Virtual characters : artistic creations and personal archives on the Web 2.0. :: By Paule Mackrous

Three years ago, I made myself an avatar in the multiplayer virtual world Second Life . Not really thinking about the consequences of this seemingly harmless action, I didn't spend too much time picking my avatar. If I had taken the time to think about it, I might have abandoned the idea of creating a virtual character: avatars immediately bring to mind many disturbing questions about our self-perception and our desires. They also bring up questions about whether we really want to leave traces of ourselves across the virtual world, visible to all on the net. Unthinkingly, I naïvely chose one of the first characters that the program offered. And then voila, I was able to discover a virtual world!

Three years later, I understand a bit better the extent to which this character is beyond my control. My spontaneous choice now defines how others see me, even without my being conscious of it. My avatar's accomplishments, defined by its wanderings throughout cyberspace, are a part of my "personal archives." Although my avatar does not always live up to the image I have of it (or of myself), it seems impossible for me to transform it at this point in time. It would be like getting plastic surgery! It's like it has a life of its own, a life that I sometimes confuse with my own. It holds important meetings that further my young career as a hypermedia art historian, participates in the virtual world's artistic network Odyssey: Contemporary Art and Performance , attends virtual artistic events in real time, and has developed a social network with musician avatars on myspace .

The relationship between a person and their virtual character can end up being very productive: hybridism is an inexhaustible source of creativity and discovery, making the Internet a fascinating place for exploration. However, this creative relationship has its own perils: the trails we leave behind as we go about our exploratory processes become actual material that anyone can manipulate. We keep our virtual character “alive,” but we are not always free to choose what happens to it… and therefore what happens to us.

In this fifteenth edition of journal .dpi , the third in a trilogy on the theme of archives, we are concentrating on the paradoxical question of personal archives. Focusing on virtual characters seems to be an ideal way to address this question. How are artistic and literary creation extended through the medium of a virtual character? What are the effects of personal archives on the person who keeps this character alive? How do Web 2.0 tools affect, to a very large extent, our identities? And what is the role of an art curator in the virtual world?

Albertine Bouquet, a literary character that uses many different platforms of expression (blogs, podcasts, MySpace , Facebook ), has written a text about the beginnings of her literary career. The essay-article finishes off with an original comic strip featuring Albertine. Margherita Balzerani, art historian and curator, delivers a remarkable account of her experience in the virtual world S econd Life . She sees herself as a Meta-Wanderer , looking for new terrain for artistic expression. Her story is punctuated with dialogues, poems and strange cyber-meetings with artists. Fanny Georges examines the effects on the identity generated by the traces left behind on different interactive tools of Web 2.0. Her article offers interesting reflections on what she so accurately refers to as “archiving nervous impulses.”

In an interview with Martine Neddam, we are shown how sharing, rather than self-exposure, is behind the artist's interactive virtual characters ( Mouchette, David Still ). A creator of interactive content well before the advent of the Web 2.0, Neddam introduces us to her latest project, virtualperson.net , a Web tool entirely devoted to creating virtual characters. Jeanne Landry Belleau gives us her second chronicle on her hypermedia work La Chrysalide humaine , a kind of dynamic archive that focuses on human values. She describes how the theoretical principals behind the Web 2.0 guide her creative processes. Tania Perlini, with Allison Moore doing the camerawork and editing, produces the In the Studio chronicle for this issue. She went courageously to meet Manon De Pauw, crossing picket lines to get to the UQAM gallery where the artist had installed her studio.

Finally, I have to say a word or two about Sarah Brown's ingenious page heading banner. The animation alludes to Vélasquez's famous painting Venus at her Mirror (1649), but Brown has swapped the mirror for a computer. The face in the screen changes constantly, while the one that looks into the mirror is still. What can the allegory of Vanity teach us about the experience of virtual characters? Virtual characters can offer us the reflection that we want to see of ourselves, but they will never be real flesh and blood. Whether they survive or become obsolete with changing technology, their bodies are not subject to the laws of time…

This issue has been created with the help of the .dpi editorial committee members, along with .dpi coordinator Chantal Dumas and Webmistress Stéphanie Lagueux, who all worked, as usual, extremely hard with punishing deadlines. Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped out!

I'd also like to add a little note that Chantal Dumas is going to be leaving her position as Studio XX programming coordinator, and therefore as our amazing .dpi coordinator. Thank you Chantal, for your generosity, your creativity, your openness and the fabulous atmosphere that you have created in the editorial committee!

Enjoy!