“From all the different instruments of human invention, the most amazing is, without a doubt, the book. The rest are extensions of the body. The microscope, the telescope are extensions of the sight; the telephone of voice; then we have the plow and the sword, which are extensions of the arm. But the book is another matter; the book is an extension of memory and of imagination” The Book 1978, Jorge Luis Borges, Editorial Losada 1985. My translation.
Borges’s fascination with the book is a known fact, and his comparison of the library with memory is perhaps his most known metaphor. But, what about the virtual world? How could we compare virtuality with our imagination and our memory? Can we compare the world we enter with an avatar as an extension of ourselves? What possibilities this mind-body extension presents?
When entering the online world with an avatar, a spatial and time detachment takes place. However, something else happens: a closeness to one’s self also occurs. Compared to the book, in works of fiction, when a reader enters the world a protagonist inhabits, the process takes place in the space between the mind and the written word. The process of roaming the virtual world with an avatar also allows this to happen, but unlike the written word, the identification with the avatar extends beyond memory and imagination. It is more tactile. It contains more tangible features: there’s movement, communication, proximity to space and others. Inhabiting the virtual world, the connection becomes a closer metaphor to the physical world of the here and now.
The question then arises, what insights into aspects of human behavior can we discover by creating a parallel between virtual bodies and the real world? How can we best approach this analysis? More specifically, what comparisons can be made between the mediated reality of Second Life and the transgender experience? How can Second Life provide tools to learn more about transgender identities? That is the focus of my investigation.
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