KAMLOOPS – The real world will be virtually at your fingertips next week as the Small Cities Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) researchers at TRU present “Imaging Place Second Life: Kamloops British Columbia,” a free workshop and exhibition of KAMLOOPS – based research presented in a 3D virtual world, created by CURA researcher John Craig Freeman using Second Life, a 3-D world that extends the concept of immersive environments beyond gaming.

“Our interest in virtual communities complements our ongoing research into the cultural life of small cities,” says CURA Director Will Garrett-Petts. “Virtual worlds like Second Life extend the boundaries of small cities and small towns.”

The public is invited to the TRU campus on Friday, Jan. 26 when researchers and others will gather in Room 1010 in TRU’s International Building at 2 pm to experience Second Life, a user-created world defined by the activities of its “residents” within a virtual “meta-verse” developed and made publicly available by a California company, Linden Labs.

Kamloops exhibition tour guide is Dan O’Reilly of TRU’s Philosophy Department. Those wishing to interact via their own laptops will need to download the latest version of QuickTime, create their own avatar by going to Second Life and registering with them (there is no cost to joining and obtaining an avatar), and then teleport to the site in Second Life: directions will be given once you arrive. A large screen display will be provided for those attending without their own laptops. For more info about the exhibit, call 828-5248.

For more information, please contact Will Garrett-Petts at 250-828-5248 or go to: www.smallcities.ca