Your Freaks are my Family

I've proposed a number of times in prior posts that there is a connection between the experience of ventriloquism and avatar identity, at least for those of us who perceive their wooden or digital counterparts as unique personalities. Last night I finally had the chance to watch Dumbstruck, an award winning film focusing on the lives of five ventriloquism enthusiasts and their annual convention. Although the movie didn't touch on how ventriloquists experience the personalities of their dummies, it did bring up another correlation between the vent and avatar communities: People outside our respective communities often view us as freaks.

I certainly caught myself making negative judgements about some of the people featured in the film. One reason was the visceral sense of creepiness that struck me from time to time watching some of the less accomplished people perform and interact with their dummies. I think that type of reaction is related to the uncanny valley phenomenon that's been documented in gaming, robotic and animation contexts.

Despite my struggle to empathize with a few of the characters, it was easy to see that the ventriloquist community is close-knit, loving and supportive. Like the avatar community, they stay connected over the course of the year through online communication and come together in person at an annual convention. Like those in the avatar community, their RL friends and family are often perplexed or repulsed by their pursuit, so they turn to each other for support and acceptance.

The movie was a good reminder that your freaks are somebody's family. And vice versa.

Dummy and I Win Koinup Contest

My Botgirl vs. Dummy comic was selected yesterday as one of three winners in Koinup's funny and playful art and avatars contest. It will appear in an upcoming issue of Metaverse Creativity, a scientific journal about virtual worlds.

The work is an extension of an idea I started playing around with last year, using the ventriloquist/dummy relationship as a metaphor for human/avatar identity:

In the pseudonymous culture of Second Life an avatar's undisclosed human identity is often referred to as "Typist" or "Puppeteer". Since neither of those labels ever felt right to me, I was recently intrigued by the notion of using "Ventriloquist" as an alternative metaphor. Here's how I see the differences:

• The Typist metaphor places agency within the virtual identity. The human is viewed as a third-party transcribing dictation with neither emotional involvement nor creative participation.

• The Puppeteer metaphor casts the avatar as a doll on a string, manipulated by a human sitting outside and above the stage of the virtual world.

• The Ventriloquist metaphor places the avatar intimately upon the human's lap. Human and Dummy are both active participants who are perceived as unique and vital individuals. 

from Typist, Puppeteer and Ventriloquist as Metaphors for an Avatar's Human Counterpart 

I'm pretty sure I'll return to the metaphor in future works and posts. For now,  I'll leave you with Human, Me and Majic Makes Three  a related video I created last September:

Don't Ask for Whom the Punch Line Tolls...

On January 28th, I used this image of Carol Channing and her dummy as a visual punch line for the blog post headline: "The Future of Avatar Identity? Taking The Real You to its Logical Conclusion."

LOL, right?

Look what showed up on my human counterpart's desk today:

That joke is not so funny anymore.  After the months it took to finally talk sense into that other dummy, this dizzy blonde floppy-legged usurper appears on center stage trying to sit casually in my hard-earned limelight. Well, bring it on!

Getting Back to the Ventriloquism Thread - Art and Artist

After slight detour, I'm back on ventriloquism and virtual identity path, reading The Origin of the Work of Art by Martin Heidegger. Please note that the circle you see in this image was created entirely within your mind.

Typist, Puppeteer and Ventriloquist as Metaphors for an Avatar's Human Counterpart

In the pseudonymous culture of Second Life an avatar's undisclosed human identity is often referred to as "Typist" or "Puppeteer". Since neither of those labels ever felt right to me, I was recently intrigued by the notion of using "Ventriloquist" as an alternative metaphor. Here's how I see the differences:

• The Typist metaphor places agency within the virtual identity. The human is viewed as a third-party transcribing dictation with neither emotional involvement nor creative participation. 

• The Puppeteer metaphor casts the avatar as a doll on a string, manipulated by a human sitting outside and above the stage of the virtual world.
  

• The Ventriloquist metaphor places the avatar intimately upon the human's lap. Human and Dummy are both active participants who are perceived as unique and vital individuals.

I'm still in the midst of fleshing out this idea, but this is the basic concept I'm working with. Much more to come, including some imagery.

Botgirl's New RL (more or less) Brother

MUCH more to come!

Human, Me and Majic Makes Three (Video)

Another mind-stretching contemplation on the relationship between ventriloquism and virtual identity. I will soon post a more substantive textual missive on the topic. I promise!

Ventriloquism and Virtual Identity (Prelude)

Before I launch into a look at the connection between ventriloquism and virtual identity, here are a couple of fun clips that illustrate some of the ideas we'll explore.