Abstract
This chapter suggests a model for reconceiving avatar in terms of desire and loss to reassess their role within creative practices and the construction of digital subjectivity. This focuses on the avatar as appearance, as a negotiation of presence and absence, and as a tool for critical art practice in Second Life. By placing the avatar as Lacan's objet petit a, the lost object cause of desire, the structure of the visual and cognitive gaze applies Žižek's concept of parallax to digital embodiment, reformulating a subjective position between physical and digital modes of being. Taking into account the position of the observer amidst the fluidity of contemporary identity, the manipulation of the structures of desire and control can create new experiences that alter our relation to presence and absence in the critical and creative mediation of avatars and its implications for embodiment as a function of consciousness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | New Opportunities for Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds |
| Editors | Denise Doyle |
| Place of Publication | Hershey, PA |
| Publisher | IGI Global |
| Pages | 118-138 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781466683853 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781466683846 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2015 |