Dakota Galkowski, Darien Carbine, Madyson Hollister, Stephen Merrills and Islam Award “Crafting Embodied Experience in Nonheteronormative Virtual Worlds”
Mentor: Oksana Kryzhanivska, Art & Design, Arts (Peck School of the)
Poster #83
What is the relationship between virtual embodiment and heteronormative expectations in video games? The term embodiment has broad applications, and so from a cultural anthropology perspective, it is the means by which someone incorporates, internalizes, and reproduces the material and sociocultural world around them. The term proxy-embodiment conveniently describes experiences among avatars where there is no physical body, in which there still exists an embodied experience if a digital environment lacks in world-size and tangibility. Furthermore, virtual embodiment is inherently dualistic. Online interactions could take place across the digital medium between avatars who, while anonymous, are understood to be connected to human sources somewhere in the real world. Heteronormativity then is the assumption that male-female binaries and relationships are natural and preferable. Given that the embodied experience of an avatar is the lived experience of the player, we are interested in the promise of nonheteronormative gaming experiences, and the possibility of imagining virtual worlds. Our research project began with a literature review of ten articles. We explored mind-body dualism starting with René Descartes, as well as contemporary literature on cyberculture. What followed was the designing of a video game demonstrating what we learned. This entailed 3D modeling, making concept art, and the development of a level in Unreal Engine. Taking note of Catriona Sandilands’ concept of Queer Ecology, we have conceived an alien world that literally demonstrates a queer ecology removed from male-female dualisms. In the process of designing this fictional environment, we intend to reimagine the ones we live in.