Capitalism, Marketing, and the Insidious and Covert...

Capitalism, Marketing, and the Insidious and Covert Co-optation of the Self Subtitle: A Manifesto for Avatars 1. Introducing Avatars AVATARA-Sanskrit.; ava-down, tarati-he goes, passes beyond literally, a descent, a conception described in the Bhagavad gita, 4th Teaching, 1-8 where Krishna confides: when goodness grows weak, when evil increases, I make myself a body. (OED) Originally referring to the incarnation of Hindu deities, avatars in the computing realms have come to mean any of the various strap-on visual agents that represent the user in increasing numbers of 2 and 3D worlds. (Lonehead, ONLINE SOURCE, NO PAGE NUM) This essay studies the covert, market driven forces at work in our choices of images†¦show more content†¦The irony in the physical world is that we choose to wear these commodities and we willingly pay multi-national corporations for the privilege of advertising their products. Through this transaction we express personal fantasies, achieve a fleeting sense of democracy and individual expression, and fulfill various levels of desire. 2. Defining Avatars The use of the term avatar to represent the self or user in the context of shared on-line Internet environments first occurs in the early 1980s with the development of LucasFilmss Habitat project (Farmer). The term came to popular consciousness with the success of the novel SnowCrash (Stephenson). Discussions of the nature of the avatar are often mixed with current cyborg theory. Although the avatar and the cyborg share numerous social constructions and identity politics, in the interest of developing an understanding of the avatar, it is necessary to distinguish it from its cousin, the cyborg. 2.1. The Human Enhanced The term cyborg was coined in 1960 with the appearance of Cyborgs in Space by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline. Clynes and Kline argued that altering mans bodily functions to meet the requirements of extraterrestrial environments was more logical than providing a controlled environment for him in space. Their self-regulating artifact-organism (Clynes and Kline 31-33) would be free to explore