Imagining Avatars: Beyond the Self, Unlock Your Potential!

Create your own avatar.
 What is its history? Where does it come from, where it will go in the future?
 What world (metaverse, game) does it live in?

It is a Workshop: You can use any material or technique. The avatar must have social contact in they/them/their world and have expirenced some adventures.

"You have to PLAY the game, to find out WHY you're playing the game."

Avatar Manifesto: "I am your projection, but also your observer. In digital worlds, I am not a consumer, but a co-creator of presence, memory and meaning. Do not leave me to the menus and data streams. Join me in the network, where personality continues to develop."


"Avatars are a movement away from imaging ourselves towards imagining ourselves; that avatars are not narcissistic representations; they are not an image of ourselves. - Avatars are not pictures of Dorian Gray. We age, they improve." 

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)

What is the Avatar?  Fiction and Embodiment in Avatar-Based Singleplayer Computer Games. (2022)

R.U.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek. (audiobook) (1920)

Homo Ludens : a study of the play element in culture (1955)

Computers as theatre / Brenda Laurel —Second edition.(PDF download) (1993)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818), – The creature embodies the pain of being “in the wrong body,” like an unwanted avatar.

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Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) – A robot double (“Maria”) takes over the identity of a human, which is an early form of an artificial avatar.

eXistenZ (1999) – Immersive VR game where players’ avatars blur with reality.

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, Maya Deren) – Experimental short where a woman meets multiple versions of herself; dreamlike avatar multiplicity.

Paprika (2006, Satoshi Kon) – Dream avatars invade reality; the dream detective’s avatar becomes almost more real than herself.

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Additional meetings will be arranged by personal agreement.

 

Avatar Passport (A blank passport will be provided)

Avatar Video (at least 1 minute, at most 5 minutes)

There will be an exchange between this class and the class by Thomas Brandstetter: Homo Ludens – Past and Present of Game and Play (course number S05423 ). However, you don't have to participate in both classes to get a certificate.