Second Life Exhibit – Seeing Through Hearing

The Second Life Exhibit is a part of Mary Anne Funk’s Master’s in Multimedia Journalism Defense at the University of Oregon in Portland, Oregon. Mary Anne’s defense focused on accessibility in media and the ways in which we can share our stories across multiple platforms.

Mary Anne’s original defense was set for March 2020, however, due to social distancing measures put in place because of Covid-19, her defense was rescheduled. As a result, what was meant to be an in-person exhibit during her defense to show the use of story stations as a way to share our stories across multiple platforms, Mary Anne began the process of adapting her in-person story exhibit and immersive audio experience to Second Life with a presentation on Zoom. Second Life is a computer based virtual world platform.

Abby's Dream Journey Exhibit in Second Life — Entrance into Abby’s Dream Journey on Ethnographia Island in Second Life

Abby’s Dream Journey story exhibit in Second Life focuses on the memories that Abby Griffith has of her life before she lost her sight, the memory of the day it happened, her visual dreams that help her remember her life before she went blind, and the journey that took us back to where it all began, in Ethiopia.

Opening Information Station for Abby's Dream Journey in Second Life — Mary Anne’s digital self, Ailgif, standing in front of the information station at the beginning of the exhibit.

Visitors begin Abby’s Dream Journey at the information station in the front of the exhibit where they receive a note card introducing them to Abby’s story and the exhibit space.

After reading the note card, attendees, head to the center of the exhibit to listen to Abby’s story, Memories and Dreams .

Screen Capture from Abby's Dream Journey opening day exhibit during Mary Anne's Masters of Multimedia Journalism Defense — Attendees gather around the immersive story station that Mary Anne built in Second Life for sharing Abby’s story, “Memories and Dreams.” The immersive story station is a replica of the in person interactive story station built by Mary Anne’s husband.

Mary Anne’s digital self, Ailgif, looks at the story box that Mary Anne created in Second Life. it is a replica of the story box her husband made.

The interactive story box that Mary Anne's husband Mark created for the in-person story exhibit has headphones attached, a push button to listen to the story and a poster with braille overlay for people who are blind to read what the audio story is about. — An interactive story box was created for an in person story exhibit

After listening to Abby’s Memories and Dreams story, attendees were welcome to move around the exhibit in any way they would like to.

Message only scripts were added to all of the photos in the exhibit to provide details about the image and additional information about Abby’s story. Blind users are able to view the image through Radegast, which reads the Message only script

Mary Anne built the exhibit from the ground up with advice and support from Professor Donna Davis. iSkye, Mermaid Celene and Gentle Heron, community members from Virtual Ability, Inc and Ethnographia Island in Second Life, provided feedback and assistance to make the exhibit and story accessible to people who are blind and deaf.

an information station in the corner of Abby's Dream Journey provides in-depth information about Abby's story. — Information stands were placed throughout the exhibit to provide story content.

The exhibit in Second Life and the multimedia story online were created with accessibility in mind.

An audio button on a map provides a link to immersive sounds online that Mary Anne recorded throughout Ethiopia with binaural and ambisonic audio mics.

Sign language videos were added to the Ethiopian Sound Journey and were made possible through the University of Oregon’s Accessible Education Center and The University of Oregon’s School of Journalism.

At the top of the stairs, visitors learn about the making of Abby’s Dream Journey and about the memories that Abby and Mary Anne experienced while in Ethiopia.

Visitors can experience the interactive story in the Second Life Exhibit through August 2020

After the exhibit, Ethnographia Island is providing a Skybox to Mary Anne to create an extended exhibit. At that time, Mary Anne is going to create an interactive experience titled Seeing Through Hearing. It will include moments through Abby’s Memories and Dreams.