The spaceman I have chosen is Bob Dylan due to his music being associated with anti-war and civil rights movements, in the 1960’s. Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. He has shaped space and time on an international scale when his songs ( “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’”) got adopted by anti-war and civil rights activists, during unrest in America, he openly contested the governments views and misconceptions of that time, becoming a figurehead for such movements.

Dylan’s early lyrics incorporated politics, social commentary, philosophy and literary influences, defying existing pop music conventions and appealing widely to the counterculture of the time. While expanding and personalizing musical styles, he has shown steadfast devotion to many traditions of American song, from folk and country/blues to rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly, to Celtic balladry, even jazz, swing and Broadway.

We aim to base our 4D production on the concept of loneliness and the deep inquisitive philosophical questions each of us ask ourselves when we are alone. I originally thought of this idea whilst watching “waking life” (http://www.wakinglifemovie.com/ ) Waking Life follows the dream(s) of one man and his attempt to find and discern the absolute difference between waking life and the dreamworld. While trying to figure out a way to wake up, he runs into many people on his way; some of which offer one sentence asides on life, others delving deeply into existential questions and life’s mysteries.

With a strong provocative narrative our production “man in a crowd” will follow a character through the sorrow of lonely life in his search of happiness; we aim to communicate the powerful sense of social isolation experienced in this person’s life. We are playing with several ideas at present from constructing a booth to completely isolate the viewer to expanding the questions raised across cultures, exploring the idea that different cultures and upbringing contribute to the provoked answers.

One of my modules this year is called Production of space; the module addresses historical and contemporary developments in our understanding of space as a cultural, social and technological phenomenon as new media practices alter traditional models for architecture, communities and personal identities.
The project I wish to explore is called “Follow The Fiver” looking at how currency and economic commitments connect us as a social network, be it local, national or international. Ever heard the saying “money talks” in a sense it does, currency follows from one person to another without anyone taking much notice, but I’ve come to ask myself, where has this five pound note been before me, have I ever had it before?

I aim to put an unspecified number of five pound notes into circulation with the website address, http://www.followthefiver.co.uk/ printed on them, the aim is that a percentage of people will visit the web address, and fill in a few details about them selves. If this is done enough times I will build a database of information on the people who are connected via a particular fiver.

The creation, Life and death of online personalities, in massively multiplayer online Role playing games (MMORPGs), is online identity an extension of reality? A critical study.

A particular increasingly popular online activity: large collaborative online videogames called “massively multiplayer online Role playing games (MMORPGs), where virtual worlds are becoming a novel new reality, for the establishment of online identity. But is online identity an extension of reality? In this thesis I will argue that these environments create an informal sociability atmosphere where personalities and online identities flourish, and therefore it is an extension of “reality”. During which I will identify that these environments satisfy Ray Oldenburgs criteria for becoming a “third place” real world, which provide a deep sense of emotional and social engagement. Starting at the character creation stage of MMORPG’s, where the user chooses the features of their character, selecting aspects to meet an established requirement (game play or otherwise) expressing characters personality and personal preference, bridging the void between “reality” and these virtual worlds and therefore giving birth to
their online identity. By understanding the MMO environment and what Role-play gaming involves, “seeing it as a way of playing a game, rather than a game in itself, role-playing can be perceived as game playing motivated with narrative desires” Heliö, S. “Role-Playing: A Narrative Experience and a Mindset”, in Montola, M. & Stenros, J. (eds.) Beyond Role and Play, pp. 65-74. Solmukohta 2004. Vantaa, Ropecon. www.ropecon.fi/brap.  We can better understand the social and cognitive behaviours of online gamers, following their online identities through the characters existence, up until their death; does the online personality ever die? For example when a gamer moves from one game to another, will that exact personality transfer with them, continuing its life, or is it dependent on the MMO environment, these are questions and theories I aim to explore in this thesis. 

Final year project proposal
 

My dissertation is based on online identity and personality in MMPOG’s (Massively Multi-player Online Games) so due to amount of research and study it makes sense to expand this area of study for my final year project.
Similar to Feng Mengbo’s  Q4U (Quake for you; 2002) in which he inserted a ‘skin’ – a visual representation of himself equipped with a weapon and a video camcorder, into the game and made him the main character.  This project questions concepts of identity in the context of role-playing by directly implementing the artist in the commercial environment and violence of the game.
I want to take this idea forward, using the game “the Sims”/”second Life” (the game may change) in the structure of a presentation/exhibition. I want to create within minutes a personalised skin of the person experiencing the game and virtual world. Using either a manual process of creating the skin, or ideally making this automatic using a web cam. So Instead of controlling a completely irrelevant unrecognizable character to the player, the player will actually upload themselves to the game, but will their real life identity follow? I believe that by undertaking this project I will discover whether MMORPGs (Massively multi player online role playing games) are an extension of “reality” as we know it, following the players online experiences though the virtual environment. This project raises many questions on identity and I’m interested to investigate these finding for my thesis. 

http://q4u1.uchicago.edu/