Second Life (SL) is a center for distance learning, a coming together for like-minded people who represent themselves with an Avatar. Real Life (RL) people use SL for many reasons, to blow off steam, meet new people, fulfill fantasies and it all comes down to their Avatar.
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| The Avatar of Atlantis Jewell, October 23, 2011 |
Why do you look the way you do in SL? I know personally that I took some character's out of my creative writings and made a prequel to my writings and made my Avatar a Blue Sky Elf... after all I reasoned, I am human in Real Life and have spent many years wishing I was of another race or at the very least someone else! I certainly couldn't imagine anyone wanting to be human in their Second Life!
Gracie Kendal is an artiste in Real Life and in Second Life and she is works on her art too. Her project explores online anonymity, which turned into a documentation of Second Life Avatars. I participated in the project and am very excited about seeing the published works in SL and RL!
She explains it better then I: "What started out as a set of 100 portraits to help illustrate the idea of online anonymity, has turned into a sort of documentation of avatars in SL. There are so many questions I have been asking myself and ideas I have been pondering throughout this whole process, especially on the idea of online identity.”
“Like many of my other projects, I started out with one idea: to take portraits of avatars facing away from me. That was it, pure and simple. I had the idea that I wanted them to be unrecognizable, their faces hidden, just another level of anonymity in SL vs. RL. I plan on printing some if not all of these portraits out in RL for an eventual show in a gallery as well as publishing a book.”
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| Front view, Atlantis Jewell |
“Our online identity has become a way of life for millions of people around the world. Not just in Second Life, but on many internet sights you go to. When you look on Facebook or Twitter, how many post pictures of their children or pets? Pictures of places they have visited, cartoon characters they love, logos of their business, landscapes, art, and anything else they find from their lives that they want to represent their identity online.”
"This is our avatar. I write about the avatar in my thesis."
"I think it’s important to begin with an explanation of what avatars and Second Life are; Sean Egen explains that ‘Avatar’ derives from the Sanskrit word Avatara, which literally translates as ‘descent,’ specifically, a deliberate descent by a god into the land of mortals. In Hinduism, an avatar is the bodily manifestation of immortal beings… Many who use avatars today are literally approaching it from the point of view that their avatar represents their ‘incarnation’ into the internet.” In contemporary culture, an avatar is our virtual representation.
"Most people are familiar with avatars through video games. In World of Warcraft(TM), for example, players create avatars then customize their appearance. People also use avatars as icons in instant messaging applications, social networking websites like Facebook(TM) and Twitter(TM) and through their email programs. Avatars are also represented in film and other forms of media. Max Headroom (1986) is an early manifestation of an avatar. The British virtual band Gorillaz (2006) is made up of cartoon figures representing its real life band members. Movies such as Tron (1982), The Lawnmower Man (1992), The Matrix (1999) and Avatar (2009) give examples within the plots of alternate realities in which the person has an alter ego or other persona: an avatar."
"Besides the practical reasons for having an avatar, there are many psychological reasons. Because avatars offer anonymity, people use them as a way to escape reality. In his book I, Avatar, Mark Stephen Meadows discusses how people use avatars as masks. “We are more inclined to reveal ourselves when we use our avatars. We’re more inclined to reveal what we want, dislike, and think. But in a world where information is more important than physical proximity, we are not as safe as we might assume… After all, the word persona originally meant, in ancient Greek, ‘mask.’ Not as in a thing that hides your face, but one that shows what is truly underneath.”
"SL offers people the freedom to explore changing identity dynamics. Experimentation is welcome. It is a safe environment which allows unlimited freedom to express oneself and consider boundaries/barriers that aren’t readily accepted in the physical world. “Computer screens are becoming the new location for our fantasies… The immateriality of cyberspace dissolves not only space and time, but our identities as well. For some this is a frightening prospect, for others perhaps the beginnings of a new empowerment.”
“The portraits I am taking have become a documentation of the lives of hundreds of people who to me are fearless. These people (yes I say people, because no matter how we represent ourselves online, we are all people on the other side of the computer) put themselves out there into the brave new world of virtual environments as explorers, searching for anything and everything. They are amazing, creative, soulful people who I am so honored to have in my project."
"Each portrait represents a different personality, a singular life. Each person has a story to tell, a life to live. Does it matter if we know what these stories are? Does it matter if we know who is on the other side of the computer?"
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| Close up of Atlantis Jewell |
From my personal experience, you do indeed reveal more of yourself then you would ever dream of to a complete stranger that you just met all because you feel secure behind your avatar.
Sometimes you are more honest because you are introspective of your Real Life because Second Life allows you to take a step back from RL and can objectively see things that the "noise" in RL sometimes prevents!
Many SLers have avatars called Alts or alternative identities. I have about five or six Alts, but play exclusively with my Atlantis Jewell identity! SLers make new identities for many different reasons, to have affairs, to start over, to evade undesirable "friends", to explore childhood again, to name a few.
I have one for creating "human" clothing so the dimensions of my avatar matches other avies. I also have a Drow, mermaid, demon/vampire, and I have had fun exploring with all of them and I can't remember all the names of my alts! What is your online face? Why did you choose your avatar? For every avie in SL, I believe there is a story to be told.
Gracie Kendal is telling that story! I urge you to go and see her on the Coyote sim, "Environment for Creative Minds."
Our avies are our ultimate works of art, they represent who we are at a primal level! I found my shape first and had it professionally tweaked and then I found my hair, but it took me six months to find a skin maker to do my skin and a couple of redos to finish it, and then magic happened!
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