Reading the Avatar

Achariya T. Rezak

University of Georgia

Meet (Ms./Mr.) Achariya Maktoum Real life: Graduate Student,

UGA Second Life: Fashion Journalist

http://www.achariya.net Real life: 35 Second Life: 2 Real life: Female, human,

married. Second Life: Female or male,

human or other species, uninterested in forming in-world relationships beyond friendship.

Almost all of the photographs in this presentation are of my avatar.

Reading the Avatar

What is an avatar, and how have our notions of representing identity online changed over time?

How do you ‘read’ an avatar? What meaning can we gain from reading an

avatar? Reading images: Posing our own questions to

avatars.

What is an avatar?

“Users create digital presences, either via textual descriptions or graphical representations and all of these actions are done not just by an amorphous self in the place, but by a body imbued with certain characteristics and properties” (Taylor, 1999, p. 3).

Disembodiment

“The 'dream of disembodiment' in online spaces began with Neuromancer (1984)... in which characters 'jack in' to their computers, the body nothing but 'meat' to be discarded. When one enters cyberspace, a term coined by Gibson, one forsakes both body and place and becomes a thing of words alone” (Bury, 2006, p. 3).

What is the “body” online?

"Early researchers and observers of cyberspace co-opted these visions of cyberspace, lauding the Internet as a space where users could be totally disembodied, floating about in hallucinatory states in complete freedom, jettisoning off their real-life bodies to reconstruct themselves anew" (Thomas, 2007, p. 11).

Embodiment

The avatar helps to extend “an incorporation of the interrelationships which constitute experience into the constantly evolving body” (Thomas, 2007, p. 10).

How do you “read” an avatar?

”Language-modes ... have to be dealt with semiotically, they are now a part of the landscape of the many modes available for representation" (Kress, 2003, p. 36).

"In semiotic theory the foundational concept is that of the sign" (Kress, 2003, p. 36).

Reading avatars is part of semiotic meaning-making in online spaces

”In reading, we need now to gather meaning from all the modes which are co-present in a text, and new principles of reading will be at work. Making meaning in writing and making meaning in reading both have to be newly thought about" (Kress, 2003, p.35).

What meaning can we gain from “reading” an avatar? An understanding of identity.

"I content that identity is always about the body, and the bodily states and desires of being (the historical and natural aspects of the body), becoming (aging through the natural forces of temporality, more knowledgeable and wise as we learn and experience the world, and growing with the playing out and accomplishment of fantasies and ideals we aspire to) belonging (our set of beliefs and ideologies, and the people and groups we align ourselves with), and behaving (entering into the discourses associated with the roles we adopt across the social spheres which we inhabit). Stemming from this, then, identity is characterized by aspects of self, others, and community" (Thomas, 2007, p. 8).

The play’s the thing…

”The virtual space becomes a laboratory for the construction of identity" (Turkle, 1995, p. 184).

Wherein I'll turn an av into a king.

"When online, one's gender, culture, lifestyle, clothing, voice, body size, age and identity are no longer bound by the confines of the embodied reality. This offers liberation to many. The old can feel young, the ugly can be beautiful, the shy can be extrovert, the loner can be popular and vice-versa. Online interaction strips away many of the usual semiotics of identity, which can be limiting, yet can also be liberating and offer the opportunity to tinker and play with elements of the self" (Thomas, 2007, p. 17).

Actors in a new medium?

"Virtual realities are artificial worlds as-experienced. Like the everyday world that we take to be 'real', they are phenomenal models constructed by the mind or brain, in this case of the information fed to the sense organs by VR systems ... The human ability to represent actual states of affairs along with the ability to image or dream hypothetical or imaginary worlds is as old as human history" (Velmans, 2000, p. 57).

A close editing of the self

"identity online is about the authoring of self as a living-out of these states of being, becoming, belonging and behaving through a range of everyday social and discursive practices that are connected with the body. Yet it is also about a close editing of self .... those aspects of self chosen to be shared with the public" (Thomas, 2007, p. 9).

Reading the avatar:

What identity is projected?

How do the markings of clothing, movement, interactive parts and other modal elements create the semiotic message?

What happens when the message shifts?

What is NOT being said?

Semiotics of avatar design

“In Second Life, designers of avatar items have an internal vision of what their perfect avatar should look like. For Schadenfreude (a particular shop) the male looks perfectly made up, but in a fantastical way. The shop’s Sennyo elf skin is bedecked with doodles and a wash of color...while the lines of Schadenfreude clothing are severe, the color always adds a splash of the whimsical. I've added my own touches to this outfit (colorful tattoos, Japanese-designed hair, soft canvas shoes, bone jewelry from Studio Sidhe), but if I'd wanted to, I could've put together an entire outfit from Schadenfreude” (Rezak, 2009, para. 1).

Semiotics of avatar movement“Late last night, I stared at some poseballs that I was trying to make for my replica of Stone Henge. Poseballs come in three parts -- the physical ball, the script that powers it, and the animation that directs the body’s motion. I decided to use some AO animations, and a friend provided a script that would make it work. For some reason, the script made my Second Life body leap into the air when I typed! This looked unnatural, and I wanted it to be natural!

“I contemplated what I was trying to do. I was trying to create realistic-looking ways to sit around my stone circle garden, ways that didn't break the laws of real-world physics. Perhaps there's a literacy of space and physics that I'm attempting to touch upon here.

“I want the space to 'read' in a certain way that invites people, but only if they choose to sit, walk, and think in a respectful way. To me, this means shadowy trees, realistic meditation poses, and a place to sit and contemplate the water. But I'm not sure that my 'writing' can get through” (Rezak, para. 1-3, 2009).

Semiotics of interaction Yesterday, I sat with Subversive Writer and Nivaya and Kii on Nivaya's

swing. We swung back and forth for a while until suddenly I noticed that Subversive was glowing with red bits all over his torso and hips. "What's that?”

"My interactive parts!" Subversive said. Gleefully I began to click them, until I realized that they weren't turned on.

Sadly I dragged myself home, only to encounter this message from Niv."He's got his bits set to quack like a duck if you click then," Niv chuckled, "and they're spamming us. Look." She pasted in a bunch of quacking.

After I was done laughing, this made me ponder the following: the one thing that Second Life doesn't really have is the sense of touch. We go through enormous efforts to pretend, though, setting up interactive components that at least make you feel like you're achieving something when you touch someone” (Rezak, para. 1 - 4, 2009)

References

Bury, R. (2005). Cyberspaces of their own: Female fandoms online. New York: Peter Lang. Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. New York: Routledge. Rezak, A.T. (2009, Feb. 19). You can sail the seven seas. http://www.achariya.net. Retrieved

March 10, 2009 from http://www.achariya.net/2009/02/you-can-sail-seven-seas.html Rezak, A.T. (2009, Feb. 20). Boi Ach by Mourna. http://www.achariya.net. Retrieved March

10, 2009 from http://www.achariya.net/2009/02/boi-ach-by-mourna.html Rezak, A.T. (2009, Feb. 21). Boi Ach by Schadenfreude. http://www.achariya.net. Retrieved

March 10, 2009 from http://www.achariya.net/2009/02/boi-ach-by-schadenfreude.html Taylor, T.L. (1999). Life in virtual worlds: Plural existence, multimodalities, and other online

research challenges. American Behavioral Scientist 3(43). 436-449. Thomas, A. (2007). Youth online: Identity and literacy in the digital age. New York: Peter

Lang. Turkle, S. (1995). Constructions and reconstructions of self in virtual reality: Playing in the

MUDs. Retrieved July 19, 2007 from: http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/constructions.html Velmans, M. (2000). Understanding consciousness. London: Routledge Press.