(8) VR: Self and Society

Aims and objectives

The aim of this section is to explore the issues surrounding the concept of self and identity raised by the development of 'Virtual Environments' such as MUDs.

Overview/Summary

This lecture will begin by reviewing the modernist notions of community at the beginning of the course and how Descartes separation of the soul (mind) from physical existence (body) has lead to judgments about the nature of a person's identity being based on an appeal to external evidence or actions. We will then go on to consider how applicable these ideas are to 'Virtual Environments' such as MUDs.

In particular we will look at the phenomenon of gender swapping and the problems raised by how people represent themselves in Virtual Environments. You might also wish to look at some course notes from a previous version of the HI2 course.

Reading

Books

• See any of the books from the books section

or

1. SIC - Chap 16 in Social Issues in Computing, Huff. C and Finholt. T, McGraw Hill, 1994, pp 637 - 690.

Some Additional Reading (in library)

1. Kevin Robins, Cyberspace and the world we live in.in Body and Society - Cyberspace/cyberbodies/cyberpunk: cultures of technological embodiment - Vol 1, No 3-4, pp 135 - 155.
2. Steven Jones, Cybersociety: computer-mediated communication and community. Sage, 1995.

Web Links

The following may also be of interest:

• Amy Bruckman's paper - Gender Swapping on the Internet

• Psychology of Cyberspace - Gender Swapping and Psychology of Cyberspace - Psychology of Avatars from John Suler

• Computers and the Communication of Gender by Elizabeth Lane Lawley

• "Technologies of the Self" by Alan Aycock

• Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community by Judith Donath

• See chapter three of Elizabeth Reid's thesis Cultural Formations in Text-Based Virtual Realities - Identity and the Cyborg Body

• Colonizing Virtual Reality - Construction of the Discourse of Virtual Reality, 1984-1992

• Will the Real Body Please Stand Up? by Rosanne Stone