She said I glitched

One dream I recalled was myself inhabiting another character. One whom was at my old school, but did not look like me.I decided to explore this through the virtual reality platform Second Life (Linden Lab, 2003). I customised an avatar, adding the cigarette animation and features; bringing to fruition a character that existed only in my subconscious. I customised her to look as closely to the character as I remembered from my dream.

I wanted to create a film within Second Life, exploring the use of the avatar that resembled the character from the dream. In Second Life, there are a vast number of public spaces one can visit. I explored some places in which I decided to capture excerpts of the film, some of which featured in the final piece such as, the ‘Virtual Faculty of Mass Media Communication’ (2021) and ‘Pullman’ (2021). I originally filmed it in the ‘midday’ time setting in Second Life, therefore the world was in daylight. Reflecting on feedback from peers, viewing the video didn’t feel as dream-like, which I agree with. The viewer did not feel as immersed in a brightly lit environment, the dream-world is hard to decipher and is not clear – therefore, the lighting and content of the film should reflect this.

During the making of the film, I created an audio for it using ProTools. Manipulating visuals and audio for the film was paramount to the immersion and placing the viewer within the dreamscape being presented. I arranged the notes at a low key as I wanted it to sound echoey, whimsical and dream-like. The sound becomes rhythmic and resembles a heartbeat. I wanted to remind the viewer of their own mortality through the sound, whilst they view something that appears humanoid, (the avatar), but is in fact, made up of pixels. This juxtaposition is reminiscent of the perceptual mismatch theory. This proposes that uncanniness is caused by a “mismatch in the human likeness of an entity's features” (Chattopadhyay, D & MacDorman, K, 2016). If a human feature is matched with something non-human, we sense this feeling of the uncanny. For example, a robot with a human voice. In this case, simulated breathing whilst viewing a virtual avatar.

This is the completed film. Made within Second Life, the avatar is animated to smoke repetitively, whilst sat in places that resemble the ones I visited in my dream. The video becomes more unnerving as it progresses. The title came from the confusing state of not knowing whether I was the character I saw, or somebody who was wholly imagined. I chose Second Life because of how boundaryless it is; the player can be any avatar they desire, whether that be human or fictitious other-worldly creatures. The weird is normalised, and the virtual world is a transcendental space – much like dreams are too. I wanted to collide these two worlds in the film.

Second Life (2021) Pullman. Available at: https://secondlife.com/destination/pullman (Accessed: 16 June 2021).

Second Life (2021) Virtual Faculty of Mass Media Communication. Available at: https://secondlife.com/destination/vfmmc (Accessed: 16 June 2021).

Chattopadhyay, D ; MacDorman, K. (2016) ‘Familiar faces rendered strange: Why inconsistent realism drives characters into the uncanny valley’. Journal of Vision. Vol, 16, No 11. N