Back in the day, the males of the tribe would go out and scout for food. If they could identify animals from far away, they could choose the best meals, and more importantly, know when to avoid predators. Hence, those males who did this best survived best.
Cars are like animals. Their shapes are distinctive, they move in unique ways, and some of them are predators. This is why men are more interested and generally better at identifying cars.
Just to allay some of the sexism denunciations, I'm not saying that identifying cars is a good or bad skill or that women shouldn't do it, I'm simply explaining the general disparity I've noticed between males and females re car identification.
My wife asks why women are better at identifying shoes and clothing. She's so sexist.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Analyzing Avatar: An ancient word, awesome movie, and advancing scientific reality.
The movie Avatar is a sensational piece of entertainment, but it also offers a glimpse into real Communication research that will help us understand the impact of our current and future media landscape.
"Avatar" is 2000+ year old Sanskrit word which, in the religion of Hinduism, referred to the earthly (human) manifestation of a deity. This word entered modern use, referring to a person’s 3D representation on screen, in the 1985 online game Habitat (Castronova, 2002). However, the concept of an avatar as a highly malleable digital self-representation was not popularized until Stephenson's cyberpunk novel Snow Crash in the mid-nineties (Bailenson, Yee, Kim & Tecarro, 2008). Although the
concept has appeared repeatedly in literature, games, and movies since
before the word “avatar” became popular (e.g., Gibson's Neuromancer), the term has since expanded to include a variety of alternate embodied forms, from persistent virtual manifestations (e.g., Wachowskis' The Matrix), to robots (e.g., Rucker's Ware Trilogy), to biological beings (e.g., Morgan's Altered Carbon).
James Cameron's recently-released blockbuster hit, Avatar, follows in the line of this genre, telling the story of a character who transports his mind from one body to another, thereby immersing himself within a new environment. Although this sci-fi tale is wrought with beyond-our-grandkids’-lifetimes technology, there is an accessible reality to the avatars in Avatar. Researchers in the field of Communication have been studying this concept for over a decade, often using such sci-fi tales as a guide to important research questions (Bailenson, Yee, Kim & Tecarro, 2008). They have developed two relevant theoretical concepts, self-presence and physical presence, which can be examined within the context of the movie Avatar.
Self-presence essentially means embodiment in an alternate self, while physical presence essentially means immersion in an alternate environment. Avatar offers layers of self-presence and physical presence within both the story-line and the viewing experience.
The movie itself induces a high level of physical presence. Cameron's innovative 3D technique propels the images off the screen and into your lap (usually without abusing your startle reflex). Why go to Pandora when the flora and fauna come to you?
Further, the digitally-rendered and physically-filmed actors and objects are integrated seamlessly, at least to my untrained eye. Although I have never seen blue humanoids jumping from trees while shooting arrows, these actions are consistent with my visual expectations and thereby induce a feeling of physical presence. This effect is especially impressive on the non-human (Navi) actor's faces, who express emotion naturally without breaching the uncanny valley (note: this probably relates to social presence as well, but I won't get into that here).
Of course, the viewer's experience of physical presence is nothing compared to that of the human characters who transport their human minds into the Navi bodies (avatars). From a distant MRI-like chamber, they experience complete self-presence within this body and physical presence within the surrounding (often hostile) environment.
And the significance of these experiences extends beyond those moments during which they are connected to their avatars. After a few months of spending his daytime hours in his avatar, Jake Sully returns to his human body and narrates, "Everything is backwards now, like out there is real life and in here is the dream... I don't know who I am anymore." His frame of self-reference changes not only because of the technological experiences of self-presence and physical presence, but also because his (plot-driven) emotional experiences within the avatar are more valuable to him than those within his human body.
Going further, he realizes that all life forms on the planet (Pandora) are interconnected. This explains why the Navi can plug into the horses and flying banchees and then control these animals with their minds. This can be considered partial self-presence because the Navi are extending themselves into another body but are also in control of their own body. But it still represents a very high level of self-presence compared to the current video game character that we control with buttons and pointers.
And finally, after death, each living being's memories are reintegrated into the tree of souls. The substance of spirituality experiences a form of metaphysical presence within all life.
Although this last point is a bit of a stretch, all the other examples are clearly connected to the current theories of self-presence and physical presence. The scholars who develop these theories (including me) use current media technologies, such as video games, to examine whether the theories describe how people really use media. We send surveys to everyday players, run experiments in which people use mediated self-representations within virtual environments, and record various types of data, from behavioral metrics (e.g. how people interact with others in a game) to physiological information (e.g., heart rate, brain activity).
One goal for this research is to determine how to develop media that can induce the greatest levels of self-presence and physical presence. Another is to determine what effects these experiences have on users regarding learning, socialization, and health-related outcomes. If Jake Sully had not fully experienced self-presence or physical presence, would he have still been motivated to fight for the Navi against their militaristic oppressors? If a teenager plays an online game that induces a high level of self-presence or physical presence, is she more likely to build closer relationships with the friends she makes in the game? Do self-presence or physical presence improve the amount of math or science that students learn when they play
educational games? Do such experiences during exercise games compel players to exercise more frequently?
These are the types of questions that Communication scholars aim to answer through their research on self-presence, physical presence, and numerous other experiences during interactive media use. Although the movie Avatar is set far in the future, it highlights the importance of these questions in today’s media environments. Over 2000 years since the word “avatar” was coined, the concept has become an important
aspect of our real and virtual lives.
Rabindra (Robby) Ratan is a PhD Candidate at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication. As part of his dissertation work, he maintains www.self-presence.com.
References:
Bailenson, J.N., Yee, N., Kim, A., & Tecarro, J (2008, in press).
Sciencepunk: The influence of informed science fiction on virtual
reality research. In, Margret Grebowicz, ed. The Joy of SF: Essays in
Science and Technology Studies. Open Court Publishing
Castronova, E. (2002). On virtual economies. CESifo Working Paper
Series No. 752. http://ssrn.com/abstract=338500
"Avatar" is 2000+ year old Sanskrit word which, in the religion of Hinduism, referred to the earthly (human) manifestation of a deity. This word entered modern use, referring to a person’s 3D representation on screen, in the 1985 online game Habitat (Castronova, 2002). However, the concept of an avatar as a highly malleable digital self-representation was not popularized until Stephenson's cyberpunk novel Snow Crash in the mid-nineties (Bailenson, Yee, Kim & Tecarro, 2008). Although the
concept has appeared repeatedly in literature, games, and movies since
before the word “avatar” became popular (e.g., Gibson's Neuromancer), the term has since expanded to include a variety of alternate embodied forms, from persistent virtual manifestations (e.g., Wachowskis' The Matrix), to robots (e.g., Rucker's Ware Trilogy), to biological beings (e.g., Morgan's Altered Carbon).
James Cameron's recently-released blockbuster hit, Avatar, follows in the line of this genre, telling the story of a character who transports his mind from one body to another, thereby immersing himself within a new environment. Although this sci-fi tale is wrought with beyond-our-grandkids’-lifetimes technology, there is an accessible reality to the avatars in Avatar. Researchers in the field of Communication have been studying this concept for over a decade, often using such sci-fi tales as a guide to important research questions (Bailenson, Yee, Kim & Tecarro, 2008). They have developed two relevant theoretical concepts, self-presence and physical presence, which can be examined within the context of the movie Avatar.
Self-presence essentially means embodiment in an alternate self, while physical presence essentially means immersion in an alternate environment. Avatar offers layers of self-presence and physical presence within both the story-line and the viewing experience.
The movie itself induces a high level of physical presence. Cameron's innovative 3D technique propels the images off the screen and into your lap (usually without abusing your startle reflex). Why go to Pandora when the flora and fauna come to you?
Further, the digitally-rendered and physically-filmed actors and objects are integrated seamlessly, at least to my untrained eye. Although I have never seen blue humanoids jumping from trees while shooting arrows, these actions are consistent with my visual expectations and thereby induce a feeling of physical presence. This effect is especially impressive on the non-human (Navi) actor's faces, who express emotion naturally without breaching the uncanny valley (note: this probably relates to social presence as well, but I won't get into that here).
Of course, the viewer's experience of physical presence is nothing compared to that of the human characters who transport their human minds into the Navi bodies (avatars). From a distant MRI-like chamber, they experience complete self-presence within this body and physical presence within the surrounding (often hostile) environment.
And the significance of these experiences extends beyond those moments during which they are connected to their avatars. After a few months of spending his daytime hours in his avatar, Jake Sully returns to his human body and narrates, "Everything is backwards now, like out there is real life and in here is the dream... I don't know who I am anymore." His frame of self-reference changes not only because of the technological experiences of self-presence and physical presence, but also because his (plot-driven) emotional experiences within the avatar are more valuable to him than those within his human body.
Going further, he realizes that all life forms on the planet (Pandora) are interconnected. This explains why the Navi can plug into the horses and flying banchees and then control these animals with their minds. This can be considered partial self-presence because the Navi are extending themselves into another body but are also in control of their own body. But it still represents a very high level of self-presence compared to the current video game character that we control with buttons and pointers.
And finally, after death, each living being's memories are reintegrated into the tree of souls. The substance of spirituality experiences a form of metaphysical presence within all life.
Although this last point is a bit of a stretch, all the other examples are clearly connected to the current theories of self-presence and physical presence. The scholars who develop these theories (including me) use current media technologies, such as video games, to examine whether the theories describe how people really use media. We send surveys to everyday players, run experiments in which people use mediated self-representations within virtual environments, and record various types of data, from behavioral metrics (e.g. how people interact with others in a game) to physiological information (e.g., heart rate, brain activity).
One goal for this research is to determine how to develop media that can induce the greatest levels of self-presence and physical presence. Another is to determine what effects these experiences have on users regarding learning, socialization, and health-related outcomes. If Jake Sully had not fully experienced self-presence or physical presence, would he have still been motivated to fight for the Navi against their militaristic oppressors? If a teenager plays an online game that induces a high level of self-presence or physical presence, is she more likely to build closer relationships with the friends she makes in the game? Do self-presence or physical presence improve the amount of math or science that students learn when they play
educational games? Do such experiences during exercise games compel players to exercise more frequently?
These are the types of questions that Communication scholars aim to answer through their research on self-presence, physical presence, and numerous other experiences during interactive media use. Although the movie Avatar is set far in the future, it highlights the importance of these questions in today’s media environments. Over 2000 years since the word “avatar” was coined, the concept has become an important
aspect of our real and virtual lives.
Rabindra (Robby) Ratan is a PhD Candidate at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication. As part of his dissertation work, he maintains www.self-presence.com.
References:
Bailenson, J.N., Yee, N., Kim, A., & Tecarro, J (2008, in press).
Sciencepunk: The influence of informed science fiction on virtual
reality research. In, Margret Grebowicz, ed. The Joy of SF: Essays in
Science and Technology Studies. Open Court Publishing
Castronova, E. (2002). On virtual economies. CESifo Working Paper
Series No. 752. http://ssrn.com/abstract=338500
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