Re: [-empyre-] Re:[-empyre-]:An Avatar Manifesto::final

[Cristiano Bianchi <cristianobianchi@yahoo.com>]

Thanks John. I also read the manifesto and had very
similar feelings, but unfortunately didn't have time
to write them down.

Hope you're well.

Best regards, Cristiano

www.keepthinking.it


 --- John Klima <klima@echonyc.com> wrote: > 
> gregory +,
> 
> i took the time to read your complete paper online,
> and forgive me, but
> for the sake of expediency, i'm gonna be blunt. your
> basic assumption
> and "call to arms," being: "take back the avatar" is
> largely flawed. it
> assumes that the avatar has been taken from "us" in
> the first place and
> this is simply not the case.  in every online
> multi-user community i've
> ever participated in, from the palace, to ultima,
> everquest, and active
> worlds, a major component of the experience has been
> the customization
> (or creation from scratch), of an online visage --
> one's avatar.  in the
> case of the palace, the user gets a complete avatar
> editing "suite." in
> online fantasy games one chooses a gender and basic
> body type
> *appropriate to the fantasy genre,* and can then
> decorate it in a manner
> they see fit. in active worlds, the avatar selection
> is limited, but
> one's avatar here becomes the very unique spaces and
> architectures one
> can build.  in all of these cases i have seen wildly
> imaginative
> manifestations of the avatar, considering the basic
> limitations of each
> platform or medium.
> 
> also, you make the dangerous assumption that all
> users of online
> communities have the inclination, desire, time, and
> skills to create a
> wholly personal, "un-commodified" representation of
> themselves, in a
> sense you are saying that we all have to create our
> own, rather than use
> an "off-the-shelf," avatar. this is not, and should
> not be, the case.
> you draw a good parallel to the clothing industry
> where consumers buy
> the label and not the garment, but not all people in
> the real world wear
> tommy hilfiger sportswear, just as not all people in
> virtual worlds don
> a barbi or ken avatar. what you are suggesting is
> the equivalent to
> requiring people to design and sew their own
> clothes.  
> 
> suggesting that those who dont have the inclination
> to sew are somehow
> being brainwashed and manipulated is really unfair,
> which brings up the
> final point i take umbrage with -- the cliched and
> worn out argument
> that it's a global capital conspiracy at the root of
> all this evil.
> somehow, the egalitarian/utopian online world is
> insidiously under
> attack from right-wing sneaker manufacturers who
> force us all to become
> nike avat-isements as part of their ubiquitous
> brainwashing campaign.
> come now, there must be better targets for activism
> and manifestos than
> online chat rooms and fantasy games, and it has not
> been since junior
> high school that i cared if i was wearing the
> correct shoe.
> 
> granted, for every creative and unique avatar i have
> seen, there are a
> dozen or more barbi and kens, but art and creativity
> are rare and
> beautiful things, just as they should be.
> 
> no offense meant, just my opinion.
> 
> best,
> j
> 
> 
> Gregory Little wrote:
> > 
> > Here is the final post of the Avatar Manifesto:
> > 
> > Also welcome are any comments on the current
> condition of the avatar, online
> > identity, viractualism, etc. are welcome!
> > I will be on the road until Tuesday night, but at
> that point will catch up
> > loose ends and respond to any new posts.
> > 
> > Images of my early avatars (1991-1995) are
> available at:
> > http://art.bgsu.edu/~glittle/avamenu.html
> > 
> > The VRML avatar generator (1996-7) at:
> > http://art.bgsu.edu/~glittle/idgene.wrl
> > 
> >
>
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > 
> > 5.0. Manifesto
> > 
> > This Manifesto is a call to artists, netomanics,
> software, hardware, and
> > wetware designers, creative directors, teachers,
> scientists, slackers,
> > hackers, CEOs, students, cyborgs, zombies,
> vampires, working groups,
> > technology officers, specialists, politicians,
> surgeons, doctors, rappers,
> > rockers, and clowns, a call to cast off the
> dumbing-down manacles of
> > wholistics, universals, boundaries,
> acceptablilities, salvations, moral
> > imperatives, family values, personal fantasies,
> dualisms, and "the God
> > trick" (Penley and Ross, 1991, 16). Let us make
> ourselves an unconsumable,
> > signifying, body without organs. The partial, the
> schizoid, the nomadic and
> > local are threats to the primacy of capital.
> Fragmentation, irregularity,
> > dissolution, hybridity, swarming, and wandering
> stubbornly are lethal
> > weapons against globalization. The displacement of
> the self by the commodity
> > insures the survival of the commodity and the
> perpetuation of the processes
> > of accumulation. The movement of capital into the
> avatar is an inevitable
> > part of capitalism's infinite return. It
> represents nothing less than the
> > wholesale loss of the possibility of liberation
> and awareness of the
> > processes of production and accumulation. The
> dominant, "universal" myths,
> > psychologies, sciences, philosophies, religions,
> and economies that form the
> > New World Order perpetuate impulse disorder
> through the abhorrence of
> > partiality and the resultant movement outward
> toward the object of capital
> > in the guise of the illusion of wholeness. We have
> come to believe that we
> > are imperfect, incomplete creatures and that
> completion, oneness, and
> > wholeness is the Goal. It is this argument that
> permits the inscribing of
> > production across consciousness at the expense of
> tolerance, difference, and
> > free desire. We are partial, parts of a network of
> drifts. We slip across a
> > curved matrix whose beginning is everywhere, whose
> center is nowhere, and
> > whose diameter is infinite. We are unable to
> perceive a whole or pattern, we
> > participate and form tendencies. We can connect
> and disconnect from desire's
> > conduit without risk or loss, there is nothing to
> measure or acquire.
> > Through the dismantling of the neurosis of the
> individual, alienated self,
> > the celebration of locality and partiality, and
> the unbinding of our
> > consciousness from dilemmas of bifurcation, the
> lust for uniformity, and the
> > impulse disorders of lack-based desire; we can
> experience "a joy that is
> > immanent to desire as though desire were filled by
> itself and its
> > contemplations, a joy that implies no lack or
> impossibility and is not
> > measured by pleasure since it distributes
> intensities of pleasure and
> > prevents us from being suffused by anxiety, shame,
> and guilt" (Deleuze and
> > Guattari , A Thousand Plateaus, 155). At present
> our collective social body
> > is paralyzed by loss. Like an amputee dreaming
> about a phantom limb we
> > re-remember our irrevocable body, we hallucinate
> its presence, long for its
> > return, wait to wake up from the nightmare. We
> must move on from the
> > bifurcating past and build a new body.
> > 
> > 5.1. Imaging Wildcards
> > [Figure 2. Composite]
> > The avatar signifies through the visual as an
> image. As postmodern artwork,
> > the avatar signifies in a public sphere (the Web),
> is 
=== message truncated === 

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