Ratava's line: Emergent learning and design using collaborative virtual worlds

Ratava's Line is an online, 3D virtual world fashion and interactive
narrative project created collaboratively by students at both the
Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City and at
Interactive Arts at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver,
Canada, using emergent, collaborative 2D and 3D systems. This
distance learning project, developed over two months and
culminating in an online event in multiple, remote locations,
integrated three key design elements: the translation of original 2D
fashion designs from FIT students into 3D avatar space; exhibits of
artwork of student and professional artists from New York City and
Vancouver in virtual galleries; and creation of an interactive
narrative "fashion cyber-mystery" for online users to participate in
and solve in a culminating, cyber-physical event. The overall
project goal was to explore how online collaboration systems and
virtual environments can be used practically for distance learning,
fashion and virtual worlds design, development of new marketing
tools including virtual portfolios, and creation of cross cultural
online/physical events. The result of this process was an
interdisciplinary, cross-institutional, international effort in
collaborative design in virtual environments, and a successful
exercise in emergent, collaborative distance learning. © ACM, 2004. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, page 25. (2004). http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1186107.1186136