Fitting into the category of an augmentative Second Life user, most of my discussions with various Second Life communities were not particularly welcomed. Acknowledging my position of ‘researcher’ and the space I occupied within Second Life, I decided on using my real name and keeping my avatar design as close to my real self as possible- it was important that I was honest about my intentions as an explorer or researcher of this virtual space and that I fully respected the communities within it. Despite this, my engagement as entirely augmentative came across as disingenuous to a lot of serious Second Life users. It appeared to me that some users did not want to acknowledge that they were ‘playing’ a game, engaging with the virtual space in an entirely immersive way. I came up against a lot of troll culture when confessing my position as a researcher, with many proceeding to kick me out of various environments and rooms. Unfortunately, these players did not agree to be filmed and therefore have no footage of these specific encounters.

MY SECOND LIFE EXPERIENCE

It is important here to consider the various different kinds of engagement:

Dissociative: Entertainment only
Immersive: The virtual avatar as an extension of the self
Augmentative: Engaging with the game for a real life purpose

From my own game-play over the last few months, I found a mixture of dissociative and immersive players. According to one long-term member dressed in a Pingu costume, most players only using Second Life only for a ‘nice chat’. ‘Pingu’ also interestingly explained to me that he usually dressed as his ‘rl’ brother, a prolific doctor and professor - not because he was ‘jealous or frustrated, just for the fun’. Throughout our conversation, we constantly had to define whether he was referring to something in his ‘rl’ (real life) or in ‘sl’ (Second Life).

I journeyed through all types of virtual spaces, on the look out for interesting visuals, or quite frankly, as much absurd and strange spectacle as possible. Despite Second Life’s strange sexual motivations, and fictional fire-breathing creatures, I mostly experienced an element of nostalgia. The datedness of the platform and clunky 2003 graphics felt closer to that of cyberpunk’s future as imagined in the 90s than to the contemporary social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram or Twitter where you are encouraged to portray the ‘real’ you. It said a lot about the utopian dream that came with the early stages of internet culture, one that perhaps still lingers today.

But, do we not put on avatars or ‘get into character’ in our every days lives? Second Life or new VR Second Life platform, Sansar, are just honest and transparent about it.

Our understanding of Butler’s theory of identity performativity is helpful here. Though she mainly focuses on gender performativity, her theory grounds itself in the concept of identity and subjectivity as an ongoing process of becoming as oppose to an ontological state of being. Where her theories appear important for the study of virtual identity construction is in extending the idea of performance from the body and into the online realm. Her discontentment with the term gender or identity as a rigid noun, in parallel with Second Life’s appreciation of all kinds of self-designed humans/creatures, opens doors for the admiration of the instability of boundaries. As eloquently stated by the Xenofemism manifesto: technology gives us the chance to contest biology as destiny.

Above is an film experiment that I made in Second Life. Throughout this practise based research of Second Life, I came up against a lot of ethical issues with regards to filming and using footage for creative purposes. I took this up with the university research committee who agreed that this may be an instance that cannot be 100% aligned with the regular procedure for research ethics. Questions surrounding whether the people I had spoken to, or filmed were considered real people came up - their avatars may or may not be true to their real self, and names are almost always different. This in itself is very reflective of the era and the challenges it encompasses. This interplay between machine and human, real and virtual is interesting here. I encouraged myself to think about the ethical dimensions of the work, and ensure that I was not breeching any rules regarding consent. I found the process of filming in Second Life really strange. It was difficult to get a hang of the controls in order to position the camera correctly. This short piece reflects the laggy quality of Second Life, and explores the different spaces and communities within it. The sound was created by cutting up the contact mic work I did previously and reordering each sample. I like the human aspect of the contact mic recordings, and how it juxtaposes my digitalised Second Life avatar. I also added other human samples such as the breathing and clicking that runs throughout.

I really like the idea of making an audio-visual piece, though I found filming in Second Life too difficult with its clunky controls and lagging graphics. I would like to explore different ways of creating sound and visual to reflect the human/machine relationship - perhaps through some kind of 3D animation or a programme similar to the Ganbreeder app that I have explored previously. Something about creating the characters and virtual spaces myself feels relevant and exciting.