The embodied ‘raced’ self, transposed into online space as avatar carries with it interminable questions related to the nuances of identity, representation and Blackness. So much so, that the weight of questions burdens both the inner critical reasoning inherent in the process of making work and the outer facade of the creation itself. Any notion of lightness, joy of creativity in the process of making can be crushed or lost, by the over positionality which takes place in order to create.
This piece describes the process of critical thinking and considerations followed by the process of making my first 3d avatar for
virtual pavilion a virtual reality gallery containing Afrofuturist work, visited by a spaceman.
Mediated images of Blackness are powerful agents, carrying with them historical constructs which can subsequently influence a range of judgments from social to historical ideologies, to personhood on the body.
Avatars are designed to take the place of our embodied selves in online spaces becoming our virtual identities in interactive games, social media spaces and more recently in online work environments. This is a weighty contextual and ethical responsibility, at a granular level we can decide what we want to look like and in so doing, how we want to be perceived. As our true likeness? As an adopted persona? Or something in between...
Read the full commissioned article by Digital Democracies
here