Marc Owens
Avatar Machine
The virtual communities created by online games have provided us with a new medium for social interaction and communication. Avatar Machine is a system which replicates the aesthetics and visuals of third person gaming, allowing the user to view themselves as a virtual character in real space via a head mounted interface. The system potentially allows for a diminished sense of social responsibility, and could lead the user to demonstrate behaviors normally reserved for the gaming environment.
Virtual Transgender Suit
Silicone Ruber / Paper Card
2008
Online virtual worlds are increasingly becoming a platform for gender exploration. Research shows that 50% of female characters, that exist within virtual spaces, are actually played by men.Virtual Transgender Suit replicates the aesthetics of the typical virtual female form and reproduces them within a real world context. The piece was specifically designed for men to wear in the real world, creating a bridge between real and virtual.
Sabre & Mace
Digitally produced - Second Life
2008
Sabre & Mace is a company that offers a unique service created for the online environment of Second Life. The service provides virtual characters the opportunity to experience death as a way to close their user account permanently. The project examines the notion of feeling sentimental toward a virtual character and examines the link between sentimentality and tangibility.Our research showed that a great deal of second life residents have multiple avatars. One guy who we spoke to had 14. He said that he used a many of them as platforms for different sides of his real life personality, and for others he invented entirely new fantasy personalities. However he admitted that some of his created avatars had fallen by the wayside and he no longer used them.
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