Re: [-empyre-] Virtual Construction::An Avatar Manifesto

["Melinda Rackham" <melinda@unsw.edu.au>]

greg hi..
luv the manifesto.. (have you seen michael heims one where he predicts by
2010 that we will all be living as avatars in our shelteres designed by
"avtatecture" and communicating in 3dspace ?)

im also interrested in how the avatar extends itslef beyond "strap-on
software" as you describe it .. i know you wrote this text some time ago..
and im wondering if you have further thoughts on it considering what others
are doing with avatars recently..

one example  is a work i came across  at a poster session at ISEA..
 Brainscore is performance  http://www.brainscore.org   produced by
Slovenian artists Darij Kreuh & Davide Grassi. In Brainscore, tracked eye
movements and electrical pulses from sensors attached to the head of the
user (who remains physically constrained though out the performance) control
cute blobby avatars(the audience watches thru 3d glasses..)These inputs
allows the avatars to collect data from the Internet which alters their
shape, size, location and colour over time. The changes in turn affect the
eye movements and brain functions of the user to provide a feedback loop.
the avatar actually does fill up with new data organs.. Here the avatars
coded attributes alter the users physiology making obvious the impact soft
space has through its continuum into hard space...
im starting to think of the  avatar as an Other life form..

melinda

alan wrote:
> - which I think is more-or-less what occurs with chatrooms, etc. But there
> are extensions which can be of incredible interest, at least to me. With
> Stelarc, for example, some of his recent work deals with an online avatar
> driven by expert systems that modifies Stelarc's stance/body itself - a
> not-so-distant Net will enable 'its' intelligence, of one form or another,
> to be embodied, almost as a secondary or parasitic entity, in a living
> person. Stelarc talks about remapping of the body in this regard.
>
> There are also things like the wandering Julia bots, which can be consid-
> ered software that has broken away.
>
> In my own work, 'Nikuko' is an avatar, but psychologically she 'takes
> over' in my work, as if she's speaking through me; the psychoanalytical
> processes of this internal ectoplasm are different from the usual
> projections (i.e. such as I might use in a conference or IRC chat).
>
> In other words, there's a tearing-away involved which is related to, but
> not the same as, the usual issues dealing with the future autonomy or not
> of virtual life and intelligence.
>
> Alan
>
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