ANIMATING DIGITAL IDENTITIES

A Symposium curated by Nicola Bozzi, Ghislaine Boddington, Tatiana Isaeva and Olive Gingrich, supported by the Institute for Inclusive Communities and Environments (Centre of Spatial and Digital Ecologies), School of Design, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Greenwich, in collaboration with the Hybrid Presence Research Cluster.

Conceptual Outline

Digital identity has gained unprecedented cultural and social momentum in the last decade - both as an individual concern and far-reaching asset. From video game avatars to political campaign videos, from family WhatsApp groups to virtual health assistants - in our digital everyday life, the expression and performance of a wider and increasingly accessible range of digital selves and bodies has become commonplace in large parts of the world. This has been amplified and complicated by the accelerating pace of technical innovation across mediated environments - i.e metaverse platforms, AR, XR, generative AI, all linked to increasingly hyper-targeted recommendation algorithms. At the same time, the cost and speed of data in developing (low and middle-income) countries remains a sometimes-existential factor, making sustainability an issue for these evolutions.

- What implications do these omnipresent platforms for representation have in terms of inclusion, well-being, and overall social good?

- What kinds of new practices of the “avatar” are emerging, between gaming platforms, social media, and the many metaverses inhabited by our distributed digital bodies?

We need interdisciplinary discussions, not only about the societal repercussions of these technologies, but the opportunities they expand for the creative renegotiation of our relationship with technology, the self, and each other.

For this reason, this event approaches digital identity as a prism through which the social and the cultural are refracted, inviting diverse perspectives to examine theories and practices of the “avatar” in the age of distributed digital environments.

Themes

- How are digital avatars for gaming, generative AI, and social networking shaping the imagination of digital identity?

- What ethics do these avatars usher in around ‘performing’ identities of self and other?

- Beyond individual representation, how are avatars and digital identities becoming a global political-economic asset, with collective dimensions?

- What are the expressive opportunities and restrictions emerging from these environments, and their implications for the arts, well-being, and society?

- As digital platforms extend into global infrastructures, how are marginalised communities presented, and are there new forms of queerness emerging from these environments?

This one-day symposium comprises three Round Tables, a Student Showcase, two panels of experts, a keynote speech, a networking event, and a companion website/digital showcase.

PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY (Timings to be confirmed)

9.30- 10:00 REGISTRATION

10:00 – 10:15 - OPENING REMARKS by the curators Nicola Bozzi, Ghislaine Boddington, Tatiana Isaeva and Olive Gingrich

10:30 – 12:00 Panel 1: Animating Platformed Identities

How are avatars and digital identities becoming a global political-economic asset? This panel explores different theoretical and artistic ways in which gaming technologies and social media affect the expression of identity and how digital identity itself shifts from individual bodies/characters towards distributed commodities and communities. Chair – Jane Frances Dunlop

12.00 - 12:30 - BREAK - Student Showcase

12:30 – 14:00 Panel 2: Animating Avatars for Social Good

How are animated digital identities, increasingly connected to real-time data, pushing forward connected access to our individual and group social needs as living beings? This panel focuses on a diverse range of digital bodies working across time and space, rapidly evolving and being adopted in a range of social need sectors, for example education, health, social connectivity and wellbeing. Chairs - Ghislaine Boddington and Olive Gingrich.

14:00 – 15:00 - LUNCH and SHOWCASE

15:00 – 16:00

Round Tables: Animating Futures rotating discussion around the themes – Mediators - Eric Wong, Ryan Flynn, JC Kristensen

Identity/Representation, Technologies/Infrastructures, Posthuman Creativity

16.00 - 16.30 TEA BREAK

16.30 - 17:00 Sharing's from Round Tables

17:00 - Keynote

17.30 - 18:00 - Conclusions

Student Showcase (running parallel in other room) - curated digital art showcase of works by students and alumni of the School of Design, University of Greenwich

Reception and Networking Supported by the Institute for Inclusive Communities and Environments (Centre of Spatial and Digital Ecologies), School of Design, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Greenwich, in collaboration with the Hybrid Presence Research Cluster.