Well, we are being strongly urged to get on the case with our dissertations, and having recently handed in a proposal and abstract that is certainly the case. The idea i have been focusing on is the Avatar.
The working title i am going with for the moment is ‘How does the increased reliance on avatars as a means for personal representation on the web affect human interactive behaviour?’. Pretty heavy, but i find its an interesting question, and with the real boom in digital interaction in mainstream internet use, i could draw some interesting insights and projections for the future of the avatar.
The Avatar, which i am defining as a repesentation of the self in a digital space, allows users to project an identity of themselves to others. When people interact and meet in the real world, they immediately judge and form opinions on whoever they are interacting with. This ‘first reponse’ system uses many aspects to gauge someones personality, from body language, posture, speech, dress sense and many other factors to form opinions on they are interacting with.
When interacting with in the digital space, senses are limited to sound and vision to gauge who a person is. How can we decode someones avatar? Have basic instincts that help us form impressions of others become redundant? Do we as a society need to develop new ways to gauge others, a new set of skills to help us establish who we interact with?
This is what i plan to explore in my disseration, and the next deadlines are already looming fast, so it is imperative that i get on it! I will be looking into the work of Gilles Deleuze, a french philosopher who explored the notion of a ‘body without organs‘, and the virtual self.
Tags: prid301