[-empyre-] Audience Spectatorship and Participatory Avatar Identities

[Kathy Cleland <kathy.cleland@arts.usyd.edu.au>]

Online role-playing games and virtual worlds like Second Life offer very 
different types of spectatorial identification than is possible for film 
and television viewers. These new interactive screen spaces act as 
'portals' allowing us to become a part of the media image rather than 
just watching it. Because of the participatory nature of these new 
virtual media arenas, players can literally inhabit and become a screen 
character in their own right rather than just imaginatively identifying 
with their on-screen heroes. All of a sudden, we're not just spectators 
watching our screens, we're active participants and performers. In the 
digital age, we are entering the screen…

Through our avatar bodies we can recreate ourselves as 'actors' or 
characters on the virtual stage. The avatar becomes our virtual 
prosthesis allowing us to enter and interact in the virtual media space. 
I suspect that this is the key appeal of these new spaces – the ability 
to act and perform rather than just watch. And of course, in our media 
and celebrity-driven culture, the promise of being visible on the 
virtual screen is very seductive, particularly when you can be whoever 
you want to be (or at least look like them).

But what is our relationship with these new avatar bodies? How closely 
do we actually identify with our online avatars? How much is our sense 
of self as well as our subjectivity and agency transmitted into and 
distributed through our virtual avatar bodies? How much are we affected 
in turn by what happens to our avatars?

Obviously, users' levels of identification with their avatars varies 
depending on different contexts and motivations, so I'd like to ask the 
participants of this forum about their own experiences of constructing 
and performing their avatar identities in Second Life.

So here are a few questions …

Is your avatar basically a facsimile of your real world identity? - 
maybe a bit younger and a bit better looking ;)
Or is it a more transformative idealised identity or fantasy alter ego?
Or is it a 'character' that you are playing?
Do you have a variety of visual identities for your avatar (or more than 
one avatar) or do you stick to one basic identity?

How closely do you identify with your SL avatar?
Is it a second self with whom you closely identify? Or is it more like a 
virtual puppet (or action doll) that you can manipulate and mess around 
with? Or is it just a vehicle that allows you to move around in the 
virtual environment, as Edward Castronova suggests?

I’ll post again soon talking about my own thoughts and experiences, but 
I'm curious to hear what others have to say...

Kathy

--

Lecturer, Digital Cultures Program

S316, John Woolley Building A20

University of Sydney

phone: + 61 2 93514721

mobile: 0411 474 551

www.arts.usyd.edu.au/digitalcultures