This week’s Farmlab salon confronts the computer age’s latest multiple personality disorder: avatars. An avatar is a computer user’s icon or representation of himself to another party in a chat, instant messaging or multiplayer gaming session. It’s a caricature, not a realistic photo, and can be a simple image or a bizarre fantasy figure. In the noon Friday, May 16, salon called Identity and Virtual Space (Or, Are We Our Avatars?), a panel of experts will discuss just that – the meaning of relationships, fame, experiences and community in a virtual world. Among them are Sean Percival, a Second Life expert, and Kristen Rutherford, an actress and writer who starred in the Alternative Reality Game ilovebees (and whose voice, they readily admit, still terrifies the game’s players). Farmlab Public Salons are at 1745 N. Spring St., #4, (323) 226-1158 or farmlab.org.
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