ICAM 130 Media Project 2: "Self-Medialization in Second Life"

Second Life remains a popular topic with new media artists and social scientists alike: powerful editing tools allow users the freedom to craft a vast array of virtual identities. By enabling participants to craft an avatar to their exact specifications, this program creates opportunities for insightful studies into how self-representation manifests in the virtual world as well as how these electronic projections of ourselves affect our physical lives. For the purpose of this project, I decided to create an object which would distribute copies of my “identity”. Whereas most Second Life players choose to adorn themselves with elaborate wings or anthropomorphic dog costumes, I display myself as a large, red LEGO brick. Is the simplicity and brightness of my avatar a representation of my reaction to the brooding ornate mindset of other Second Life players? Many investigations into the nature of avatars attempt to answer such questions, but I found an intriguing aspect of this project was the self-medialization of my image through other users.

To me, the most profound part of this project was my desire to have my own image disseminated across the virtual landscape. Within the physical world, we want our identities to be unique – those who attempt to imitate our “style” annoy us, despite those who insist that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In Second Life, I valued my identity and at the same time I wanted that identity to be shared amongst many other users. It almost seemed as if others adopting my image would give my avatar some sense of value or legitimacy. In her writing on media narcissism, Ursula Frohne comments on the growing preparedness of society to “actively participate offensively in the appropriation and production of reality…even if they can’t direct it completely, they can at very least actively influence the reality content” (Frohne 258). In creating the image which would represent me I appropriated a corporations product; in seeking to spread it across Second Life I would advertise that product. Ultimately, my avatar was not an expression of my own creativity rather than an admiration of someone else’s creativity. Motivated only by my own experience and desires I had come to promote a company which I had little stake in and whose profits would not directly affect me. Should we fear the encroachment of mass media into our identities turning us into walking commercials? Or do we now have the opportunity to wrest control of intellectual properties from industry, turning their products into aspects of our lives?