Digital Shamanism: The Psychological Dimension of the Transworlders Paradigm
Most of us tend to ignore the deeper dimensions of being that hide beneath our mundane states of mind. It struck me today that the idea of “Transworlders” not only applies to movement between virtual worlds, but also to travel through inner worlds and states of consciousness. And even to what might be thought of [...]
Avatar as Vehicle of Enlightenment
A comment by Gwyneth Llewelyn on “The Power of Name in Post-Pseudonymous Virtual Identity” revived my interest in the avatar as a vehicle of enlightenment. Here’s my first post in what I hope will be a series of brief explorations:
The visceral experience of being embodied in an idealized form within a richly symbolic environment is a foundational Vajrayana [...]
Is Your Avatar A Parasite or a Symbiote?
Charlanna Beresford set off the latest wave of SL blogosphere discussion on the separation of avatar and human identities. The main contention of the post was that:
…the more people have to work to keep their first and second lives separate, the shorter their second life. No, I’m not talking about people who don’t divulge [...]
Transportable Avatars Today: Video Tour of Evolver and the Many Worlds
Now that the smoke has cleared a bit from last week’s intra-blog conversation about digital property, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to share some of the fun I’ve been having with Evolver. You can create avatars on their site for free and export them to other platforms including:
Wonderland
RealXtend
VastPark
FriendsHangout
Animeeple
Mixamo
Source Data for [...]
Botgirl’s Excellent Transworld Adventure
I spent some more time on Reaction Grid yesterday. Although it has a way to go before offering the features and stability of Second Life, it’s easy to see that it’s just a matter of time before OpenSim grids will be viable alternatives.
I shot some HD video that I’ll edit and post here later this [...]
Transworlders of the Worlds Unite!
I sketched this image last year to visualize a trend I was seeing in the movement of identities between worlds.
Today, avatar identities created initially in Second Life are even more widely travelled and have large, established communities on human-centric social networking and sharing sites like Ning, Facebook, Flickr and Plurk, and Virtual Worlds such as [...]
The Acceleration of Nostalgia in Virtual Life
The Second Life 365 Days project continues to catupult me into unexpected spaces, both internal and external. Unlike SL365 participants who are inworld everyday and can capture whatever they’re up to, so far every entry I’ve made has been a result of logging on specifically for the project.
Last night, I initially planned to rez my [...]
Avatars Everywhere
After playing around for a few weeks with extending myself into the Physical World, it seems the time is right for a little campaign to socialize the idea that avatars aren’t just for virtual spaces. Every campaign needs a slogan, I thought “Avatars Everywhere” expressed the concept nicely.
Here’s a draft of a video to promote [...]
Even Botgirl Gets The Blues: Overcoming Virtual World Ennui
No matter how blissful your Second Life honeymoon may be, one day you’re going to log in and notice that the magic is gone. The seemingly infinite wellspring of captivating people, places, events and projects has dried up, leaving you bored, restless and questioning the value of your digital life.
I’ve made it through a number [...]
Where Has Your Avatar Identity Travelled?
I spent much of last week sorting through old blog posts in preparation for the first “Best of Botgirl” e-book. Some of the topics I’d written about that were a bit obscure at the time (such as the impact of camping on search results and population numbers) have made their way into mainstream discussion. Some [...]
The Continuum of Human/Avatar Experience
If the ventriloquist is to be understood as controlling or at least intentional figure, the dummy is the medium for another voice, one different from the ventriloquist’s yet a voice of the ventriloquist. For now it is enough to note that the philosopher/artist is one who directs other voices but also one who opens him/herself [...]
Typist, Puppeteer and Ventriloquist as Metaphors for an Avatar’s Human Counterpart
In the pseudonymous culture of Second Life an avatar’s undisclosed human identity is often referred to as “Typist” or “Puppeteer”. Since neither of those labels ever felt right to me, I was recently intrigued by the notion of using “Ventriloquist” as an alternative metaphor. Here’s how I see the differences:
The Typist metaphor places agency within [...]
The Joy of Gonzo Scholarship
This photo show my latest “research” materials related to the Ventriloquism and Virtual Identity idea I’ve been pondering. Between these and my last few Vizthink posts, you can get a sense for the sheer joy and intellectual freedom that amateur scholarship (I can sense the real academics cringing) can foster. I invite you to join [...]
The Dance of Art, Escape and Awakening Between Worlds
If you spend enough time in a virtual world your perception will eventually shift and become imbued with a sense of reality. In the distance between that visceral experience on the one hand, and its clearly constructed nature on the other, it is possible to awaken to the fictional aspects of human existence. My question [...]
How are a Bunny and a Duck like a Fat Old Human and a Hot Young Avatar
I started working a few months ago on what I thought was a brilliant idea for a video that would be unveiled at the upcoming Ambiguity of Identity show at New Caerleon. It was going to be a morph between humans and avatars, showing extreme changes in age, gender, etc. I prowled the Creative [...]
Human, Me and Majic Makes Three (Video)
Another mind-stretching contemplation on the relationship between ventriloquism and virtual identity. I will soon post a more substantive textual missive on the topic. I promise!
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6676224&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
Botgirl and Human – Idealized and Aged
Michelle’s Hyachinth’s “Muscling in on Identity” post got me thinking about the relationship between cultural standards of beauty and identity…how we perceive ourselves and others. So I put together this little montage of idealized and aged avatars for myself and my human. (Although I’ve got to admit, I’m pretty much idealized to start with.)
I wonder [...]
Ventriloquism and Virtual Identity (Prelude)
Before I launch into a look at the connection between ventriloquism and virtual identity, here are a couple of fun clips that illustrate some of the ideas we’ll explore.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwDbd4jQpkA]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-gTb20NMdc]
Art, Avatar and Self
(Continues The Emergence and Development of Virtual Identity)
The essential questions of existence, where sentience comes from and where it goes after death, are unknown. That said, even though the full nature of our innermost essence is shrouded in mystery, we can hack pretty far into the internal and external forces that create and shape our [...]
The Emergence and Development of Virtual Identity – Introduction
from “Botgirl vs. Human 01″
Like a lobster who does not feel itself being boiled in the slowly rising temperature of a cooking pot, few humans deeply experience the dramatic shifts in their sense of self as they age over time. Of course, most adults would agree upon reflection that they are in fact very different [...]
Are virtual friends as real as physical friends?
A tweet last night asked whether virtual friends who habitually disappear for periods of time without notice are “real friends”. I suspect that is a question most readers of this blog have asked themselves. It was one of the first aspects of virtual life that I wrote about here:
Second Life friendships are more [...]
Love, Lies and Avatars
This is an unretouched screen shot from an iPhone view of Tateru Nino’s Dwell On It blog. The juxtaposition of the post title and the display ad was just too juicy to pass by without comment.
Although we dwell on being lied to by others, the most pervasive and debilitating fabrications we fall prey to [...]
