Botgirl's Second Life Diary

"Naturalized" Photo and Video Depict Integration of Virtual and Physical Worlds

noreply@blogger.com (Botgirl Questi) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:45:08 PST

The photo above is the latest in a series of images and videos shot with an iPhone. These naturalized images take me into a physical world setting without any green screen tricks to fake my placement in a physical world environment. Outside of clean-up to fix color balance and some minor air-brushing, what was there is pretty much what you get.

Although it's been fairly experimental so far, in weeks ahead you'll see me extending the concept of naturalized stills and videos into a number of human settings... participating in discussions around the family dinner table, out for a walk at the park..the sky's the limit! (hint, hint).

On a whim, we threw together a short behind-the-scenes video to provide a little flavor of the mix of physical and virtual in the shooting session for the image above.

My War With Supergirl Barbie Erupts Into Amazon Ambush by Batgirl

noreply@blogger.com (Botgirl Questi) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:15:41 PST

It looks like that little tramp Supergirl Barbie didn't take too kindly to my righteous ranting. Instead of flying off into the sunset, she's obviously enlisted her fellow DC superbimbo, Batgirl, to sabotage the release of my new Best of Botgirl e-book for the Amazon Kindle. Follow the arrow above for the clear evidence of their subterfuge.

Best of Botgirl 01 Now Available for Kindle on Amazon.com

noreply@blogger.com (Botgirl Questi) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:10:16 PST

Although it's still self-publishing, there's something very cool about seeing it up on Amazon. If you've had a chance to read any version, please take a moment and leave a review.

Even Botgirl Gets The Blues: Overcoming Virtual World Ennui

noreply@blogger.com (Botgirl Questi) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:21:54 PST

No matter how blissful your Second Life honeymoon may be, one day you're going to log in and notice that the magic is gone. The seemingly infinite wellspring of captivating people, places, events and projects has dried up, leaving you bored, restless and questioning the value of your digital life.

I've made it through a number of dry stretches over the course of the last couple of years. Here are a few of the lessons I've learned so far:

It's NOT better to burn out than to fade away. Get enough sleep. Spend time with your signficant others. For those who make it past the nubie stage and transform into the avatar of their dreams, a love affair with Second Life can be all-consuming. And the food that's being wolfed down is the time and attention that was formerly devoted to First Life.
Figure out your SLpurpose and go back to the drawing board as needed. Check in with yourself on a regular basis and ask "Why am I here?" Maybe it's just to have fun. That's okay. But I suspect that many of us end up living their Second Lives out of habit (or addiction) more than out of joy or the pursuit of some greater purpose. What a waste!
Consciously choose your balance of consumption, creation and social activity. It's easy to gravitate to one dimension or another. Stagnation is likely unless you stir things up once and a while.
Try new things.The only way to get out of a rut is to step out of your comfort zone once in a while to meet new people and try new activities. This also applies to creatives who can pick a different medium.
Read my blog regularly. I'm just kidding!

What have I missed?

Where Has Your Avatar Identity Travelled?

noreply@blogger.com (Botgirl Questi) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:00:06 PST

I spent much of last week sorting through old blog posts in preparation for the first "Best of Botgirl" e-book. Some of the topics I'd written about that were a bit obscure at the time (such as the impact of camping on search results and population numbers) have made their way into mainstream discussion. Some posts, like my sketch-comedy script about the Second Life® trademark controversy, are already quite dated and a bit quaint.

One idea that I think deserves more discussion is the concept of "Emergents" that was introduced in May of 2008. Emergents represented a new category of virtual world users to the formarly binary pair of "Augmentationists" and "Immersionists":

It is possible to have a very full experience of immersion without developing a unique virtual personality. That said, it seems that most active Second Life residents I've encountered describe some sense of a virtual identity that is psychologically individuated from their human self. For instance, one avatar with very close and emotionally intense inworld ties said that her human identity was ambivalent about her online relationships. So the identity that writes a loving blog post to her online loved ones is not the human, but the virtual. These identities don't merely persist outside of the virtual world on the web, but persist within consciousness. This brings up all kinds of questions about human personality and identity. from Spectatorship, Immersion and Emergence Part 2

Although I've been playing around with the concept artistically through works like this most recent image for the SL365 Flickr Group, I think it's time to take another more subtantive look at the idea.

Where has your avatar identity travelled...Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, Youtube, Google Wave, RL book and CD publishing? If you have any good stories about your avatar identity's exploits outside of Second Life, please share them with us by posting a comment.