Abstract
Second LifeTM fashion bloggers use the virtual environment as a place to re/construct different assemblages of self, thereby creating new potential for and experiences of subjectivity. Drawing on theories of embodiment and Deleuze and Guattariās (A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. (B. Massumi, Tran.). University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1987) theories of the Body without Organs, assemblage, and becoming, I propose virtual fashion play as a process through which people continually construct and deconstruct identity. The inquiry centres on two questions: What is the relationship between bloggers and their avatars? How do bloggers construct identities through fashion? The fashion bloggers referenced do not see themselves as constructing identities that are separate from the identities of their physical lives. However, their avatars do have an impact on their physical selves. Their physical and virtual bodies are integrated as they re/assemble identities, and virtual fashion offers a technology of self that expresses practices of identity.
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Notes
- 1.
āAlthough users can create different world settings and play according to their imagination, most choose to play in worlds that simulate the conventional physical world.
- 2.
The Second Life official blog reports that the Second Life economy (user-to-user transactions) totalled 567 million US dollars in 2009. The New York Times reported that clothing and accessories account for about 20 percent of the Second Life economy. Therefore, as of 2009, the Second Life fashion industry was worth about 113.4 million US dollars.
Second Life blog article: http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2010/01/19/2009-end-of-year-second-life-economy-wrap-up-including-q4-economy-in-detail
New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/fashion/22Avatar.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
- 3.
Machinima is a film genre that uses 3D virtual worlds and/or video game technologies to create animation. For more information, go to http://www.machinima.org/machinima-faq.html.
- 4.
The image and related information are available here: http://www.paikstudios.com/gallery/1.html
- 5.
There is no effective means for advertising using the SL program itself. This is because SL is not like a Web site in that it cannot be viewed in a linear way. Shops are scattered in SL; therefore, it is not easy to find a shop or find out what items it has for sale. Although some vendors do send out information about their merchandise, this is not very efficient as not everyone checks their Āmessages and some messages get lost during transmission.
- 6.
In real-life fashion, a lookbook is a book that shows the fashions a designer is currently marketing and from which a customer can order. Some people use their blogs as a way to document their Ādifferent outfitsāa sort of historical lookbook.
- 7.
- 8.
A skybox is a living space or house that floats in the sky in SL. Many SL residents build their homes in the sky to gain more privacy and escape from the ugly and unorganised ground space.
- 9.
Gacha is a term that comes from the Japanese word gachapon (ć¬ćć£ćć³), which refers to toys sold randomly via a machine vendor. Buyers do not know in advance which item they will receive after paying the machine. Gacha machines have become a popular way to sell things in SL.
- 10.
- 11.
āSee Wiseās (2005) example of a mobile phone as a āthumb-key-software-transmission Āassemblageā (p. 84).
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Liao, C. (2011). Virtual Fashion Play as Embodied Identity Re/Assembling: Second Life Fashion Bloggers and Their Avatar Bodies. In: Peachey, A., Childs, M. (eds) Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds. Springer Series in Immersive Environments. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-361-9_6
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