[ISEA98] Panel: Yannis Paniaras – Digital Courts

Panel Statement

Panel: Paradiso Artificiale Rehearsals for Death: Avators and the Post-Biological Experience

Yannis Paniaras’ presentation will give emphasis on the implications of virtual identity design in the process of constructing our presences in social virtual environments. The ritual of cultivating a personal visual experience is being relocated in the virtual domain. Design practices from the real world are being transferred into the virtual society. With the help of 3D technologies and design expertise we construct representations that ideally reflect our inner worlds and temporary emotional status. The costumed avatar becomes a ‘mask for the resident of a society manifested within the prohibited sphere of immateriality. While we participate in the spectacle ‘from a distance’, unable to inject our physical bodies, our awareness for a potential post-biological existence is nurtured. Does the avatar represent the prologue for the resurrection of an entity liberated from the torture of our material incarceration?

  • Yannis Paniaras (USA), Silicon Graphics – Cosmo Software, California.