By definition, an avatar is an incarnation, embodiment, or manifestation of a person or idea. This definition, as archaic as it may be, still rings true in today’s newfound application of the avatar. Today the avatar describes a computer-generated identity of a person. Servers such as Second Life give people the opportunity to move beyond the analog and navigate cyberspace independent of who they are in the real world. In Second Life you can create an avatar and have that avatar navigate the Second Life world, which is just that: a life second to your real one. While avatars seem like a waste of time or just a means of entertainment, they can in fact have larger implications and impact “real-world” culture in a positive, meaningful way.
Second Life has been described as a utopian society because the avatars that exist in that world interact respectfully. In a blog post for the CMU Cox School of Business, Jennifer Warren writes, “For some the avatar represents a part of them…for others, their avatar reflects their aspirations – themselves but more confident and assertive.”[1] Here Warren alludes to the transformation people undergo when they channel the best of themselves through an avatar. There is something about the anonymity that an avatar provides that allows the person controlling the avatar to be uninhibited. Warren continues, “Others view their avatar as their truer self, that is, the person that would emerge if the social stigma associated with weight, race or physical disabilities were removed.”[2] This assertion is vastly intriguing since it implies racial or any other physical discrimination that takes place in the real world actually disappears in the cyber world.
This phenomenon occurs due to the fact that avatars are already assumed to be fictitious representations of people’s personalities, not people’s actual physical appearance. With this in mind, people create a second identity through their avatar that is grounded in personality and not appearance. Second Life and RPG (role play games) are so successful because all social pressures or stigmas are lifted and people interact with one another purely and honestly. On the other hand, Jennifer Gonzalez would argue that social detriments such as racism are not solved but rather subdued since people still design avatars based on racial assumptions.[3] This is certainly valid considering most of the users are Caucasian males who can afford to pay for their avatar, meaning there isn’t significant representation from women or other races to prove discrimination vanishes entirely in the cyber world. Yet, what’s important here is the fact that avatars are aspirational creations, and once you’re a part of Second Life or play an RPG you are accepted for who you are, not what you are.
Artists such as Cao Fei use Second Life or the idea of avatars to bring people together and foster communication. Cao Fei has created a city of her own that is both idealized and realistic – it is a fantastically constructed world but in it people interact meaningfully. Avatars by their nature give people the chance to reinvent themselves. With the creation of an avatar, one can exist in both worlds and either let the two lives merge or exist independent of one another. Either way, the use of an avatar can influence the way people see themselves, others, and the real world at large, and maybe even inspire us to bring the best of ourselves out of the digital world and into the real world, to make a change for the better.
[1] Warren, Jennifer. “What It Means to Be an Avatar: A Study of Second Life – Faculty Research @ SMU Cox.” MBA, BBA and Executive Education from Dallas’ Premier Business School @ SMU Cox. SMU Cox School of Business, 16 Mar. 2010. Web. 07 Dec. 2011.<http://www.cox.smu.edu/web/guest/faculty-research/-/blogs/what-it-means-to-be-an-avatar:-a-study-of-second-life?_33_redirect=/web/guest/faculty-research>.
[2] Same as footnote 1.
[3] Gonzalez, Jennifer. “The Face and the Public: Race Secrecy, and Digital Art Practice.” Camera Obscura 70, Volume 24, Number 1. Duke University Press: 2009. P. 37
Inside the Anthill 