment of Second Life and explore the
past and present of Catalhoyuk, a 9000-year-old village located in
present-day Turkey. OKAPI Island features virtual reconstructions of
the excavation site and multimedia exhibits of research data. The
Island was constructed by a team of undegraduate research apprentices
during the Spring and Fall 2007 semester. The Remixing Catalhoyuk
program includes lectures, guided tours, games, and much more. Mark
your calendars!Remixing Çatalhöyük Day Activities
(10-10:30 AM, 3-3:30 PM PST)
Guided Tours of OKAPI Island. Tours will be conducted by Ruth Tringham
(Professor of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, and Principal Investigator of
Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük) and the Remixing Çatalhöyük team.(1 – 2 PM PST)
Lecture: “Cultural Heritage Interpretive Videowalks: Moving Through
Present Past Places Physically and Virtually” Presented by Ruth
Tringham to the UC Berkeley Landscape Architecture and Environmental
Planning Colloquium and simulcast in Second Life.(2 – 4 PM PST)
Turkish Music Mix. Visit OKAPI Island, learn about Çatalhöyük and
build your own remixes in the OKAPI Island Sandbox while listening to
DJ (and UCB Anthro grad) Burcu’s eclectic mix of classical and
contemporary Turkish music.(4-5 PM PST)
Remixing Çatalhöyük Video Festival. Nine video producers will share
videos about Çatalhöyük. The Video Festival will be hosted by VJ (and
UCB Anthro grad) Colleen Morgan.(5 – 5:30 PM PST)
Remix Competition. The public is invited to use the OKAPI Island
Sandbox or Graffiti Cube to build and share reconstructions of
Catalhoyuk or “remixes” of archaeological research data. At 5pm PST,
the Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk team will review and select
top entries for virtual awards and exhibition on OKAPI Island.
Electric Archaeology 
Luckily my work computer was up to it! Despite the time difference I made it for the first tour, but sadly missed Ruth Tringham’s talk. I took loads of screen grabs if you’re interested?
I think that this sort of environment is great for experiencing the places. Though not entirely photo-realistic (you are *definitely* within a game-style environment) it gives you a better sense of the place than just from pictures. For example an idea of the scale of the mega-village was useful for me – the height of the rooms, how crowded they felt when full of our ‘tour group’, the general scale of it. One thing I’d like to see though is a reconstructed interior. So far they are empty rooms with a couple of displays on the walls. A reconstruction would give an idea of how these rooms were used and a better ‘experience’.
I would love to get some screen shots – thank you! My poor ‘intel integrated graphics’ on my toshiba can get me into SL these days, but if somebody else wanders by, then *poof* blue screen of doom. Poor lil’ computer, it tries so hard…
I like your comments about how it felt to be inside the village: it’s this experience of the interior and exterior spaces (even when rooms are not furnished) that makes virtual-reality Second Life style so much richer than a traditional archaeological VR. I’d love if the Rome Reborn people http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/ could port some of their model of Rome into SL. Roman architecture in particular was conscious of space and the manipulation of it to create certain effects – I’d love to walk around the Campus Martius to see the interplay of the open and closed spaces…