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[Image: Actor Liam Neeson poses for a portrait prior to the press conference to announce the 2012 European Tour of Jeff Wayne's musical version of War Of The Worlds New Generation (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)]

Liam Neeson joins War of the Worlds musical as hologram

By Tim Masters Entertainment and arts correspondent, BBC News
18 November 2011

Liam Neeson is to appear as a 3D hologram in a new version of Jeff Wayne’s long-running The War of the Worlds musical.

The actor takes over the narrator role from Richard Burton, whose holographic head has appeared in the show since it began touring in 2006.

The Northern Irish star said he was “very flattered” to take on the part.

Burton’s narration had been taken from Jeff Wayne’s original 1978 double album, which has sold some 15m copies.

The cast on the original recording included David Essex, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott and Julie Covington.

In a new element to the production, Neeson’s holographic character will appear interacting with the live performers on stage.

The show, based on HG Wells’ classic science fiction novel, tells the story of a Martian invasion of Victorian England. Read more on Liam Neeson joins War of the Worlds musical as hologram…

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Lisa Frank’s wide open art cave

By Karin Wolf, Art City contributor
Dec. 16, 2011

If you have lived even a few decades, you know the excitement that comes with technological advances that change your assumptions about reality. Photographer Lisa Frank’s master’s thesis exhibition “<1>: “der” //Pattern for a Virtual Environment” takes viewers right through such a gateway to the future.

To experience Frank’s wonder cave one must pass through three security clearance checkpoints and descend deep into the underbelly of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (WID). After passing glass enclosed research labs and sci-fi like computer equipment, one eventually arrives on site, ready to contemplate perception, reality, illusion. Read more on Photographer Lisa Frank’s exhibition uses 3D CAVE to blur lines between art and technology…

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“Hello Avatar: Rise of the Networked Generation,” by B. Coleman

By Alex Shakar, Published: December 16

In his recent cri de coeur, “You Are Not a Gadget,” technologist Jaron Lanier laments the course the World Wide Web has taken in its second decade. Far from the early visions of cyberspace and jacking into virtual worlds without end, he tells us, we’ve been given a flat world of information, an airless zoo where we find ourselves in the cages. We reduce ourselves to “multiple-choice identities” on social networks and give away our precious content for nothing, to be profited from by aggregators, advertisers and corporate conglomerates. The biggest losers online are artists, journalists, scientists and other creative thinkers, he writes, but to a lesser extent it’s all of us, except for the one-percenters at the top who profit from the Web’s “free” architecture. And, since it’s just plain dull out there on the Web, we’re getting the short end aesthetically as well.

In her new book, “Hello Avatar,” artist and media theorist B. Coleman looks at the same virtual terrain and sees, rather than impoverishment and imaginative constriction, increasing personal agency, and even fulfillment. First of all, she’d like us to get over the word “virtual,” coining the term “X-reality” (or cross-reality) to get at the way that our online experiences are actual and empowering. And we find this empowerment, she writes, thanks to our avatars. Read more on Review: “Hello Avatar: Rise of the Networked Generation” by B. Coleman…

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[Image: Drone pilots are fighting a war from the safety of bases in the U.S., but are confronting some of the same wartime stresses as their comrades on the battlefield. Damian Dovarganes/AP.]

Report: High Levels Of ‘Burnout’ In U.S. Drone Pilots

by Rachel Martin
December 19, 2011

Around 1,100 Air Force pilots fly remotely piloted aircraft – or drones. These planes soar over Iraq or Afghanistan but the pilots sit at military bases back in the United States.

A new Pentagon study shows that almost 30 percent of drone pilots surveyed suffer from what the military calls “burnout.” It’s the first time the military has tried to measure the psychological impact of waging a “remote-controlled war.”

The report, commissioned by the U.S. Air Force, shows that 29 percent of the drone pilots surveyed said they were burned out and suffered from high levels of fatigue. The Air Force doesn’t consider this a dangerous level of stress.

However, 17 percent of active duty drone pilots surveyed are thought to be “clinically distressed”. The Air Force says this means the pilots stress level has crossed a threshold where it’s now affecting the pilots’ work and family life. A large majority of these pilots said they’re not getting any counseling for their stress level. Read more on Report: High levels of ‘burnout’ in U.S. drone pilots…