RSS

adamcrowe + avatars   165

Behance Network -- Human Facebook Default Avatar
'The aim of this project is to humanize the Facebook default avatar provided at the first login.'
facebook  avatars  brandmodels  from delicious
august 2010 by adamcrowe
YouTube -- TED: Peter Molyneux demos Milo, the virtual boy
The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that, Milo?
virtualworlds  avatars  artificialintelligence  replicants  toyfriends  nurturance  simulation  virtuality  voigtkampf  from delicious
august 2010 by adamcrowe
The Oatmeal -- How Twilight Works
'First off, the author creates a main character which is an empty shell. Her appearance isn't described in detail; that way, any female can slip into it and easily fantasize about being this person. I read 400 pages of that book and barely had any idea of what the main character looked like; as far as I was concerned she was a giant Lego brick. Appearance aside, her personality is portrayed as insecure, fumbling, and awkward - a combination anyone who ever went through puberty can relate to. By creating this "empty shell," the character becomes less of a person and more of something a female reader can put on and wear.'
psychology  fiction  narrativeobjects  objects  avatars  roleplay 
december 2009 by adamcrowe
Boing Boing -- Video: man in Japan weds anime game character
'On Sunday, a man named Sal9000 married the love of his life. Her name is Nene Anegasaki, and she lives inside of a Nintendo DS video game called Love Plus. The wedding took place during a Make: Japan meet-up held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In attendance were a live audience, an MC, the bride's virtual video game girlfriend—who made a speech—and a real human priest.' -- Idoru?
virtualworlds  avatars  relationalobjects  objects  idoru  japan 
december 2009 by adamcrowe
The Onion -- Obama Outfitted With 238 Motion Capture Sensors For 3-D Record Of Presidency
"The presidency of Mr. Obama is truly a landmark event, and I can think of no better way to honor it than with this $2.5 billion advanced digital-imaging project," acting archivist Adrienne Thomas told reporters. "Not only will our sensors provide unprecedented moment-to-moment documentation of a sitting U.S. president, but they will also give the American people the breathtaking realism and seamless layer animation they have come to expect." Many scholars have also praised a feature of the motion capture technology that would allow future generations to digitally alter the president's wire-frame model by retroactively modifying clothing, facial features, skin tone, and even accessories.' -- Shades of PKD's 'The Simulacra'.
TheOnion  avatars  celebrity  toys  puppetry  liminality  liminalobjects  objects  simulacra  sousveillance  lifestreaming  lulz  PKD  fame  satire 
november 2009 by adamcrowe
BBC -- Facebook 'memorialises' profiles
'It follows some cases of members receiving updates about dead friends. If a user is reported as deceased, Facebook will remove sensitive information such as status updates and contacts. When reporting a death, users must offer "proof" by submitting either an obituary or news article. Memorialised accounts will have new privacy settings so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search. "We understand how difficult it can be for people to be reminded of those who are no longer with them, which is why it's important when someone passes away that their friends or family contact Facebook to request that a profile be memorialised."' -- Proof. Is fb becoming a global Births, Marriages and Deaths database?
socialnetworking  facebook  avatars  selfobjects  puppetry  death  zombies  darknets  data  database  psychology 
october 2009 by adamcrowe
CTheory.net -- Media Dopplers
'When we deal with this condition of outformation, we concern ourselves with rates, flow, vector, flux, and its messaging types [unicast, multicast, broadcast, or anycast]. We deal with paths, closeness, link, connectivity, signaling, entropy, self-similarity, throughput, and latency. It doesn't matter what the content is. Rather, the critical standpoint deals with its entropy, its signaling, its rate, flux density and messaging type. -- The requirement for citizen-actors on reality television reflects not nearly the need for such vocations of entertainment, rather, it is the construct of computer networks and software algorithm attempting and stuggling to learn to mimic the bizarre banality of a society dwelling in the afterburn of failed capitalism. It is not staged idiocy, it is pre-school for the machine screens comprehensively looping the simulation of the western debt class.'
*  internet  networks  cybernetics  feedback  technology  temes  collectiveintelligence  hivemind  puppetry  culture  #storage  #ubiquity  extensionsofman  centralnervoussystem  immunesystem  themediumisthemassage  data  information  outformation  simulation  simulacra  matrix  selfservers  avatars  bots  doppleganger  virtuality  debt  economics  financialization  hologram  via:charlesfrith  media 
september 2009 by adamcrowe
Personal Urns
'Never forget a face. Personal urns are a new and exciting way to memorialize your loved one. Now we can create a custom urn in the image of your loved one or favorite celebrity or hero. Personal urns come with a bare scalp ready for a suitable wig, which we can provide. A plaque and nameplate are also available.'
avatars  3d  sculpture  urns  death 
august 2009 by adamcrowe
YouTube -- Real-time interaction with augmented reality mascots
'...in-house mascot, and other virtual characters interact in real-time with a little girl and other physical obstacles in a new seamless augmented playground environment.' -- Is this a prototype for an AR version of 'The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer'? Awesome!
augmentedreality  immersion  avatars  interaction  design  narrativeenvironments 
july 2009 by adamcrowe
Core77 -- Ford design researchers experimenting with virtual people
'This woman is fake! Ford is experimenting with a rather novel technique: Designing a car around a fictional but psychologically-fleshed-out avatar named Antonella. ...Ford's goal in using made-up characters is that they will help produce cars that transcend national traits and are instead built around international, psychological archetypes.' -- By designing a brain-dead supermodel??
ford  design  personas  avatars  virtuality 
july 2009 by adamcrowe
First Monday -- "You Looked Better on MySpace": Deception and authenticity on Web 2.0
On 'users’ criticism of a popular style of profile picture referred to as “MySpace Angles.” Reactions to this style of portraiture label the display of these photographs “deceptive,” alleging that MySpace Angles fool users into believing that the subject is more attractive than they actually are. ...the MySpace Angle commentary, revealing three main themes in users’ critique of MySpace Angles: 1) users who post these photographs are conforming to a social trend at the expense of their individuality; 2) the presentation of these photographs is narcissistic; and, 3) these photographs purposefully conceal the body. This case study displays a shift in the conception of deception online; on the social Web populated by SNSs, theories of deception and authenticity are called into question as users are increasingly anchored to their bodies and expected to effortlessly present an online self mirroring the offline self.' -- False advertising. Caveat emptor.
psychology  myspace  socialnetworking  socialmedia  behaviours  representation  avatars  body  appearance  identity  authenticity  self  performance  masks  shame  narcissism  photography  deception  virtuality  fake  theadvertisedlife 
july 2009 by adamcrowe
PSFK -- Celestine Arnold's “Ghost in the Machine: Digital Multiculture”
'Many of the same inequities, stereotypes, and social/class relations that exist in the real world, Celestine demonstrated, carry over into the gameworlds as well. And as fantastical and hyperreal as games can be, the very real effects of racism are pervasive within games and the gaming community as a whole. Celestine argued that a huge opportunity lies in creating games geared towards their multicultured players. Game developers that think beyond the dominant culture and it’s paradigms of Good v. Evil and try to understand the cultures of their diverse players may, as Celestine demonstrated, win out in the end.' -- So very interesting. Nintendo Mii's does a good job on self-styled avatars. But narrative games... tricky. Opportunity.
gaming  virtualworlds  avatars  masks  identity  representation  verisimilitude  transformation 
july 2009 by adamcrowe
io9 -- Michael Jackson's Science Fictional Life - RIP
'No matter what you think about Michael Jackson the man, Michael Jackson the legend has transformed the way we think about identity. He injected pop culture with the future, and showed us what happens (good and bad) when you have the means to make fantasies real.'
MichaelJackson  avatars  identity 
june 2009 by adamcrowe
Wired.com -- 4 Ways to Make the Most of Sims 3’s Massive Upgrades
'For the first time, you’re also able to design your Sim’s personality. There are 63 different traits to choose from that will determine how your characters behave. As you play, your Sims will earn Happiness points by staying in a good mood and completing the occasional mini-objective, determined by their traits. Happiness points can be cashed in for prizes that can make life a bit easier... For Sims who like to stay occupied, there are a number of careers to choose from, with success determined by your ability to work hard, stay in a good mood and make friends. [All] work and no play makes a depressed, unproductive Sim... So be sure that your Sim goes out and makes its mark on the world: You don’t want to have spent your entire virtual life wasting away in front of a computer screen, right?' -- ;^)
*  gaming  virtualworlds  sims  avatars  personality  emotionalintelligence  simulation  happiness  thegamingofeverydaylife 
june 2009 by adamcrowe
The Onion -- Stephen Baldwin's Personal Assistant Promoted To Stephen Baldwin
'After two years of performing management and coordination tasks at an "exceptional level," Stephen Baldwin's personal assistant, Matthew Phillips, was rewarded for his efforts when he agreed to take over the position of Stephen Baldwin Thursday. "We really wanted to hire from within for this opening, and Matthew was a natural choice," said publicist Melina Disanto, adding that the 33-year-old Phillips is the first person who comes to mind when she thinks of Stephen Baldwin. "Although this new position doesn't come with a pay raise or more benefits, it actually has fewer responsibilities than Matthew's old job." According to Stephen Baldwin sources, Stephen Baldwin applied for the Stephen Baldwin personal assistant position but was turned down.'
celebrity  avatars  puppetry  simulacra  fame 
june 2009 by adamcrowe
io9 -- New Surrogates Video Peels Back The Fleshy Robot Skin For Further Investigation
"In the Surrogates future, we all get to sit on La-Z-Boys while our robot servants, who look just like us except cuter, run our errands, work our jobs and even go to raves (which are apparently trendy again)."
robots  replicants  extensionsofman  body  avatars  puppetry  movies 
may 2009 by adamcrowe
YouTube -- Remote Victim (2008)
"Avatar Endurance Performance"
virtualworlds  avatars  isolation  abuse  death  performance 
april 2009 by adamcrowe
Guardian -- Laura Barton becomes obsessed with the names people give their wifi networks
'I have become obsessed with the names of wifi networks that spring on to my iPhone screen as I move about London. Who, I wonder, is the mysterious "Panty-thief" near Dalston Junction? A few years ago, a study by British psychologist Helen Petrie found that our email passwords fall into four genres: "family-oriented"; "fans" who use a famous person's name; "fantasists" who choose a word with sexual connotations; and "cryptics" who select a random string of letters and numbers. Wifi network naming appears to follow a similar pattern...'
wifi  wardriving  warchalking  anthropology  names  handles  avatars  identity 
april 2009 by adamcrowe
Made By Many -- Looking swell online: How avatars suit you by Elin
'My avatar has changed. For the past half year I’ve been writing under a stranger’s face - a “spare” avatar ... At first, I found it awkward to write and felt slightly irritated by being represented by a stranger. ... self-representation and avatar usage can be a serious matter online. The avatars we chose to represent ourselves have an impact on how we behave and also on how we’re perceived online. That’s why sites that easily allow you to change your avatar often are more engaging and interactive. People change their avatar to reflect their mood, send secret messages to other friends, display self- attributes, social role, a fantasy representation of who they want to be or they might just want to provoke. ...seeing people’s creative use of avatars make me much more interested in finding out what’s going on at a site and communicate with the people who use it."
psychology  avatars  performance  masks  identity  self  selfobjects  narrativeobjects 
march 2009 by adamcrowe
I just graduated from an Alt Magnet High School and we took Our Class Photo at ‘an alt club’
'Just glad that in 2k9 ‘pix of urself’ are gonna be on the outsies, and ‘pix of urself lost in a large group of people’ will represent a sort of self-awareness of ur place in the world. U want ppl 2 know where u r, and that ur a part of something bigger than urself. Showcasing urself is for a lookbooker/myspacer, and u just need 2 kind of grow up if ur avatar/userpic has less than 10 ppl in ur photo.'
socialnetworking  socialmedia  avatars  collective  identity  self  selfobjects  groups  behaviours  #bandwidth  #complexity 
march 2009 by adamcrowe
HIPSTER RUNOFF -- This Bro in a lil Box Is Me–This Is A Representation of Me [via the Internet] I am the bro in my avatar
"It’s rlly hard to decide who u want 2 b on the internet. Like u have this lil box on your profile, and u have to choose an image which ‘represents u.’ U have like 300×300 pixels to show the world what ur all about. Seems like a lot of pressure. I just want to be a person who seems like they are ‘comfortable with who they are’ and ‘not THAT interested in the internet’ because they had strong family values and are deeply rooted in ‘reality’ cuz right now I feel like the internet is sometimes ‘more real’ than ‘real life’–I am confused? N e ways… just been thinking about how krazie things are on the internet. Kinda wish there were no social networks that connected us all, because it makes things seem like I’m not interacting with a person–i am interacting with a series of constructed personal brands. Sometimes I ‘lurk’ the myspace profiles of girls/guys who I am interested in ‘being’ with, and I just hope that I am falling in love with the right person." -- HAHA!
HipsterRunoff  psychology  avatars  identity  self  representation  personas  archetypes  semiotics  lulz  theadvertisedlife  satire 
march 2009 by adamcrowe
Wired -- Sex, Lies, and Avatars (PDF)
'What is real? What is virtual? What is living? What is nonliving? Of the many selves I am, who is he real me?' -- 'Computing would offer [Turkle] endless moments of sweet epiphany when theories that had seemed right but abstract were suddenly right and manifest. Constructing the self with language and the notion of permeable boundaries? There it was on the screen. You could almost substitute computing for terms of Lacan's manifesto: computing is constructed as a set of languages; language (the relationship of terms to each other) is the structure that forms computing; the boundaries between data and execution are blurred; and so forth. What in other contexts has seemed like the gibberish of postmodernism–decentering (oh, you mean multiple users), intertextuality (oh, hypertext), fragmentation (oh, me in the Parenting conference, me in the Eros conference), blurring (oh, object-oriented languages)–is rendered clear at last.'
psychology  psychoanalysis  Freud  postmodernism  simulation  culture  bricolage  language  reflexivity  Lacan  theory  theoryobjects  objects  existentialism  reality  virtuality  identity  multitude  self  selfobjects  liminality  media  computers  metaphysics  virtualworlds  MUDs  avatars  roleplay  improvisation  performance  transformation  SherryTurkle  pdf  improv 
february 2009 by adamcrowe
Creativity Online -- Coca-Cola: Avatar
"The human population coexists with an alternate reality during the Super Bowl ad break. Tune in for the big game spots, and don't forget to holler at us on Twitter."
avatars  virtualworlds  coca-cola  augmentedreality  advertising 
february 2009 by adamcrowe
Rough Type -- The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock's avatar
"If I were of a mind to launch a Web 2.0 business today, I wouldn't rely on advertising or subscriptions or try to maximize my page views. I wouldn't worry about technology at all, in fact. I'd become a personal avatar consultant, helping nervous people construct and manage their menagerie of online selves. Or else I'd become a psychotherapist specializing in "avatar issues," ... I would, in short, find a way to capitalize on what promises to be a lucrative epidemic of avatar anxiety."
psychology  avatars  self  distributed  multitude  identity  performance  socialnetworking  mecosystem 
january 2009 by adamcrowe
SBIR/STTR -- Virtual Dialogue Application for Families of Deployed Service Members
'The challenge is to design an application that would would allow a child to receive comfort from being able to have simple, virtual conversations with a parent who is not available "in-person".' -- *gulps*
militaryentertainmentcomplex  avatars  simulacra  simulation  virtuality  telepresence  aliveness  halflife  death  psychology 
january 2009 by adamcrowe
VR-WEAR SL head analysis viewer
Gesture recognition interface for Second Life: "Recognizes the following attitudes: #Yes/No head motion #Surprise/smile #Left/right head bending"
virtualworlds  gesture  recognition  interface  emotion  emotes  extensionsofman  centralnervoussystem  avatars 
december 2008 by adamcrowe
Flickr -- Scrabbatar
"Bored with manga avatars? Why not switch yours to a Scrabble letter? Then encourage your friends to change theirs too! Check your Twitter stream to see what words you can spell. Just like Scrabble, only more pointless."
twitter  avatars  scrabble 
august 2008 by adamcrowe
From The Head Of Zeus Jones -- (i)Phone as human to digital interface.
"For all intents and purposes this makes your mobile phone your digital surrogate - an avatar that sees, hears, does and goes everywhere you go, but which is connected to the broader intelligence and utility of the web." -- Which bit feels?
selfservers  avatars  psychology  extensionsofman  centralnervoussystem 
august 2008 by adamcrowe
The Long Now Blog -- Avatar Afterlife
"Creating a copy of online behavior and programming an avatar to respond to stimuli in the way the user has been during their digital life.... A digital representation of life could continue unhindered in a virtual environment, after real-life has ended. Maybe Google with its seemingly endless storage capacity will one-day also host our virtual afterlife."
avatars  virtuality  distributed  self  selfservers  aliveness  life  death  afterlife  ghost  ghostinthemachine  #storage 
august 2008 by adamcrowe
Pink Tentacle -- Brain-computer interface for Second Life
"A research team has developed a BCI system that lets the user walk an avatar through the streets of Second Life while relying solely on the power of thought. The system consists of a headpiece equipped with electrodes that monitor activity in three areas of the motor cortex (the region of the brain involved in controlling the movement of the arms and legs). An EEG machine reads and graphs the data and relays it to the BCI, where a brain wave analysis algorithm interprets the user’s imagined movements. A keyboard emulator then converts this data into a signal and relays it to Second Life, causing the on-screen avatar to move. In this way, the user can exercise real-time control over the avatar in the 3D virtual world without moving a muscle."
brain  interface  virtualworlds  avatars  cyberbrain  prosthetics  navigation 
august 2008 by adamcrowe
TechCrunch -- IBM And Second Life Announce Interoperability, But Bridging Virtual Worlds Is the Wrong Answer
"If you can’t link to [a virtual world] from the regular Web (and vice versa), it doesn’t exist. That is why virtual 3D worlds are going to come to the browser. The Web will just become more 3D over time."
virtualworlds  ibm  avatars  persistence  teleportation  opensim  web  3d 
july 2008 by adamcrowe
Myrl -- Connecting Worlds
"Myrl allows you to share your virtual life. Your avatar has a Karma and you build it up the more you interact, play and live your virtual life. The higher the Karma, the more visible your discoveries will be."
virtualworlds  myrl  avatars  behaviours  nurturance  pets  attention  socialnetworking  fame 
july 2008 by adamcrowe
Wired -- Maxis Shows Off Spore's Creature Creator
"An onsite 3-D printer crafts little ceramic models of creatures that the folks at Maxis have been coming up with. Eventually, the Spore Store will offer the option to have a model of your own little monster created and shipped to you."
spore  3d  printing  fabrication  avatars 
june 2008 by adamcrowe
Wired -- Metaworlds (1996)
"Where you find people building relationships, sharing day-to-day experiences, teaching each other what they've learned about the world... - those are the places that thrive. Those are the places that people live in."
*  virtualworlds  history  WorldsAway  Habitat  ThePalace  AlphaWorld  microsoft  V-Chat  advertising  productplacement  virtualgoods  persistence  worldvsplatform  objects  narrativeobjects  storytelling  narrativeenvironments  narrativeacts  communities  socialdesign  gestures  emotion  bandwidth  interaction  avatars  identity  play 
june 2008 by adamcrowe
VWTimeline -- Lucasfilm's Habitat & Club Caribe, Summer 1988
"Short promotional video for LucasFilm's Habitat (8 minutes)." -- 'Lookin' for some action?' Hehe
habitat  virtualworlds  avatars  history 
june 2008 by adamcrowe
Wikipedia -- Habitat (video game)
Habitat (1986) is "a multi-participant online virtual environment," a cyberspace. Each participant ("player") uses a home computer (Commodore 64) as an intelligent, interactive client, communicating via modem and telephone..."
habitat  avatars  virtualworlds  history  commodore64 
june 2008 by adamcrowe
The New Yorker -- The World of Fashion: Pixel Perfect
"Pascal Dangin is the premier retoucher of fashion photographs. In the March issue of Vogue Dangin tweaked a hundred and forty-four images: a hundred and seven advertisements (Estée Lauder, Gucci, Dior, etc.), thirty-six fashion pictures, and the cover."
fashion  beauty  art  portraiture  photography  photoshop  digital  painting  retouching  virtuality  body  avatars  self  simulacra 
june 2008 by adamcrowe
Kzero -- Stardoll: Fame, fashion and friends… and Mothers?
"... another intriguing and valuable point data shows that many Mothers (64%) visit Stardoll without their child... Seemingly they enjoy dressing up their avatars (paperdolls) as much their children do."
stardoll  virtualworlds  virtualgoods  shopping  fashion  decorativeitems  avatars  sharedexperience  children  parenting 
may 2008 by adamcrowe
Meez -- Boutique: NikeID
You can buy breakdancing! Instant cred.
meez  virtualworlds  virtualgoods  avatars  fashion  retail  shopping  sneakers  apparell  nike 
may 2008 by adamcrowe
Gameology -- Product Placement and Virtual Branding in Video Games
'... three different modes of in-game product placement as it relates to game genre: “instrumental” [using simulated branded product], “diegetic” [branded game environment for realism], and “archetypal” [branded game features/mechanics/acts].'
*  gaming  branding  productplacement  avatars  virtualworlds  virtualgoods  virtualservices  games  gamemechanics  functionalitems  decorativeitems  objects  narrativeobjects  storytelling  narrativeenvironments  narrativeacts  performance  design  diegesis  endogenous  exogenous  vernacular  simulation  realism  verisimilitude  eastereggs  hacking  rewards 
may 2008 by adamcrowe
Bert Simons -- Paper self clone
"I considered myself one of many who just will be forgotten. That sucked, but instead of endulging my self into depression I desperetly started looking for a solution and I came up with this idea, I decided to clone myself.. more me's have more chances."
art  papercraft  replicants  self  cloning  avatars 
may 2008 by adamcrowe
ICT Results -- Emotional machines
“When they developed databases, the recordings were nothing like the way emotion appears in everyday action and interaction, and the codes they used to describe the recording would not fit the things that happen in everyday life.” -- Way round wrong!
avatars  artificialintelligence  emotion  emotionalintelligence  simulation  interface  language  paralanguage  gestures  database  selfservers  research  storytelling  productnarratives  performance  design 
april 2008 by adamcrowe
Guardian - The Sims Online becomes EA-Land
EA: "We are providing you with privacy settings so you can decide if or which of your avatar will broadcast what information to the internet." -- This is where it gets messy.
ea-land  sims  virtualworlds  socialnetworking  socialgraph  storygraph  avatars  identity  privacy  leaky 
march 2008 by adamcrowe
Kzero - Augmentalists vs Immersionalists. Which one are you?
"A majority of 44.2% of the research participants opted for ‘Keep me just about the same as I am’, whilst the opposite, ‘I would dramatically alter my physical appearance’ represented 14.7%."
augmentationistsvsimmersionists  virtualworlds  socialnetworking  socialgraph  storygraph  behaviours  psychographics  avatars  self  privacy  identity  roleplay  acting  people 
february 2008 by adamcrowe
Kzero - The scale of content creation in IMVU
Graphs: "The graph below shows a break down of the 1.17 MILLION items available for avatar and room (basically the crux of the IMVU environment) customisation - a marketplace over 3.5 times larger than SL." -- 3.5!
imvu  avatars  virtualworlds  virtualgoods  socialnetworking  content  markets  shopping  numbers  statistics 
february 2008 by adamcrowe
Kzero - ‘A strikingly fresh approach to real world advertising in Second Life’
"... do people (residents) want to experience branded environments (islands) from real-world brands or do they want products and services that they can actually use and enjoy?... our focus was on creating relationships (via the skins) with the residents."
marketing  productplacement  productnarratives  objects  narrativeobjects  storytelling  narrativeenvironments  performance  design  metabrands  avatars  virtualworlds 
february 2008 by adamcrowe
/swords - “Entertainment Content Convergence in Virtual Worlds”
"2. Virtual worlds will become more like social networks. What we’re doing today are very small projects. In the future we will see major projects that drive entire shows."
virtualworlds  socialnetworking  entertainment  convergence  avatars  socialgraph  storygraph  narrativeenvironments  storytelling  objects  narrativeobjects 
february 2008 by adamcrowe
SmallWorlds
"SmallWorlds is a 3D virtual world that runs inside your web browser. It enables you to build your own room, house, or even your own world, and fill it with a wide variety of items and fun activities." Apparently you can have multiple avs/profiles. Smart.
smallworlds  virtualworlds  socialnetworking  gaming  avatars  youtube  flickr  isometric  3d  flex  flash 
february 2008 by adamcrowe
BBC Four - Visions Of The Future (1 of 3) The Intelligence Revolution
"In this new three-part series, leading theoretical physicist and futurist Dr Michio Kaku explores the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond."
documentaries  MichioKaku  future  science  technology  cyberisation  transhumanism  artificialintelligence  everyware  virtualworlds  ractives  psychology  avatars  identity  selfservers  conversationalbandwidth  emotionalintelligence  behaviours  singularity  robots  robotics  selforganisation  navigation  neuralnetworks  patternrecognition  replicants  anthropomorphism  secrecy  confession  storytelling  objects  narrativeobjects  emotion  trust  cognition  uncanny  pets  emergence  evolution  symbiosis  synaptics  depression  mood  cyberbrain  extensionsofman  brain  implant  micromachines  wetware  penfieldmoodorgan 
february 2008 by adamcrowe
photophlow
"Photophlow is a fun way to share flickr photos in real time. invite your friends, search together, chat and comment all at once."
flickr  photophlow  socialnetworking  tools  socialobjects  photography  communities  emotes  avatars 
february 2008 by adamcrowe
KnickerPicker - online dressing room
Video 'try it on' interface with a variety of body shapes. Ask the models to "turn around", "come closer", and then "go back. Ahem!
shopping  video  interface  retail  avatars 
january 2008 by adamcrowe
Paul Pape Designs Geekery Store
Mii madness.
mii  nintendo  wii  storytelling  objects  narrativeobjects  toys  avatars  identity  virtualworlds  psychology  gifts 
january 2008 by adamcrowe
VisitorVille - Web Stats Meets Videogame
"VisitorVille applies video game principles to help you easily visualize and better understand your web site traffic statistics... each building represents a web page; each bus a search engine; and each animated character a real visitor to your site."
3d  visualization  server  traffic  statistics  mapping  tools  virtualworlds  avatars  selfservers  thegamingofeverydaylife  gaming  vernacular  sims 
january 2008 by adamcrowe
Google Code - SL Polymorphism Proxy
"The SL Polymorphism Proxy with Imaginary Friends is an add on for Second Life... providing user control over avatar appearances, and further by allowing the placement of avatars anywhere in the virtual environment." Non-player characters?
avatars  virtualworlds  hacks  code  narrativeenvironments  storytelling  objects  narrativeobjects  people 
december 2007 by adamcrowe
Kzero - Three Chinese virtual worlds in conversation
"Every operator will benefit from the standardization of the Virtual World. It is the human right (avatar right) of every user to live in the virtual world. The avatars have a right to travel through any virtual worlds freely and enjoy their virtual life.
avatars  virtualworlds  china  hipihi 
december 2007 by adamcrowe
YouTube - Confessions of MTVs Virtual Worlds Addicts
So, like, totally.
virtualworlds  mtv  avatars 
december 2007 by adamcrowe
Greg Verdino - 7 trends that defined 2007: The Birth of the Virtual Natives
"... when virtual worlds behaviors go mainstream and spill over to other demographic audiences. My sixty-something-year-old mother already uses Webkinz to connect a few nights each week with her eight-year-old neice and six-year-old nephew in Virginia."
virtualworlds  webkinz  communication  presence  ambientintimacy  objects  narrativeobjects  storytelling  narrativeenvironments  avatars  pets  children 
december 2007 by adamcrowe
Moshi Monsters -- Parents
"Moshi Monsters love words and communicate with their monster owners regularly via speech bubbles, to encourage reading. For instance, their monster might be feeling 'jubilant' one day, but 'melancholy' the next." -- Love that!
moshimonsters  children  mindcandy  words  emotionalintelligence  learning  casualgaming  avatars  virtualworlds  socialnetworking  storytelling  narrativeenvironments  :-) 
december 2007 by adamcrowe
Roo Reynolds - Moshi Monsters: Get Your Rox Off
"Even more engaging than the cute graphics and animations and much fun than decorating my room, is the daily one minute dose of quick-fire puzzles. These are great, and appeal to me in the same way that Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training does."
moshimonsters  flash  games  learning  children  casualgaming  virtualworlds  socialnetworking  mindcandy  avatars 
december 2007 by adamcrowe
AdWeek - Viral Campaigns Get Personal
It's the avatar, stupid.
advertising  marketing  avatars  theadvertisedlife  simulation  identity  self  selfservers  performance  design  storytelling  objects  narrativeobjects 
december 2007 by adamcrowe
sebastian mary - man dresses as own facebook profile
"So what else in ‘real life’ is being quietly reinvented by the structures, social patternings and aesthetics of the net?" Replace the word 'net' with 'books' or 'television' in that question. 'Same piss, different bottle.' (Jeremy Brown, Sense)
funny  culture  facebook  vernacular  popculture  web  behaviours  avatars  identity  storytelling  selfservers 
december 2007 by adamcrowe
CNN - China Leads the US in Digital Self-Expression
"Our findings show that Chinese youth experience this new emotional space-the 'emobytes'-more intensely than young Americans" - [Respondents] "Online interactions have broadened my sense of identity" - "Online interactions have made me more self-aware"
*  behaviours  internet  web  digital  youth  china  america  technographics  privacy  anonymity  identity  roleplay  psychology  research  numbers  avatars  immersionst  virtualworlds  friendship  relationships  augmentationistsvsimmersionists 
november 2007 by adamcrowe
Gamasutra - MIT: Heroes, Narnia Panel Talks Transmedia Storytelling
Wow! "... the basic concept is if you could take a theme park, a physical space, and everyone could be data-mined, then you could have a live-action MMO.”
transmedia  narrativeenvironments  storytelling  narrativeactivism  entertainment  virtualworlds  mmorpg  roleplay  acting  avatars  thegamingofeverydaylife  socialobjects  narrativeobjects  objects  performance  design 
november 2007 by adamcrowe
Clickable Culture - ‘Warcraft’ Ads Mainstream The MMO
"having an avatar alter ego is simply going to be a fact of life... As a result, avatar support services will become more visible, from in-world makeovers; parents grinding for their kids; power-leveling / gold farming / gray-market virtual trading."
virtualworlds  worldofwarcraft  avatars  replicants  identity  life  roleplay  economics  business  narrativeenvironments  storytelling  objects  narrativeobjects 
november 2007 by adamcrowe
livingstondaily.com - Virtual world opens up real trend
On Webkinz: "not only sharpened her daughter's computer skills, but it also has helped to instill responsibility for something — in a virtual sense — that was living."
children  toys  webkinz  virtualworlds  businessmodels  avatars  pets  learning  work 
november 2007 by adamcrowe
Guardian - Check Mii Out
"Nintendo's new Wii "channel", called Check Mii Out, launches in the UK today. The channel lets users show off their Mii avatars - you know, those characters you create for use in Wii games like Wii Sports - and vote and rate others."
mii  wii  nintendo  avatars  gaming  virtualworlds 
november 2007 by adamcrowe
Heroine Sheik - ‘Portal’ Is for Lesbians
"3) We’ve talked before about how the guns in first-person shooters act as phallic avatars–that is, as penises. But in a world of women, this gun doesn’t shoot bullets. It shoots orifices. Openings. Fine, vaginas. Vaginas you, a female character, have to enter/exit to solve puzzles. I don’t say this often, and almost never with so much support and enthusiasm, but that is so gay." -- Hehe
portal  avatars  sexuality  gaming  trends  gender  politics  funny  extensionsofman  penis 
november 2007 by adamcrowe
Brand Architect - The March of the Avatars
Useful graph of Virtual Worlds usage.
virtualworlds  numbers  diagrams  avatars 
november 2007 by adamcrowe
Guardian - Empire of Sports takes a 'web 3D' approach to online gaming
'... the development of avatars from rookies to experts in their field requires the player to manage their (virtual) exercise and nutrition. "You could have, for example, a beverage company selling sports drinks that have an effect on your avatar" '
gaming  virtualworlds  avatars  socialobjects  socialnetworking  sport  businessmodels  advertising  productplacement  virtualgoods  objects  narrativeobjects  storytelling  narrativeenvironments  brandedcontent  brandedenvironments  sponsorship  thegamingofeverydaylife 
november 2007 by adamcrowe
Mssv - Rock Band Exclusive: All Sorts of Merchandise
"Rock Band will allow people to form bands over the net, featuring avatars that you can personalise to a high degree.. it will also automatically create webpages detailing achievements... you’ll eventually be able to buy merchandise based on your band."
gaming  thegamingofeverydaylife  music  identity  collaboration  storytelling  productnarratives  fame  avatars  augmentedrealitygaming  virtualgoods 
october 2007 by adamcrowe
BBC - Universal avatars bestride worlds
"While the character's appearance may change depending on where it is taken, its basic characteristics, such as looks and underlying personal data, would be retained."
avatars  augmentationistsvsimmersionists  selfservers  virtualworlds  lindenlab 
october 2007 by adamcrowe
Ars Technica - Google testing "My World" for launch later this year
"it makes sense for Google to mesh a bunch of its tools into one, thus creating a whole new advertising opportunity aimed at people, er, avatars, who are "walking" down virtual (real) streets to check out virtual (real) stores and businesses." Hmmm?
google  googleearth  mirrorworlds  virtualworlds  avatars 
september 2007 by adamcrowe
GigaOM - The How of Habbo Hotel
"Haro calls Habbo a “gameless game”... they’ve created a number of themed rooms and let the players devise their own games around them.They’ve added “rare item” sales, external advertising, and other revenue channels...51% boys and 49% girls"
habbohotel  virtualworlds  teens  children  behaviours  gaming  gameplay  games  design  storytelling  narrativeenvironments  businessmodels  avatars  advertising  content  communities  management  socialnetworking 
september 2007 by adamcrowe
u n y p e . c o m
Use your existing Skype account for a multi-user Google Earth experience
mirrorworlds  virtualworlds  avatars  googleearth  google  skype  simulation  augmentedreality 
august 2007 by adamcrowe
Broader Perspective - Second Life Meta-Me
"Some suggestions for new ways of avatorial representation: #1. Profile-based avatars #2. Reputation-based avatars #3. Idea-based avatars #4. Value system-based avatars #5. Presence-based avatars #6. Real life Sims Online avatars"
avatars  selfservers  identity  lifecasting  ghostintheshell  simulation  extensionsofman  skin  immunesystem  attention  profile  reputation  personas  virtulaworlds  virtualworlds 
august 2007 by adamcrowe
Guardian - Facebook funder Accel invests in online gaming firm
Games are based on the "freemium" business model, where the basic service is free but users can pay to upgrade their character's accessories or weapons. Social interaction is the game - we just put together the framework. "
gaming  games  businessmodels  socialmedia  socialnetworking  avatars 
august 2007 by adamcrowe
Wired - How to Take Money From Kids: Sell Toys Both Physical and Virtual
"Disney's virtual world is the bait: Tourists engage in quests in Disney's real theme parks to earn digital exclusives online, and the parks sell some items, including a line of T-shirts, that come with online duplicates for avatars to use. "
children  toys  virtualworlds  mirrorworlds  avatars  games  gaming  collecting  narrativeenvironments  storytelling  objects  narrativeobjects  shopping  thegamingofeverydaylife  space  brandedenvironments 
august 2007 by adamcrowe
Wikipedia - Uncanny Valley
"as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion the emotional response from a human to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion."
avatars  robotics  simulation  replicants  technology  empathy  psychology  verisimilitude  body 
august 2007 by adamcrowe
YouTube - The Guild - Episode 1: Wake-Up Call
New WOW-based sitcom. "A webisode for gamers, about gamers by a gamer. " Looks good. Very meta.
avatars  worldofwarcraft  gaming  transmedia  storytelling  liminality  machinima  psychology  funny  virtuality  virtualworlds  roleplay  comedy  sitcom  behaviours  technographics 
july 2007 by adamcrowe
Simpsons Movie - Create your own avatar
avatars 
july 2007 by adamcrowe
« earlier      

related tags

"capitalism" ⊕  #bandwidth ⊕  #complexity ⊕  #storage ⊕  #ubiquity ⊕  * ⊕  3d ⊕  :-) ⊕  abuse ⊕  acting ⊕  activeworlds ⊕  advertising ⊕  afterlife ⊕  aliveness ⊕  AlphaWorld ⊕  ambientintimacy ⊕  america ⊕  animals ⊕  animation ⊕  anonymity ⊕  anthropology ⊕  anthropomorphism ⊕  apparell ⊕  appearance ⊕  archetypes ⊕  art ⊕  artificialintelligence ⊕  artificiallife ⊕  attention ⊕  augmentationistsvsimmersionists ⊕  augmentedreality ⊕  augmentedrealitygaming ⊕  aura ⊕  authenticity ⊕  avatars ⊖  avimator ⊕  bandwidth ⊕  bbc ⊕  beauty ⊕  behaviours ⊕  beta ⊕  bigbrother ⊕  biology ⊕  blogs ⊕  body ⊕  bodymodification ⊕  bots ⊕  brain ⊕  brandedcontent ⊕  brandedenvironments ⊕  brandedutility ⊕  branding ⊕  brandmodels ⊕  bricolage ⊕  broadcasting ⊕  browser ⊕  building ⊕  business ⊕  businessmodels ⊕  career ⊕  casualgaming ⊕  celebrity ⊕  centralnervoussystem ⊕  chaos ⊕  CharlieBrooker ⊕  children ⊕  china ⊕  cinema ⊕  cloning ⊕  coca-cola ⊕  code ⊕  cognition ⊕  collaboration ⊕  collecting ⊕  collective ⊕  collectiveintelligence ⊕  comedy ⊕  commodore64 ⊕  communication ⊕  communities ⊕  competition ⊕  computers ⊕  confession ⊕  consumerism ⊕  content ⊕  convergence ⊕  conversationalbandwidth ⊕  creativity ⊕  crime ⊕  croquet ⊕  culture ⊕  customerservice ⊕  cyberbrain ⊕  cyberculture ⊕  cyberisation ⊕  cybernetics ⊕  cyberspace ⊕  darknets ⊕  data ⊕  database ⊕  dating ⊕  death ⊕  debt ⊕  deception ⊕  decorativeitems ⊕  demographics ⊕  depression ⊕  design ⊕  development ⊕  diagrams ⊕  diegesis ⊕  digital ⊕  distributed ⊕  diy ⊕  documentaries ⊕  DONTBEEVIL ⊕  doppleganger ⊕  drugs ⊕  ea-land ⊕  eastereggs ⊕  ecology ⊕  economics ⊕  education ⊕  electromagnetism ⊕  emergence ⊕  emotes ⊕  emotion ⊕  emotionalintelligence ⊕  emotionallabour ⊕  empathy ⊕  endemol ⊕  endogenous ⊕  entertainment ⊕  environment ⊕  environments ⊕  ethics ⊕  everyware ⊕  evolution ⊕  existentialism ⊕  exogenous ⊕  extensionsofman ⊕  ExtropiaDaSilva ⊕  fabrication ⊕  facebook ⊕  failure ⊕  fake ⊕  fame ⊕  fandom ⊕  fanfiction ⊕  fanon ⊕  fashion ⊕  feedback ⊕  fiction ⊕  film ⊕  financialization ⊕  flash ⊕  flex ⊕  flickr ⊕  ford ⊕  Freud ⊕  friendship ⊕  functionalitems ⊕  funny ⊕  future ⊕  gaiaonline ⊕  gamemechanics ⊕  gameplay ⊕  games ⊕  gaming ⊕  gender ⊕  gesture ⊕  gestures ⊕  ghost ⊕  ghostinthemachine ⊕  ghostintheshell ⊕  gifts ⊕  gluttony ⊕  god ⊕  google ⊕  googleearth ⊕  groups ⊕  habbohotel ⊕  habitat ⊕  hackersvsvectoralists ⊕  hacking ⊕  hacks ⊕  halflife ⊕  handles ⊕  happiness ⊕  health ⊕  hipihi ⊕  HipsterRunoff ⊕  history ⊕  hive ⊕  hivemind ⊕  hologram ⊕  home ⊕  human2.0 ⊕  ibm ⊕  ideas ⊕  identity ⊕  ideology ⊕  idoru ⊕  IM ⊕  immateriallabour ⊕  immersion ⊕  immersionst ⊕  immunesystem ⊕  implant ⊕  improv ⊕  improvisation ⊕  imvu ⊕  information ⊕  intellectualproperty ⊕  interaction ⊕  interactivedrama ⊕  interface ⊕  internet ⊕  isolation ⊕  isometric ⊕  japan ⊕  JeanBaudrillard ⊕  Lacan ⊕  language ⊕  leaky ⊕  learning ⊕  life ⊕  lifecasting ⊕  lifehacks ⊕  lifestreaming ⊕  liminality ⊕  liminalobjects ⊕  lindenlab ⊕  literaryculturevsoralculture ⊕  lulz ⊕  machinima ⊕  management ⊕  mapping ⊕  marketing ⊕  markets ⊕  marxism ⊕  masks ⊕  matrix ⊕  mecosystem ⊕  media ⊕  medicine ⊕  meez ⊕  memory ⊕  metabrands ⊕  metaphysics ⊕  MichaelJackson ⊕  MichioKaku ⊕  micromachines ⊕  microsoft ⊕  mii ⊕  militaryentertainmentcomplex ⊕  mind ⊕  mindcandy ⊕  mirrorworlds ⊕  mmorpg ⊕  mobile ⊕  modification ⊕  money ⊕  mood ⊕  moshimonsters ⊕  movies ⊕  mtv ⊕  MUDs ⊕  multitude ⊕  multiverse ⊕  music ⊕  myrl ⊕  myspace ⊕  names ⊕  narcissism ⊕  narrativeactivism ⊕  narrativeacts ⊕  narrativeenvironments ⊕  narrativeobjects ⊕  narratology ⊕  navigation ⊕  NealStephenson ⊕  neopets ⊕  networks ⊕  neuralnetworks ⊕  nike ⊕  nintendo ⊕  numbers ⊕  nurturance ⊕  objects ⊕  opensim ⊕  opensource ⊕  organisms ⊕  outformation ⊕  painting ⊕  papercraft ⊕  paralanguage ⊕  paralleluniverse ⊕  parenting ⊕  parody ⊕  participation ⊕  patternrecognition ⊕  pdf ⊕  penfieldmoodorgan ⊕  penis ⊕  people ⊕  performance ⊕  persistence ⊕  personality ⊕  personas ⊕  pets ⊕  photography ⊕  photophlow ⊕  photos ⊕  photoshop ⊕  pixar ⊕  PKD ⊕  play ⊕  playstation ⊕  pokemon ⊕  politics ⊕  popculture ⊕  portal ⊕  portraiture ⊕  posthumanism ⊕  postmodernism ⊕  presence ⊕  printing ⊕  privacy ⊕  productnarratives ⊕  productplacement ⊕  profile ⊕  prosthetics ⊕  psychoanalysis ⊕  psychographics ⊕  psychology ⊕  puppetry ⊕  quantum ⊕  ractives ⊕  rating ⊕  reactivity ⊕  realism ⊕  reality ⊕  realityprogramming ⊕  realitytv ⊕  recognition ⊕  recursion ⊕  reference ⊕  reflexivity ⊕  relationalobjects ⊕  relationships ⊕  replicants ⊕  representation ⊕  reputation ⊕  research ⊕  retail ⊕  retouching ⊕  rewards ⊕  rfid ⊕  robotics ⊕  robots ⊕  roleplay ⊕  satire ⊕  science ⊕  scrabble ⊕  sculpture ⊕  search ⊕  secrecy ⊕  self ⊕  selfobjects ⊕  selforganisation ⊕  selfservers ⊕  semiotics ⊕  sensors ⊕  server ⊕  sex ⊕  sexuality ⊕  shame ⊕  sharedexperience ⊕  sharing ⊕  SherryTurkle ⊕  shopping ⊕  sims ⊕  simulacra ⊕  simulation ⊕  singularity ⊕  sitcom ⊕  skin ⊕  skype ⊕  smallworlds ⊕  sneakers ⊕  snowcrash ⊕  socialdesign ⊕  socialgraph ⊕  socialmedia ⊕  socialnetworking ⊕  socialobjects ⊕  sociology ⊕  software ⊕  softwareagents ⊕  sony ⊕  sousveillance ⊕  space ⊕  sponsorship ⊕  spore ⊕  sport ⊕  stardoll ⊕  statistics ⊕  steampunk ⊕  storygraph ⊕  storytelling ⊕  strangeattractors ⊕  surgery ⊕  symbiosis ⊕  synaptics ⊕  synthespian ⊕  tagging ⊕  technographics ⊕  technology ⊕  teens ⊕  teleportation ⊕  telepresence ⊕  television ⊕  temes ⊕  theadvertisedlife ⊕  thegamingofeverydaylife ⊕  themediumisthemassage ⊕  themediumisthemessage ⊕  TheOnion ⊕  theory ⊕  theoryobjects ⊕  ThePalace ⊕  time ⊕  tools ⊕  touch ⊕  toyfriends ⊕  toys ⊕  traffic ⊕  transformation ⊕  transhumanism ⊕  transmedia ⊕  trends ⊕  trust ⊕  tutorials ⊕  tv ⊕  twitter ⊕  uncanny ⊕  urns ⊕  V-Chat ⊕  verisimilitude ⊕  vernacular ⊕  via:charlesfrith ⊕  viceo ⊕  video ⊕  violence ⊕  virtualgoods ⊕  virtuality ⊕  virtualservices ⊕  virtualworlds ⊕  virtulaworlds ⊕  visualization ⊕  voice ⊕  voigtkampf ⊕  warchalking ⊕  wardriving ⊕  web ⊕  webkinz ⊕  wetware ⊕  wifi ⊕  wii ⊕  words ⊕  work ⊕  worldofwarcraft ⊕  WorldsAway ⊕  worldvsplatform ⊕  youth ⊕  youtube ⊕  zombies ⊕ 

Copy this bookmark:



description:


tags: