Day 4 Identity, Power, and Representation in Virtual Environments

Frank Vander Valk identifies several key themes in IPR in Virtual Environments. The key themes in the literature that resonate with my own experience in virtual relate to Valk’s brief review on virtual environment and virtual identity. One of the early scholars in virtual identity (Turkle, 1995) argued that “our new technologically enmeshed relationships oblige us to ask to what extend we ourselves have become cyborgs, transgressive mixtures of biology, technology, and code” (p. 21). Jones, (2006) as cited in Valk (2008), identifies Second Life (SL) as an example of postmodern philosophy made real. In that, the virtual reality of SL blurs and fragments the boundaries and dimensions of self and situation. In other words, this alternate reality provides a means for reconstructing one’s culture, economic, and identity in a variety of reconfigurations. It is easy to lose or shall I say, redefine oneself in the “other” world. I can’t help but draw a parallel to the discovery of The New World, my world, by adventurous explorers. A visit in SL, in some ways, may mirror the experiences of trailblazers in new territory whether it be theoretical or bound by physical limitations.