http://secondloop.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/becoming-dragon-dec-1-17th-calendar-of-events-and-poster/
It is important to consider the gendered nature of such online interactions. While some believe the virtual body to be gender neutral, many disagree. Second Life is a virtual gaming world where these issues arise continually. We are not bound by the physical appearances of our avatar’s body, but, as Vidler discusses, into the space we occupy, we project our psychological make-up and ourselves. Here it seems that regardless of physical appearance we might be able to transcend some more barriers.
Artist Micha Cárdenas explores these borders in her work ‘Becoming Dragon.’
This work began through Cárdenas’ own real life experience of being required to complete living a full year as a woman in order to be eligible for transgender surgery. Inspired by artists such as Stelarc who uses technology to transform human potential, her artwork consists of a performance in which she spends 365 hours (two weeks) in Second Life as her avatar- a dragon. She aims to question what it means to inhabit another body and another space. While she is performing, her body is motion tracked and then translated live into Second Life so that her avatar moves and interacts in real time as she does. This performance really extends what it means to occupy space, be it physical, virtual or the two simultaneously. Her transition into another form is both symbolic of and challenging to the very notion of embodiment.
The project seeks to explore the shift from subjectivity to becoming, to examine the subject in transition, as opposed to a clearly defined identity. The choice of a dragon for an avatar is related to the history of dragons as magical creatures, able to shapeshift into different forms and teleport through space, well suited to Second Life. Dragons are also part of the large community of non-anthropomorphic avatars in Second Life, which are not easily limited to either male or female binary gender categories. The project seeks to explore the possibility for using mixed reality environments to construct new genders outside of the limitations of the male/female spectrum.[1]
Cárdenas undermines society’s preconceived notion of what comprises the content of a living being. Her performance deals with the very borders and inhibitions of everyday life through her embodiment of a Second Life.
While Cárdenas’ bodily representation shifts through her embodiment of virtual space, she remains fundamentally herself. The nature of her physical configuration is not what allows her to engage in, and occupy space. But I wonder how her body felt after this immense performance. Two weeks spent as a dragon must certainly have had a profound effect on her physical and emotional make-up. After only a matter of just a few hours spent in Second Life I noticed a dramatic and quite scary readjustment occurring in my body to realign with reality. Her transformation back to human must have been lengthy and difficult. As her speech was manipulated to the voice of a dragon during the performance, did she begin to stage-manage her dialogue? It seems that in Becoming Dragon the nature of her behaviour must have begun to shift. She is both embodying and mimicking her dragon. Her movements motion tracked and deliberate, within a confined space seem to mimic those of an exotic animal in a zoo. Her restlessness surely must have been comparable to that of a caged dragon.
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