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

[John Klima <klima@echonyc.com>]

Melinda Rackham wrote:
> 
> john ..
> youve reemerged form the code swamp.. :)

yeah, it feels good :)

> 
> re ken and barbi and fashion design..
> seems in 3d space we are still working on the Snowcrash template of social
> heirarchy :::
> 
> "Brandy and Clint are both popular off-the-shelf models. 

ah yes, thats it, "Brandy and Clint," couldn't remember the names, but
that was what i was refering to.
 

> shouldn't everyone have the opportunity to have sophisticated design
> not just the elite artist/programmer/wealthy person who gets a professional
> custom design job..?

sure, and folks can be 12 legged robots if they want, but not in a
swords+spells fanatsy game. there are some things that are appropriate
for a specific genre and some not. in an all-in-one mud like
activeworlds, anything can, and does, go. in the new online version of
the sims, which i havn't played yet, both robots and fantasy figures are
somewht unappropriate, but not entirely. its just a matter of time
before 12 legged robots are commonplace in the suburbs, and there are
plenty of people who don wizard cloaks and chainmail for a friday night
on the town. but this is tangential to the subject at hand.

regardless of the theme of a mud, certainly everyone should have the
opportunity to have sophisticated design.  however, sophisticated design
takes TIME, and time, as well as good design, should be compensated for
(at least until such a time when the need for a salary does not exist,
and i'm not holding my breath). so sophisticated design comes down to
either paying for it, or doing it yourself, and many many people have no
time or desire or skill to do it themselves. thus brandy and clint.
however, the existance of a brandy and a clint does not preclude the
existance of a hiro protagonist.

best,
j



> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Klima" <klima@echonyc.com>
> To: <empyre@imap.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 4:53 AM
> Subject: [-empyre-] Re:[-empyre-]:An Avatar Manifesto::final
> 
> >
> > 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 a social
> > > representation that can be both target and weapon. The postmodern artist
> is
> > > less a producer of rarified objects than a manipulator of visual codes,
> > > social signs, and media images (Foster, 1985). Particular kinds of
> marks,
> > > styles, images, and forms have come to signify modes of expression or
> > > feeling, like the spiritual, the personal, the expressive, the exotic,
> and
> > > high or low culture. These elements form a system of signs, tropes, or
> codes
> > > for the artist to manipulate and combine. The social and virtual context
> of
> > > the Web distances the artist entirely from the production of the
> corporeal
> > > art object and frees her for the activity of coding/recoding. This
> activity
> > > often gives attention to the particular institutional framework or site
> in
> > > order to reveal how an exhibition context participates in the
> construction
> > > of the meaning and audience of the art object. The signifying avatar
> will
> > > take a resistant, reactive position relative to its institutional
> context,
> > > the commodified Web. The strategies available to the avatar include: 1)
> the
> > > freedom of choice of self-image and the lack of need for consensus
> relative
> > > to self imaging; this frees the avatar from any singular representation
> and
> > > opens the individual to a plurality of possibilities; 2) an emphasis on
> > > radical embodiment, on all that is the literal body, and on all that it
> is
> > > to be grounded in the body at the expense of social, biological,
> cultural,
> > > economic, psychoanalytic, and religious discourse; this can free the
> > > individual from lack-based desire and myths of wholeness and
> transcendence
> > > that cause us to abandon the body to rehabitation by capital; and 3)
> drawing
> > > from various alternative narratives of abjection, the alien, and the
> other;
> > > this can offer us visual and procedural models for constructing
> unconsumable
> > > images.
> > > To combine visual codes, signifying signs, and social images into
> avatars
> > > that take a combative stance toward the forces of capital:
> > > 1. Seek, rarify, and valorize disintegration and instability
> > > [Figure 3. Photoshop]
> > > 2. Resist unified identity relative to race, gender, age, human, animal,
> or
> > > machine
> > > [Figure 4. Satyr]
> > > 3. Refuse participation in wholeness and actively dismantle myths of
> > > transcendentalism
> > > [Figure 5. Garth]
> > > 4. Create tensions and conflicts through the simultaneous presentation
> of
> > > the desiring subject and the fetishized object of desire [Figure 6. The
> > > Enforcer] 5. Draw from narratives of abjection, the alien, and the other
> > > [Figure 7]
> > > 6. Pierce the skin, do the taboo, show the insides, destroy the
> > > internal/external binary
> > > [Figure 8. The Clown]
> > > 7. Refuse the temptation to succumb to the slick, seamless special
> effects
> > > of emergent technology
> > > [Figure 9]
> > > 8. Avoid personal or social fantasy, step out of bounds, lose your
> > > boundaries altogether
> > > [Figure 10. Dolly]
> > > 9. Avoid mystery, make analysis of the unconscious impossible, be hyper
> > > literal
> > > [Figure 11]
> > > 10. Use images that speak of hyperembodiment, of extremes of
> physicality,
> > > like the visceral, the abject, the defiled, and the horrific
> > > [Figure 12]
> > > The avatar offers a new territory for understanding ourselves. Let us
> > > construct the avatar as a revolutionary site of resistance inside the
> belly
> > > of an armed-to-the-teeth multinational monster of exchange. Polymorphic,
> > > bi-gendered, unstable nomadic, pained and maimed representations of the
> self
> > > as subject could act, in Donna Haraway's terms, as "trickster figures,"
> > > "potent wild cards" to undermine, infect, and terrorize the monster from
> the
> > > inside out. The avatar is thus born of the dialectic of the body
> > > simultaneously as the idealized, commodified body of capital; and as the
> > > abject, transgressive, hyper-visceral embodied body. This is a call to
> build
> > > avatars, computers, images, discourses, and relationships that refuse
> and
> > > subvert the "self exterminating impulses of the discourses of
> disembodiment"
> > > (Sobchack 314). This is a call to joy, the joy of mortality, partiality,
> and
> > > finality; a call to the lived body of desire.
> > >
> > > Works Cited
> > >
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> > >
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