Research+Tools

= **Research Tools** =
 * Presentation****:** We plan to create a short video to present our findings and to also dress like our Second Life avatar.

Media Used

 * **Final Cut Pro:** To edit our final project/video.
 * **Digital Camera:** To document our social experiment through pictures.
 * **Camcorder:** To record our social experiment and to capture people's reactions to our appearance.
 * **L****ap Top:** To explore Second Life and to create our avatars.

**Theorists/Theory**

 * Environment** – The environment we are set in can affect how one acts, carries or represent themselves. Social norms vary for every environment, in this case we are exploring specific real environments (i.e. bus, mall, campus) versus online environments on Second Life (i.e, online stores, online parks).

**Walter Benjamin**:
 * Aura** - Our thesis looks how norms differ online than in reality. We hope to examine this phenomenon in relation to the aura. In an online community the user are creating experiences that happen to your character, while the user is securely planted behind their computer screen. This means that there is a depletion of the aura of actually living because they are replacing online experiences for real life ones. We believe that this depletion of the aura factors into the the reason why norms are different online. We also intend to examine how authenticity factors into the enforcement of norms in the real world.

**Jean Baudrillard**:
 * Simulacra and Simulation** - Simulacra is a representation of the real, copying the likeness of an object. Baudrillard then argues that simulacra is not necessarily a copy of the real, but the extraction of truth through simulation and replication. Second Life is a simulacra of the "First World" (reality) simulating many of the qualities of reality but making it virtual. There are malls, people, cars, houses, trees, etc., but it is a world that is not physical or tangible --nor is it a direct copy. People can alter how they look and act online, there are different social norms online that do not work in the real world. People can also show a different side of themselves online that thay cannot in reality, revealing their true selves or real persona. This is how truth can be shared through simulacra. If inhibitions are stripped online and social dynamics are different, then a person's true colours can be revealed and an honest form of expression can be conducted. Simulacra can ultimately affect how we control our visual representation.
 * Hyperreality** - Artificial simulation that replaces real emotions with a heightened or altered feeling. Second Life effectively plays with our real life emotions through simulacra and simulation. When we engage in a hyperreality there is a heightened sense of emotion that directly correlates between our online selves and our real selves. For some, real people may actually feel a sense of fulfilment and happiness through their simulated life online rather then their own physical life. Hyperreality is the reason why many people are constantly reconstructing their appearance online because it gives them a sense of control, fullfillment or elivated emotional state.
 * Michel Foucault**:
 * Panopticism** - Panopticism is a way that institutions impose a code of behaviour upon individuals. This is relevant to our topic in the idea of self regulation, or that people internalize the idea that they are always being watched or monitored and change their behaviours to conform to these ideologies. This creates norms of behaviours which we are examining and what happens when people don't conform to these norms.
 * This is not a pipe** - The painting done by René Magritte and later discussed by Michel Foucault who addressed the issue of representation vs. reality. Yes, this picture is not a pipe, but a representation of a pipe. We plan on examining how representations can come to hold meaning of their own. In a virtual world the avatar stands in for a real person, but at the same time, it is not the person but a representation of them. We plan on examining the break between representations and the real world.


 * NEXT:** Roles & Responsibilities