Constructing Identity Online - case study Tavi Gevinson

Introduction

What is Identity ?

The fact of being who or what a person or thing is, the characteristics determining this.

(Concise Oxford English Dictionary)

What is "Constructing Identity Online" ?

This is a thing that almost everyone does nowadays. And usually there are more than one identity is combined to form a self. Therefore, identities can be complex and full of contradiction.

Case Study - Tavi Gevinson

My case study is about Tavi Gevinson. She is an American girl living in Chicago. One day, she enouraged by her friend and started her blog called " Style Rookie". This is a fashion blog and Tavi expresses her own style theories there. She always uploads snapshots of herself dressing in differnt clothes and in different styles.

Tavi Gevinson’s identity before her fame

She is a  normal teenage girl  and her life around no more than school, family and friends. She just describes herself as “a tiny 13 year-old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats". She is a girl always feeling interested in fashion; however, she never show this interest to anyone including her parents. Her parents know nothing about this until Tavi got invited to interviews by famous magazines.

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Reference Link: http://www.elle.com.hk/fashion/style_insight/the-little-style-rookie/(offset)/2

 

A new and overwhelming identity for Tavi

After she starts her blog, She got as many as 50,000 readers for her blog and the number keeps increasing. She becomes a famous fashion icon. Many teenagers look up to her for style inspiration. Many famous fashion designers from high-fashion field follow her blog and she just become their muse. Tavi's parkling talent surprises the whole industry. In 2009, Tavi partnered with the London-based Borders & Frontiers to design and sell  her own t-shirt. She has also becomes a regular guest in various fashion shows.

What she get? Bad?

 

She starts a “trend” on kid fashion blogger. Many young kids follow what she is doing and they are looking forward to becoming another Tavi. Some criticize a teenage girl  should focus on her books but not fashion. And some of the people doubt her reliability ( fake talent, a top designer behind the scene).

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What she get? Good?

 

Tavi gets into the high-fashion world and she enjoys glamorous luxury and fame. Moreover, she uses her talent in fashion fully. She can also devotes her passion and enthusiasms in doing one thing ( her fashion style). Furthermore, She can uses her own influence to do something meaningful, foe example, she starts a charity event “ Clothing with a Cause”. She just calls for a clothing donation from her followers and the netizens. When they send her some clothes, she will put all the clothing onto e-Bay and the profit will donate to a charity.

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Conclusion

 

I think Tavi gets both the good and bad things from her identities. She creates a new interpretation on unique fashion style. And her identity in reality and in virtual world have been merged into each other. That is what we called "identity convergence".

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Conclusion for our group

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Reality and online identity are interrelated. The boundary between reality and virtual reality are unclear nowdays. When we started  using our online identity, most people may think that there is no interaction with our reality. But is it really true? Through the examples from our group, we can find that what we did through the online identity actually have some direct or indirect influence to our reality. Michelle and Jayesslee show their talent via their online identity and finally make their dream come true. They become popular public images. Even online identity itself are interrelated with each other. Mia gives her real heart to make friends with a friend online. However she finally disappointed by her disappearence. Making she feels sad. We can see the influence of our online identity are not only in the virtual but also in our reality. Those happiness and unhappiness we recieved are real and undenialble. 

Reference Links:

http://www.thestylerookie.com/ (reference for photos)

Influence for fashion bloggers trend:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2010767377_fashionplate12.html

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2008-08-12-girl-fashion-blogs_N.htm

Information about fashion blog and Tavi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_blog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavi_Gevinson/

"Digital games - But are they art?"

a) How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?

He defines that art is a form of communication from the artist to viewer, and if the viewer starts to interfere, the communication will stop. And art is not fomulaic and it must have content as it must contains ideas. And actually I agree that art is something that has contents and messages. I think every artists are trying to bring something meaningful or trying to express what they are thinking through their work of art. And they are definitely a kind of communocation between the artist and the viewer. However, the point about the utility and saleability that Adam mentioned in the reading, I am only partially agree with him. I think a work of art can sometimes involve mechandsiing. for example,  Campbell's Souup Cans by Andy Warhol is related to merchandising now. The image of this work just appear in many different kinds of  products now, such as clothes and cups. And still , this is a famous work of pop art.                

b) According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered as art?

Adams thinks that videogames need to do things that other art forms do. The Romantic movement of music challenged teh listeners and the works from Impressionists just made a new interpretation of what painting is for. And thus, videogames have to challengd their players as well. They have to be a kind of sitimulation for their players. They have to sitimulate their players to think and to get in touch with things that they have never knew or thought of  before. Moreover, videogames need to be more aesthetical. They have to have something related to aesthetic which can be judged by people, as the judgement we can make with movies, paintings and books. For example, a game can work on its aesthetic design, colors and the overall look of how every parts of the game are presented to its player.

Discussion

a) According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for indivuduals and societies?

   The main pros of playing videogames for indivuals and societies is these games can spread some messages educationally, for example the concept of having safe sex and the way that can prevent cancer diseases. It is because when people play this games, they can learn and gain right values and knowledge. These kinds of games can do good to individuals especially to the teens as they are the group that will easily be affected by the games and absorb concepts though games. For the societies, I think when people receive right values from games can definitely benefit the communities. For example, when teens receive the right sex education, they will cause less sex-related problems to societies.

   For the cons part, I think the videogames can really harm both the individuals and societies. since nowadays, there are many videogames related to some people-shooting activities and when kids are playing these games, they may somehow get used to the killing scenes and the whole violence atmosphere. They may practise shooitng in terms of the accracy, the target-located skills and the usage of different weapons. For societies, these games are surely harmful to it. There are increasing cases of school-shooting in the whole world. And these terrible crime event increase after the big hit of some violence shooting digital games. Actually kids are somehow have the shooting concepts planted in their mind. Maybe when they encounter problems in daily lives, the wrath just push the violence consepts out in their mind and they may tend to resort to violence.

b) According to the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?

According to the film, there are some evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world. For example, a 14 year-old boy brought guns to school and shoot his classmates to death. Some of the victims got head shots and the boy just explained that he shot them on head because head shot can get extra points in playing video games and he got used to this skill. According to Laidman, when youngsters are obsessed with violence video games, these games can really trained them as effective killers.(Video games figure, Laidman, April 27, 1999) And actually I agree with that point, I think playing video games hours and hours can really imbue teenagers with the concept of killing is every problems' solution. And they will eventually get used to killing in their lives.

c) Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?

I think governments should have the right to ban certain games because improper video games can really harm the communities and the next generation. Some may say that this kind of prohibitation ruin the right of freedom and the development of creativity. However, in my opinions, right of freedom and creativity should only be enjoyed in doing the right things. Let say if someone murders others, can he be judged as innocent when he claims that he has the right of freedom to do anything he desires? The answer is surely NO. He will definitely be sentenced to jail. When we can observe that things are losing control from the increasing school-shooting cases, governmetns should really ban some harmful video games which spread the wrong or evil messages. This can protect our children from absorbing the wrong values.

Reference link: Video games figure in school shootings, Jenni Laidman http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/19990427games4.asp

4.) My favourite video game
My favourite video game is The Sims. This game is a strategic artificial life game. Player can live or control one or more lifeforms and they can create almost everything in the virtual world, for example, they can create different characters and different kinds of buildings and shops. What I like it most is that I can control everything in the game and I can do whatever I desire. I can even do something which I cannot do in reality, for example, fight with others.

Interesting work from Kazuhiko Hachiya

I find Kazuhiko Hachiya's work very interesting because this art work really bring out an innovative idea which I never think of before.

This work is called Inter-Discommunication Machine which can  exchange views and their sound perception between two people. This machine composed by a camera, transmitters, head mounted displays and wings. People A and B using it have to wear a head mounted displays and carry a pair of wings on their back.

And then they will start to see what the other one is seeing. They are actually exchanging what they are seeing ( their view). In other words, They will see their own faces though the displays and it seems that  A is B and B is A. I  think it's a live example of " think for people just like you are playing their role".

It creates a new way for people to communicate with each other since they can somwhow feel what the other one feels. For example, if A is turnign her back in front of B, then A will see this  and get to know that Oh! I have to turn around and find my friend. It is so good that this machine can really blur the boundaries between the identities of  "you" and "me". According to UNESCO , it is definitely a remarkable art work with enormous creatativity. It allows its user to enjoy a brand new perceptive experience and also create a very interactive relationship between the users. Other than its function, I think it also looks beautiful and reach a harmony realtion asethetically. The colors black and white , adn hte use of  the batterfies are very enjoyable to look at. And they also enhances the funniness of the work. I want to try this when I look at it at my first sight.

reference link: http://www.eyebeam.org/projects/inter-discommunication-machine

                      http://www.petworks.co.jp/~hachiya/works/shi_ting_jue_jiao_huanmashin.html
                      http://www.camk.or.jp/english/exhibition/hachiya/index.html

My feeling towards the Mouchette website

   I think this website is quite weird for me because I don't really get the message it tries to tell and since something is related to sexual aspect, this just confuses me more. And I at first doubt that is it really a 13 years old girl made this website and I think it is very likely that there is someone else who actually own this website. It is because online identities are not so reliable when everyone can pretend to be others or even create a person that not really exists. And after I did some research on this website, I found that the concept of this website is based on a film called " Mouchetter" in 1967. And this website did had some link on the film's official website, however, the link was removed later because the film's owner tried to sue the Mouchette website. And I think the website is trying to express the girl's feeling since the female lead character was raped in the film and I think that's why the website contains some erotic content. And as I mentioned above, the real identity behind this website is still a secret. ( Mouchette, 2007)
Reference link:  "Mouchette", 2007, Brown University Wiki, retrived from 30 Oct 2010:https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Mouchette

Identity Online

How many online identities do you have? What are they like?    
I have more than 5 online identities. They are some blogs, emails, Msn Forums and facebook.Some of them are rather serious, for example, the blog related to academic issues, in thoseblogs, I will be much more serious than my "in person" identities.Moreover, sometimes I may use a fake name in forums because I don't want to reveal too muchpersonal information on the net. I think in general, most of my online identities are different from my "in person" identities in terms of the seriousness and the way I present myself. I think I will be absolutely much more careful on how much personal data I'm giving out. However, on theother hand, I will be more comfortable to share my personal feelings or even some secrets when I'm using my blog which showing a fake name of mine.

In what way are they different to your "in person" identities?  
Some of them are rather serious, for example, the blog related to academic issues, in thoseblogs, I will be much more serious than my "in person" identities.Moreover, sometimes I may use a fake name in forums because I don't want to reveal too muchpersonal information on the net. I think in general, most of my online identities are different from my "in person" identities in terms of the seriousness and the way I present myself. I think I will be absolutely much more careful on how much personal data I'm giving out. However, on theother hand, I will be more comfortable to share my personal feelings or even some secrets when I'm using my blog which showing a fake name of mine.

What are some benefits of expressing one’s identity online?  
 I think one can get different kinds of infomation easier when they are expressing their identity online, for example, they can gather people's opinions or their past experiences very easily in  forum. And also, it is easier for us to know about our friends since it is so convenient that we just need a click to check on others' daily lives.

What are some risks?

 Since we inevitably need some accounts for establishing our identities online, we are giving our personal data to many third parties and we may not even be aware of this personal information exposure. I think this is definitely a risk when we are contructing our online identities. 

Video sharing sites enhance creative culture

Funny Video based on the "Leave Britney Alone".

This video is obviously a parody video about Chris Crocker. And I think things like this would happen again and again on the internet since it is a phenomenon that people keep copying from some hit Internet figures. According to Marek, "the first video that gained their reputation was an unintentional surprise hit. However, the internet celebrities tend to copy the successful formula of their first hit to maintain their reputation and to commercialize their success into real world earnings." (Creativity meets Circulation, Roman Marek, 2009)

I think this shows that these video sharing sites can enhance creativity since the netizens is a mass group of people who can create and react immediately to some hits on the net. Let see another  creative example:

This is another parody video in responses to "Leave Britney Alone" And according to Marek, this is a kind of "collective creativity" that can specifically shown in those video sharing sites.