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Why can't our avatars walk hand-in-hand? What is virtual autism? Virtual Body Language The History and Future of Avatars: How Nonverbal Expression is Evolving on the Internet Author Jeffrey Ventrella   |
Faux Pas Av Communication Gestural Turing Test Manifesto Download free PDF chapters from ETC Press |
"A brilliant and lucid opening up of what an avatar is/could be,
told from the inside, from the body, from gesture -- which surely
is at the centre of human expressivity and creative unfolding.
I'm reminded of Deleuze's "we have only just begun to know what a
body is capable of" in the way Ventrella thinks what a virtual body
is/can be."
- Brian Rotman, author of Becoming Beside Ourselves "Given Jeffrey's groundbreaking work with avatars in virtual worlds, I'd consider this mandatory reading for anyone interested in the future of the medium." - Wagner James Au, author of The Making of Second Life "Jeffrey has done something really hard to do: make a deep technical treatise into a story; not just informative, but readable and fun" - Brad deGraf, 3D Animation Pioneer "It's very rare that designers of games and virtual worlds give us a glimpse inside their design process. Jeffrey Ventrella, co-creator of the virtual world There.com, has graced us with this lucid and practical account of his experience creating expressive avatars, and developers of multiplayer worlds would do well to build on his groundbreaking work. "Virtual Body Language" is a must-read for both designers and researchers who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the intense expressive relationship between avatars and their users." - Celia Pearce, author of Communities of Play, MIT Press |