The Mirror's Dim Image Part II

So here I am now, a couple weeks into Second Life. My character has evolved from my original avatar (robbie Clarity) to the current Eno Cyberschreiber. I must say that if I was to judge my character based on the positive reaction I get to the name chosen, Eno is a great success. It seems that there is a lot of judging by the books cover (so to speak) in SL. On second thought, there is a lot of first impression judgement in SL and in RL (although literature convinces me over and over there there is not much of a difference between RL and SL but that is another blog). 

I spent quite some time choosing my name for my Second Life avatar. I think I took it more seriously than others because I actually made a list and asked a friend of mine to help me decide. I think it's funny to think back about this, and I wish I still had some of the names I included in my list. I do remember some of them:

Minty (I wanted a fresh sounding name, clean simply)

Drexciya (After a favourite group of mine)

Arghohbee (Pronounced: Arr-oh-bee which of course is the first three letters of my real name)

Eno (After Brian Eno, one of my favourite IDM artists)

As you can tell I settled with Eno. Cyberschreiber was chosen because I think it has a nice ring to it. It flows, and it also sounds a bit tech-y, which I also like.

Now then, the name Eno has been a bit of a helper in meeting people. I ended up talking to a fellow named Harpo. Initially it was not my name that attracted him to me. I was wearing a t shirt with the FSM logo on it, which apparently stands for Flying Spaghetti Monster. He gave me a costume that is quite detailed, which resembles a realistic looking flying spaghetti monster. I am told that I could win some costume contests with it. We'll see. Anyways, after I said thank you, he asked me about my name and I told him it was related to Brian Eno. This struck Harpo as interesting, as he himself was in the music business in real life. I ended up having a long and interesting discussion with him about music, production, mastering, sound quality, compression and other topics in music. He introduced me to an artist I had not heard of before who was influential in the early days of electronic music, and apparently knows the producer for Coldplay. Very interesting if it is true. This all relates back to my name selection. I'm glad I put a little effort into it, because it ended up paying off. I met some interesting people (they hang out in the sandbox in Hyperborea which in itself has a very storied history involving Anche Chung and flying penises). There is a lot of potential in a name. Choose it wisely.

I originally thought that in Second Life there is opportunities for more than one first impression. But the more I think about it the more I disagree. I was thinking that since you have the ability to change the look of your character that you can create different looks that in effect create a different impression every time you see the avatar with the same name. The more I think about it, the more I think that it is similar to real life. You can change your look every day if you wanted. You could get a green mohawk, or buy some studded pants or a lime green shirt and baby blue pants with red shoes. There are lots of ways to create new impressions on people in "real" life. I think that people are wrapped up in the "You only get one first impression" saying. It's a nice sound bite, but I don't think there is much truth to it anymore. Isn't it cool that Second Life taught me that. Second Life removed a constraint on my idea of identity. Neato!

In Second Life I have settled on a look. This is based on the fact that I don't have much money. A friend I met in my first couple days on Second Life took me around and bought me all sorts of nice things. I wanted to not look like a noob and she helped me out in achieving the look. She bought me a skin worth 990L$, only after taking me shopping to look at a couple different ones. She bought me two sets of eyes worth 129L$ for each set (one set even came with sparkles!). She bought me hair that cost around 120L$, and some new poses and and a walk. Before, I used to be recognizable as a noob in Second Life, now I actually get comments on how good I look. Most people ask me where I got my skin because it's so detailed. Oh, she bought me a new body too, which give me better proportions. That helps. 

I set out wanting to make my avatar resemble myself in real life. My avatar is a lot more muscular than me, and taller, but in context of most other avatars in SL I think I am represented somewhat accurately. I do not look like a super hero with regards to muscle mass, but rather proportionate, and in SL contexts, rather skinny. I have two sets of eyes. One set is realistic and the other set is robotic. I like the robotic better. I've always wanted coloured contacts, so maybe that is an expression of my want, rather than an unrealistic physical trait portrayed virtually.

Overall I am pretty satisfied with my avatar. I would like some more clothes that resemble what I actually wear, but that requires money. I need to get a DJ job A.S.A.P.

There are some connections to the readings. The name of my avatar fell into what most people name their avatars using (real names or variations of real names/ pop culture references). I think that my avatar is not an extension of myself, but rather an identity of me which reflects a postmodern train of thought. Who I am changes every second, and any reality I throw myself into changes my sense of identity. Therefore in a way my avatar is me and isn't me. I am constantly bouncing back and forth creating my identity in a billion different contexts, simultaneously at the same time and not at once. My identity is fluid, and my definition of reality reflects this.