Syndicate: AVATAR, Amsterdam/NL

[AXIS <axisvm@xs4all.nl> (by way of Andreas Broeckmann)]

AVATAR
Of multiple identities and postmodern times
Oude Kerk, Amsterdam
29/5-14/6/98

Exhibition  Symposium  Webprojects

Choosing another identity is not a new phenomenon. Everybody makes use
of a
different personality, or sub-personality, on some occasions, sometimes
consciously, sometimes without noticing it, as when you pick up the
telephone, or when you decide in front of the mirror in the morning what

clothes to put on, taking the day's schedule into account. No one makes
an
issue any more of 'cross-dressing' or transvestitism (whether for
Saturday
night entertainment or otherwise), or the 'alter egoism' of persons
behind
certain telephone chat-lines. Literature in the behavioral sciences
identifies increasing social pressure to perform as an important cause
for
this. Play in which a single identity is exchanged for a
'multiple personality' makes it possible to escape social control and
conventions.The anonymity of urban society makes it still simpler to
simultaneously lead various lives. But playing roulette with multiple
identities is not wholly without risks. MPD (multiple personality
disorder)
appears to be more than a vagary of modern life: it is a new name for an

old problem, schizophrenia.

The rise of the electronic, virtual society has accelerated the
development
of sub-personalities. Even more frequently than in 'real' life, Internet

users hide behind a disguise - their 'avatar.' Avatars are assumed when
communicating in shared virtual spaces like chatboxes and MUDs
(multi-user
domains or dungeons). In fact, no Internet user knows the 'true'
identity
of those with whom he or she has contact. This fact is enhanced by the
deceptive 'appearance' of the avatar, the digital 'alter ego' chosen or
designed by the user themselves. One can create an avatar by simply
choosing a different profession, or posing as being of a different age
or
the other sex. It gets more complicated when a person brings multiple
avatars into play. It then becomes an essential question whether this is

merely an innocent game, a necessary adaptation to changing social
circumstances, or a liberation from the straightjacket of the generally
accepted concept that a healthy personality consists of a number of
concentric skins surrounding a real or notional core.

Thanks to the fast development of technology, avatars can take on an
increasingly real form. There are presently avatars with a photographic
face and a voice, such as can be found in The Palace, a commercial web
meeting-place. This development injects new life into electronic space,
and
closes the gap between the virtual world and what is apparently 'real
life.'

Avatar shows projects by artists who investigate the phenomenon of the
'multiple personality.' In addition to photography, video and
installations, projects using new media will be central in the event.
During AVATAR a video screening will be organised in MonteVideo's
2-Hoog-Achter area. Artists, behavioral scientists and media experts
will
debate one another in the symposium (De Balie, 6-7/6).

Organisation
Paradox, Axis, De Balie, Maatschappij voor Oude en Nieuwe Media,
MonteVideo/TBA, De Oude Kerk

Programming
Bas Vroege (Paradox), Deanna Herst (Axis), Martine Brinkhuis (De Balie),

Eric Kluitenberg, Yvonne Le Grand

Funding
Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdams Foundation for the Arts, VSB
Foundation,
XS4ALL

Artists
Janine Antoni (USA), Jemima Brown (GB), Hamish Buchanan (CDN), Jake &
Dinos
Chapman (GB), Susan Collins (GB), Luc Courchesne (CDN), Deborah Hammon (

USA), Lynn Hershman (USA), Merel Mirage (NL), Tony Oursler (USA), Ine
Poppe/Jetty Verhoeff (NL), David Rasmus (CDN), Humberto Rivas (ARG),
Cindy
Sherman (USA), Debra Solomon (NL), Annie Sprinkle (USA), Vibeke Tandberg

(N), Bea de Visser (NL), Gillian Wearing (GB)
_


Symposium

How to Bake an Avatar(t)
On Virtual Identities & Digital Alter egos
Saturday June 6 + Sunday June 7

On Saturday, June 6, and Sunday, June 7, De Balie is organising an
international symposium on the play with multiple identities in virtual
environments on the Internet. The adoption of an alternate identity and
personality is a distinctive mark of the new forms of communication that

have emerged around the net. Especially in multi-user environments (MUDs
&
MOOs), where numerous people can be present simultaneously and more or
less
anonymously, many people tend to adopt a fictive personality.

The representation of a real-life person in such a virtual environment
is
usually called an Avatar. But how do you give shape to a personality
without a body? How can a body without flesh and blood be taken
seriously?
If there no longer is a body, how do you know to whom you are talking?
And
how do people identify with a space that has no fixed dimensions,
especially when that space is constituted only by words, as is the case
with the majority of MOOs?  How do people establish their identity in
these
new digital environments?

The role- playing games and the many new text- based forms of
communication
on the net (besides MOOs, in particular chat channels, e-mail and
newsgroups) were identified early on as a contemporary renaissance of
writing culture, a hybrid somewhere between the traditional forms of
writing, oral culture and the telephone conversation. Recently these net

environments have also acquired a visual shape: three-dimensional
worlds,
where the Avatars can take on continuously shifting appearances. The
cyberfantasies of the net as a parallel space -hyphen the quake game
worlds
on the net where cyber-clans threaten each other's virtual lives-, the
matrix, cyberspace, the fictions of cyberpunk literature, again appear
to
have come one step closer to reality.

Is this really a new space, where people can explore and play around
with
their multiple identities? Is the Avatar the recipe to meet the
challenges
of our post modern era and the rapidly emerging information society that

threatens our customary definitions of identity?

During the symposium, these questions will be examined from many
different
points of view: as a philosophical challenge, as an object of
sociological
wonder, from the perspective of the incessant MUDer, from a
cyberfeminist
perspective, as a literary and artistic phenomenon, as a new media hype.

This virtual cooking class will be guided by:
 Susan Collins, Jos van Dijck, Yvonne le Grand, Volker Grassmuck,
Margot
Lovejoy, Jos de Mul, Sadie Plant, Ine Poppe, Michiel Schwarz and Don
Slater, among others.

How to Bake an Avatar(t)
Sat 6/6 14 - 17 / 20 - 22.30
Sun 7/6 11 - 13 / 14 - 17

Cinema de Balie

Until the End of the World ( Wim Wenders, 1992, 157 min)
In the year 199? a young woman, Dommartin, crisscrosses the world in
search
of Hurt, whom she has met briefly. Hurt has a camera in order to record
images that the blind can perceive, and is pursued by bounty hunters.
The
ultimate road movie, in which a number of colourful characters pass in
review...

Fri 5/6  23.00

The symposium in De Balie is connected with the exhibition AVATAR, of
postmodern times and multiple identities, from 28 Mai untill 14 June
shown
in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. Avatar shows projects by artists who
investigate the phenomenon of the 'multiple personality.' In addition to

photography, video and installations, projects using new media will be
central in the event. During AVATAR a video screening will be organised
in
MonteVideo's 2-Hoog-Achter area.

Info symposium: De Balie Martine van der Brink Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen
10
1017 RR Amsterdam
T +31 (0)20 5535151
www.balie.nl

Info AVATAR: Axis, bureau voor de kunsten vm, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 72,
1012 GE Amsterdam
T +31 (0)20 4655530 E axisvm@xs4all.nl