Journeys with my avatar

are the fairies still there at the bottom of the garden? or alive and well in sl ...

Morning Fri 16^th April

'To do' list too long! Have needed an avatar to appropriate half my current tasks into sl and complete! Failing that I have had to prioritise and leave my avatar in ‘the world between’ until I have more time available.

The tweet reference: London Review of Education March 2010, v. 8 iss. 1 pp. 25-38 by Maggi Saven-Baden. ‘Changelings and shape shifters? Identity play and pedagogical positioning of staff in immersive virtual worlds’ will be interesting background if I can access. Many avatars, if not reflecting post-modern punk culture, seem to derive from 19^th century fairy research with overtones of Rossetti. Culturally fascinating opportunities to make forays into the world of the faery and fairytale with few of the traditional threats. Do fairytale worlds exist in sl? (another 'to do') or is simply entering sl entering the experience of ‘the changeling’? do changeling avatars end up in the real world in exchange? Certainly the answer could be yes once obsession takes over …

Shamanic journeys could inform avatar action and ‘personality’ but it seems doubtful that the journeys currently possible in sl could prompt more than cosmetic shape shifting.