I know that I said I would do more stories on Burning Life. I know... I know.. but unfortunately I kept getting distracted with all the cool shiny things happening elsewhere. Add in the unscheduled down time earlier this week and several dashes of Real Life and its a recipe for missing the boat. Maybe next year I can do some better coverage of the event. My apologies.

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of going to a meeting for the Kuurdian Expedition. What the Sam Hill is that? Basically, its a group of folks that are grouped together to discuss and investigate the new synthetic worlds, virtual worlds. At the NMC ampitheatre on the in-world NMC Campus where the meeting took place, Intellagirl Tully was their guest speaker. Intellagirl is a PhD candidate at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana studying. What is interesting about this is that Intellagirl's class meets and works exclusively in Second Life.

It was my first "presentation" in a virtual world.


The talk started well enough. Intellagirl handed out a package of notes on image slides that you could reference for the presentation. The point being made was the appearances of individual avatars as forms of communication among others in the world. Much like a character created by a writer or a roleplayer, avatars communicate detailed information about the person behind them or playing them. What does this silent communication tell us about not only our communications in the real world but the virtual world as well?

In particular, I enjoyed this quote which she used to sort of kick things off. "It's important to remember that 'avatar' comes from sanskrit and it means "descend" in as a god descending into a material form and just as each of you is a person who is far more than your avatar, you have 'descended' into this world in a very particulat form for a reason. It's not a spiritual thing, persay, but a very deliberate choice."

In order to understand this a bit more thoroughly, she put us through a small experiment where those in the audience that felt comfortable enough were to take off their normal avatar skins and their clothes. We were to replace them with substitute skin textures she had given to us in the initial packet. I, of course, jumped in with both feet. What ended up happening was that, in world, we were stripped of our visual identity. I also noticed that since I have avatar names turned off, I immediately began to have a hard time remembering who was who in the discussion.



In much like a tribal way, there was discussion as to how adornment of the avatar can almost silently place someone within a certain strata of prestige within some social circles of Second Life. Some individuals at the discussion confessed to spending hours on the avatar, tweaking it and building it. I, on the other hand, had not done much at all since coming into game. I currently must be in the real cellar dwellers, the homeless rats of Second Life, since I had a basic avatar and a free account. I wonder if its the same as walking in a real world bar wearing a dirty unwashed coat, muddy shoes, and a stained shirt? Was my virtual appearance on scale to someone that hadn't showered in a few weeks?

The presentation continued and the discussion was lively. And, again, I have to gush and say I absolutely love this stuff. What is being said if one person is wearing a long-necked, purple martian outfit, another is a skeleton with a top hat, and the other appears to be a female glamour stripper looking for a good time and some fast cash? Sterotypes fall into place easily, the martian could be a sci-fi geek, the skeleton could be someone who identifies with the Goth culture, and the stripper could be a middle-aged housewife with curlers in her hair.

But, in reality, it may not be the truth. The stripper may be a guy, the long-necked martian may be a woman taking her break from her writing career, and the skeleton might just be a medical student. Appearances are perhaps a good first indicator but, just like in real life, you still have to actually talk to the person to understand the choices they have made with that appearance.

A subtle sense of that presented itself when one person attending said they had a hard time taking anyone in a furry outfit seriously because they equated the furry look to cartoon creatures. Interestingly enough, one of the attendees, quickly switched over to a furry avatar about the same time the original speaker showed her "obese woman" avatar which she had intended to use at some point to judge other people's reactions. The humor, on my side of the audience seats, went up a few notches over the entire conversation. But, right there, it pointed to the underlying points Intellagirl was discussing.

The whole talk also got me wondering if the level of self-confidence, on a deep personal level of the player with themselves and who they were in real life, had anything to do with the choice of the avatar itself? And not only that but what about a self-confidence with the operating system of the game? What if someone was REALLY sure of themselves on both levels? Would they feel complete to simply wander around the game as a single white unassuming sphere or would they have a crazy humanoid-like avatar which caused other players to gawk in awe?

Lots of questions and not alot of answers. Such is life on the frontier, eh? Regarldess, Intellagirl gave a very interesting and thought provoking presentation. I look forward to hearing more about her studies and more about how the cross-overs are happening between the real world and the virtual one.

For more information, you can check out Intelligirl Tully's webpage or head over to the Synthetic Worlds Initiative which sponsors the Kurrian Expedition which, ah-hah, I am now a member of!!!