A Mini-Rant on Privacy and Identity
One of the peculiarities of the electronic environment is that people become so profoundly involved in each other that they lose that sense of private identity. Marshal McLuhan
The future McLuhan saw germinating in the late 1960s is growing like a weed today within the electronic garden of pervasive social networking. The identities we once fashioned [...]
Pseudonymity is Hard: Why Your Secret Virtual Identity Has Never Been Safe.
While I reveled in a year of high-profile virtual pseudonymity, the human behind the scenes often felt like a fugitive. Constant vigilance was required to mitigate the risks of inadvertently revealing clues online that would connect the two identities. One slip and the game could be over.
It doesn’t take the proactive work of hackers or [...]
How can we be “who we are” by hiding “what we are”?
Image by Anonymitts used under Creative Commons License
A comment on yestersday’s post got me thinking:
Complaints about people not being who they “really” are, or having a name or identity different from their “real” selves are just admitting that SL just doesn’t go far enough, yet. We’re still not able to self-actualize fully. We’re still pinned [...]
Mixed Reality International Art Exhibition Will Focus on Ambiguity of Identity
(shot of planning meeting yesterday)
After almost a year of conceptual incubation, we’re finally breaking (virtual) ground on the mixed-reality “Ambiguity of Identity’ Exhibition in preparation for an April 7th opening. The multi-artist show will be housed in a new “Museum of Transworld Identity” which will cover an entire Second Life Sim. The exhibition will be [...]
Thoughts on How The Avatar Film Relates to Avatars in Virtual Worlds
The role of the artist is to create an anti-environment as a means of perception and adjustment. Without an anti-environment, all environments are invisible. Marshall McLuhan
We cannot escape subjectivity. Our perception is inherently bound by limited points of view. We are fundamentally most blind to the pervasive psychological and cultural environment in which we swim like [...]
Virtual World as Mandala
The image on the left depicts how a business person might view virtual worlds. The one on the right is my interpretation of virtual worlds as seen by post-humanists.
Our perception of the world is the reflection of our own state of mind. That is why different people can view the same external events and come [...]
Pseudonymity, Separatism and Multidimensional Thinking
There have been a couple of very interesting conversations going on over the last few days related to two blog posts on the topic of human and avatar identity:
“Pseudonynimity AKA Privacy” by Soror Nishi decried what she sees as a growing consensus in the avatar community that revealing one’s human identity is a good thing. [...]
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 [...]
Best of Botgirl 01 E-Book Available: Avatar and Human Identity
Best of Botgirl 01: Identity http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=22230379&access_key=key-2djlk0h2rxv59ae4bdod&page=1&version=1&viewMode=list
Getting Back to the Ventriloquism Thread – Art and Artist
After slight detour, I’m back on ventriloquism and virtual identity path, reading The Origin of the Work of Art by Martin Heidegger. Please note that the circle you see in this image was created entirely within your mind.
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 [...]
Pseudonymity, Disclosure and Activity
Here are a few more sketches from my VizThink session last week. I started out trying to develop my thoughts on the ventriloquism/virtual identity relationship. I ended up focusing more on pseudonymity and the development of emotional closeness.
The first chart imagines a relationship that begins pseudonymously in a virtual world and eventually extends to the [...]
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 [...]
Botgirl Sneaks Into The Physical World (Video)
Video sketch of an idea I’ve been romancing.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6505408&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
