AMANDA MCCOY BAST - MFA NOTES + WORK

Influential Reading

• Maeda, John Maeda Media
• Desmet, Pieter Designing Emotions
• Csikszentmihalyi, M., Rochberg-Halton, E. The Meaning of Things. Domestic symbols and the self.
• Buchannan, Richard “Declaration by Design: Rhetoric, Argument, and Demonstration in Design Practice"
• Carl Andre: concrete poetry and early minimalist sculptures
• Postrel, Virginia The Substance of Style
  How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness
• Marx, Leo The Machine in the Garden

Review Statement II

My work since May is an investigation of Emotion & Design, in theory and in application. After Review One, I looked critically at my previous interests, and how they were tied together. By the end of the summer, the thread began to reveal itself in ways I hadn’t seen before. I then honed this interest in Emotion & Design to three areas: 1) Input 2) Output and 3) Measurement.

In ceramics, I discovered a medium that challenged me as a designer. I built a terra cotta pot and imbedded the wet clay with metal type that is set in HTML. The pot is my emotionally charged reaction to the loss of artifacts that document society and technology. I also created coasters that use words to promote interactivity. I later made a book entitled “transformations” that acts as a bridge between ceramics and Critique Studio II, this Fall. The book takes influences from the book, Gryffin and Sabine, and mixes them with a narrative of the symbiotic relationship between the maker and her material. The transitional images reflect the maker going from rigid to flexible, while the opposing image of the material reflects the inverse...

In July, Anne Beamish supervised an independent study that continued my questions of emotion measurement as it could apply to virtual communities. Specifically, what user scenarios may evolve when the technology is used for both good and evil. The end result is a prototype called “Share,” that suggests a web-based application that can be used between patients and doctors in the mental healthcare industry.

My work this summer with Gloria resulted in a comparison of three methods of preserving photos in order to gain applied understanding of the handmade object; and how emotion and design applies to its aesthetic. Three books of wedding photos reflect this comparison. I directed my investigation in Core II to Design Rhetoric, and how logos, ethos, and pathos may apply to handmade objects. My hypothesis is that handmade objects have a higher perceived value to some people, and I wanted to know what role emotion played in this perception. I created a survey for people to report why they would or would not choose a handmade coffee mug over one that is mass produced, and on what basis they would change their decision.

Core II also gave me the opportunity to lecture on User Centered Design and Human Factors at St. Edwards University. Additionally, I reran my workshop entitled New Methods in Human Computer Interaction to the same group of students. The workshop tested my method of using analog prototypes to inform a digital design. Conversely, my independent study with Dr. Knapp in nonverbal communication allowed me to look at this method in reverse. That is, I’m looking at how nonverbal communication in virtual worlds affects our real world communication behavior. My paper refers to the online world of Second Life, and cites a wedding as a common social event from which to analyze the meaning of environment (including artifacts), physical characteristics, and behavior.

Critique Studio II allowed me to explore my interest in using emotion as input through making. I’ve focused on projects that make users more aware of their emotions, and emotion triggers. The Emote kit was designed to be mobile and private. Users created an emotion map with perforated colored squares. Each day, they placed a square in an accordion book, dated it, and chose a word in the form of a label (a synonym for weather). Next I prototyped a digital application as an exploration of the analog Emote kit to be a downloadable product that could integrate with a user’s computer operating system. With similar features to its analog cousin, the digital version records emotions that can be displayed later as a desktop pattern.

For my Master’s report, I’m planning to write and exhibit my work in the context of Emotion & Design in the form of theoretical, applied, and polemic work. I have three projects in mind. The first is a continuation of my interest in using Design Rhetoric as a way to describe emotion in handmade objects. I intend to research Scrapbooking as a social phenomenon and make something in response to the information. The second project is a continuation of the digital emote prototype that results either in multiple iterations or one working version. Finally, I’d like to create a provocative and perhaps polemic project with retired card catalog cards. I’m interested in exploring their tangible and interactive characteristics in order to express my emotional reaction to their obsolescence, and perhaps evoke an awareness, or emotional reaction in the viewer.

Affect & Nonverbal Communication In Virtual Worlds

Introduction
For slightly more than five decades, the field of Nonverbal Communication (NVC) has guided Communication Studies in the interpretation of nonverbal signals in human-to-human behavior. From the subtle differences of facial expressions, to the communication environment and its beautiful and ugly rooms, we have concerned ourselves with decoding the details of hundreds of nonverbal signals. Consequently, the Software industry has adopted these nonverbal signals with the intent of creating virtual worlds that extend the boundaries of traditional face-to-face communication. As a result, virtual worlds often succeed in turning some nonverbal signals upside-down and inside-out; sometimes changing their meanings altogether. As we navigate both the physical and virtual world of nonverbal communication, it is quite easy to assume that virtual worlds are simply an attempt to mirror our physical world. The intent of this essay is to demonstrate that challenging this paradigm may provide opportunities to discover new perspectives within the field of nonverbal communication. Using a comparative analysis of a common social event --a wedding-- we will examine both parallels and inconsistencies as a means to discuss the affect of nonverbal communication in virtual worlds, on our physical world.

History of nonverbal communication in metaworlds
In order to gain a good understanding of nonverbal communication in virtual worlds, we will begin by briefly defining nonverbal communication in the physical world. Using the broad definition, we refer to nonverbal communication as any means of communication that does not rely on words. Using intrinsic, iconic, and arbitrary coding, we are able to categorize and recognize hundreds of signals occurring around us. As we study nonverbal communication, we focus on three primary units including environment, physical characteristics, and behavior. In the communication environment, Proxemics helps us gain insight as to how we perceive our surroundings. Artifacts such as clothing, jewelry, tattoos and body type contribute to physical characteristics as a unit of nonverbal communication. Then, as we look at behavior, we learn what is communicated by factors such as our speech patterns, tone of voice, and facial expressions.

The term, “virtual world,” “metaworld”, or “virtual community” can be described in different ways. One standard definition is a group who shares a common interest and communicates by traditional written correspondence over physical distance, for example. For the purposes of our discussion we will define virtual worlds as places where human-to-human communication is enabled via computers and computer networks, and participants need not be face-to-face in order to interact. Virtual worlds provide options to facilitate communication, such as the use of emoticons while typing [ ;-)], or clothing to dress up our virtual selves (avatars). Avatars are animated embodiments of the self. We tell them what to do, and where to travel. We see what they see. We don’t speak, our avatars speak for us. We are their puppet masters.

As early as 1979, at Essex University in England, the first virtual community in the form of a Multi-User Dungeon, a.k.a. “MUD” was developed. In this and other MUDs, users took part in adventures by describing virtual places (with text-only input) and destinations with terms from the physical world, the most obvious being “rooms”. Using rudimentary graphics and a world represented in a 2D environment, World’s Away is an early example of a virtual world that used avatars as a form of expression. Today, computer processors afford us environments imagined in the Science Fiction novels of our not-so-distant past. Virtual worlds such as Second Life, allow rich, real-time communication between fully rendered 3D avatars, imbedded in a world so real, one might not want to leave!

Mirrors in virtual worlds can lie: The meaning of things
Looking closer at the factors of nonverbal communication, we can break each of the types into their relevant categories of environment, physical characteristics, and behavior in the virtual world. We’ll navigate the types of communication with an understanding, at this point, of their meaning in the physical world. That is, a tomato in the virtual world, shall be represented as what we understand a tomato to be in the physical world, so our assumptions about what a tomato communicates is the same for the purposes of this essay. But by looking critically at the meaning of things in the virtual world, we might inform something previously unknown in the physical world. By examining the similarities and differences of each method of nonverbal communication in the physical and virtual world, we become aware of how they might influence one another.

a. Environment
The communication environment contains several aspects that influence how humans interact and the virtual world is no exception. An avatar might enter a space with environmental cues that the activities taking place there are of an informal nature, such as a billiards hall with pool tables, compared to a small wood-textured church that lends itself to a more formal setting. Other perceptions such as warmth, privacy, and familiarity are equally present in the virtual world. When an avatar is alone in a vast rolling hillside, there is a sense of privacy, in addition to recognition of spatial orientation. The first few times a user in Second Life logs into the system, they land in an unrecognizable space and it can be disorienting. The unfamiliar surroundings parallel our experiences of being in a new city for the first time.

Proximity is one element that changes communication in virtual worlds. “The first effect of proximity is when initiating conversations: it is easier in physical settings…. Furthermore, proximity increases frequency of communication (people communicate most with those who are physically close) as well as the likelihood of chance encounter. Proximity also facilitates transitions from encounters to communication.” In contrast, however; the virtual environment allows us to learn who is online, and through teleporting (quickly moving from one location in the virtual environment to another) we can immediately gain access to others and therefore overcome the challenges of proximity in the traditional sense. Co-presence, or the recognition of “being there” with others online can influence our perception of distance. As we continue to use virtual features such as teleporting, will we think differently about how we respect distance in our physical world? Today, we witness cell phones encroaching on what, before, were private areas such as our homes, restrooms etc. Perhaps this ability to ignore boundaries in virtual worlds changes how we communicate in the physical world.

Movable objects, architecture, lighting, color, and sound in virtual worlds carry meaning and nonverbal signals to other participants just as they do in our physical worlds [Fig 1]. We have learned that “things” have meanings, and can act as extensions of the self, or the desired self. We have looked at the significance of material possessions in contemporary urban life, and of the ways people carve meaning out of their domestic environment. In the virtual world, we build houses, have cars, clothing, and objects we might posses at some level in the physical world. However, their signals could be misfiring in the virtual one. A participant in a virtual world might build a large, six bedroom home with an ocean view, but in real life, live in a one-bedroom apartment in the basement of a densely populated area. At what point in the virtual world do objects begin to take on new meaning and function as nonverbal signals of communication by other measures?

While color and lighting are factors that influence our physical communication environment, participants in virtual worlds use color and lighting in a similar manner to communicate mood and feeling. Just as we’ve found Blue to be a comforting, and Red to be arousing in the physical world, we assign similar meanings to these colors --except when they are used in (adaptations of) physical appearances (avatars). From a participant point of view, I might be likely to choose warm lighting in my virtual home, but select a vibrant blue for my avatar’s hair color. Using this example, we can begin to see the discrepancy between the use of color and lighting between the virtual and physical world, and as a result, I might be less likely to die my hair in real life if I have the ability to die it so easily in my virtual one. Here again, is the potential for our physical world to be affected by our nonverbal communication in virtual worlds.

b. Physical Characteristics
In virtual worlds, our avatars embody the messages our physical selves wish to convey, nonverbally. “While presence, social integration, and communication form powerful aspects of embodiment online, identity remains one of the most evocative uses of an avatar [Fig 2]. Ultimately, digital bodies tell the world something about your self. They are a public signal of who you are. They also shape and make real how users internally experience their selves.” While username is not a characteristic we see in the physical world, it becomes part of an avatar’s identity in the virtual. Similar to statements made by bumper stickers on automobiles, members of virtual worlds have the opportunity to express themselves through their username. While “Jane Doe” communicates little, a username such as “Baker Sunshine” provides cues about the user that he or she chooses to wear virtually (like clothing) but on a semi-permanent basis.

Just as we adorn ourselves in our physical world, our avatars have the freedom to express themselves to whatever extent the technology affords. While the social meaning of adornment such as tattoos and body piercing might mean one thing in the physical world; we have no real social equivalent for avatar adornment such as butterfly wings, or jet-packs [Fig 3]. Do we communicate differently in the physical world with the person whose avatar totes butterfly wings in the virtual world? Perhaps not, but we are slowly allowed private glimpses of another person’s fantasy world, or alter-ego in some ways, as we express our “other-selves” in the virtual world. The way an avatar might look in the virtual world allows us to make first impressions of a new nature. Instead of referring to formal etiquette guidelines passed down through our culture, the rules of the virtual world have the capacity to erase notions such as the following one: “A finished dress indicates a man of the world, one who looks for and habitually finds, pleasure in society and conversation, and who is at all times ready to mingle in intercourse with those whom he meets with…” In some cases, the avatar with butterfly wings, instead of a tailored suit is the wo/man of the virtual world.

As we begin to see our new selves through our avatars, do we change the way we see ourselves in the physical world, and communicate differently as a result? Take posture, for example. A person with a bent-over posture in the real world might experience their virtual life with an avatar that walks upright; …proud of their overall virtual existence. Does the person in real life begin to pay closer attention to his or her posture in the physical world as a result? Perhaps the avatar experiences positive nonverbal signals from others in the virtual world and believes they should begin mirroring their avatar to provoke similar real life responses?

c. Behavior
Behavior is the most complex factor in understanding nonverbal communication in virtual worlds. While physical characteristics are expressed via the avatar, and environment is the virtual world itself (as place), behavior roots its origins inside the mind of the user. While most participants understand that an avatar can be an extension of the self, many tend to pass judgment on the “user” not the avatar.” The user decides the behavior of the avatar and is, therefore, treated according to the social norms in our physical world. Most of our nonverbal behavior involves change or movement. We exhibit different gestures and postures during an encounter: sometimes we touch others and sometimes we do not; our face, eyes and voice also are displayed in various patterns” The most immediate emotional signal of person-to-person nonverbal communication is facial expression. It reflects interpersonal attitudes, provides feedback on comments of others, and is regarded as the primary source of information next to human speech. Our avatars in virtual worlds today have the abilities to smile, frown, wink, or blow a kiss to another avatar as a means of communication [Fig 4]. Most of us have come to accept the research that the following universal expressions: surprise, fear, anger, disgust, happiness and sadness have clear meaning across cultures. These expressions (by default) send similar signals in virtual worlds.

A combination of elements displayed in a person’s nonverbal behavior (such as gesture, tone of voice and posture) can be considered a performance when the person requests that his or her impression be taken seriously. Sociologists have informed us that our nonverbal actions in a group can be considered a show “for the benefit of other people”. This notion of a performance is well exemplified by the virtual world, where the environment itself is a stage to some extent. Since the metaphor of a stage could be easily exhausted in this essay, we will move onward to the potential affect of these performances on everyday real-life. There are many research examples of misrepresentation in virtual communities which seem to cause a type of domino-effect with some participants. That is, one member might portray him or herself as a socially enlightened person in the virtual world, and in actuality, has barriers (such as a severe speech impediment) to successful face-to-face interaction in the physical world. Eventually, the participant begins to see him or herself as this person with the real life persona of his avatar in the virtual world. “At one extreme, one finds that the performer can be fully taken in by his own act; he can be sincerely convinced that the impression of reality which he stages is the real reality. When his audience is also convinced in this way about the show he puts on (and this seems to be the typical case) then for the moment at least, only the sociologist or the socially disgruntled will have any doubts about the “realness” of what is presented. In this sense, where the situation is first applied to the virtual world, the effects this believable reality has on the individual is on his or her physical world. How much this virtual reality has the ability to affect the participant depends on that participant’s willingness to believe.

A wedding as a platform for discourse
One social event that has occurred at least hundreds of times in the last decade is the virtual wedding. It is an online social event allowing two avatars to publicly (within reason) commit to one another, using both traditional and non traditional means. Consider what our culture considers to be a standard wedding as we look closely at a few weddings in the aforementioned online world of Second Life as a means to compare them to one we might have attended in the real world.

a. Artifacts & physical characteristics
One of the first objects we associate with a legal marriage in the physical world is a license. In the virtual world, a legal document hasn’t quite made its debut, but in one Second Life example, an attendee who officiated one wedding was actually an ordained minister in real life. Does this make the marriage any more real? Not necessarily. Without the artifact of a license it is difficult to create meaning from it if it is absent in the virtual world, since we associate meaning to these objects of tradition. However, we assign the same meanings to virtual objects that we use in the real world, such as an altar, a wedding dress, a cake, an invitation, a wedding gift, and a thank you note. One example of the similarities is this virtual invitation in Second Life which read,

The honor of your presense
is requested at the marriage of
Charlie Omega
and
Lynnix Muse
On Thrisday the 27th. of
February at 8:30p.m.
At the New Roman Palace
Located on sim Federal
205, 163
r.s.v.p
An event announcement will also be made
that is too grand to miss, after the
ceremony.

One difference in this invitation are the misspelled words, while not intended, are likely more frequent in a virtual world than in a world where the money to have invitations printed is in the ballpark of about a grand these days (depending on the number printed.) Despite the misspelled words, the idea and general structure is similar. Additionally, at the wedding mentioned in the invitation above, a table was set up in the reception area, with a wedding cake (including cake topper), a few virtually wrapped gifts, a roasted turkey, flowers, some ice-cream cones, and champagne glasses laid out on top of a marble table. [Fig 5] The thank you note from another Second Life wedding as a communication artifact reads as though it could have been a real-life wedding, with exception of the mention of the crowded SIM (SIM stands for simulator. In Second Life, 1 Sim = 16 acres of virtual land).

Thank You
We would like to thank everyone that attended our wedding and reception last night. The chapel was packed with friends and the IM’s from well wishers that could not enter the Sim kept pouring in. It was and will stay the most beautiful and touching event in my Second Life. Zan and I both wished we could had invited so many others, but unfortunately the sim would only hold 20 and it stayed packed well into the night.

Special thanks to….
Ama Omega - For letting us rent the Chapel and Inn. The setting was beautiful and perfect. Thank you Ama.
Catherine Cotton – For making the most beautiful wedding cake and decorations ever. And for all the moral support she gave when I was flaking out And being the barefoot brides maid Sorry could not resist adding that.
Gwydeon Nomad – For putting together one of the most lovely of ceremonies and taking time to decorate the chapel. See I did notice
Jean Cook - For letting Cat and I go willy nilly through your speciality shop that were added to the reception decor.
Shadow Weaver - Definitely the Best Man for the Job. Thank you for the support you gave.
Skeedalee Skidoo- Thank you for all the time you spent creating that tiny champagne fountain for under the cake. It was an artistic marvel.
Stampshady Grimm - For taking time to make our rings and the gorgeous diamond earrings. Also for, at the last moment, thinking of the one thing that did not occur to me, putting together the wedding march.
Tcoz Bach - Thank you for adding that finishing special touch that caused flowers to gently float from my wedding veil. Thank you for playing “Father”. You did the role well “Dad”
Xlyor Baysklef – For the special effect of the twirling cake top, you helped make the decorations that more special.
** Special Request **
Could some of you that took pictures last night send me a few. That was one thing I could not do during the event. Would greatly appreciate any pictures sent.
Again, our deepest thanks to all for making last night an event to remember.

Zan & Fey

While no two weddings in the virtual world are alike, they share some of the common ideas we hold to be true in the real world. There are often weeks (as opposed to months) preparing for the event, the wedding party is assembled, and the couples tend to have avatars of opposite genders, wearing what generally appears to be formalwear [Fig 6].

b. Environment
The environment at a virtual wedding is a more surreal in appearance than a real world wedding, for obvious reasons. The buildings and venues are similar in concept to the open air pavilions we think of in the real world. Due to the fact that weather tends to have no apparent effect on our avatars, the structures built virtually need not have the same heating and cooling mechanisms we cherish in the real world. That said, there is still a tendency to create formal environments that are aesthetically appealing in virtual worlds, and there is no more formal occasion than a wedding to make use of these virtual spaces [Fig 7]. Second Life boasts a little white chapel, several formal gazebos and some fairly wild indoor spaces as venues for weddings. Even though the mood or atmosphere of a virtual wedding is temporal and less physical, this has no bearing on the lengths members will go to create a space that has the look and feel of a place with a warm, joyful environment. The thank you note above recounts the scripting of virtual flowers “to float from [the bride’s] veil” as she walked down the aisle.

c. Behavior – “The Drunk Uncle”If there were any question about behavior at a wedding in the virtual world, the following excerpt from a reception that took place in Second Life provides a most colorful answer: “A beer in one hand and a cocktail in the other, I come stumbling into the wedding reception that I finagled an invite to only minutes before. I've got the beer because I arrived right from the campfire party… and when I stagger through the door, someone hands me an umbrella-topped concoction called "ian's drink 1.2", which contains a script that makes your avatar take frequent gulps from the glass -- and just as frequently, stumble face first onto the floor [Fig 8]. I didn't go to the actual wedding of Zanlew Wu and Fey Brightwillow…, and the reception is already in full swing, so the overall effect must make me look like the crazy drunk uncle no one invited, barging into the country club to grope the bridesmaids.”

Affect of communicating in virtual worlds on real life
One thing that can be said about virtual world relationships is that they move fast. When people meet in virtual worlds, they have a common bond by the mere fact that they are part of the same virtual world. There have been many well documented cases concerning couples that have met online, with both good and bad outcomes. The couple whose Second Life wedding was mentioned in the paragraphs above, actually met and moved in with one another in their real life.

“After two months knowing each other in Second Life, Lynnix stepped away from the game, and made the one-hour road trip to Charlie's home in a neighboring town. Their first in-person visit went pretty well. "We knew each other for a day," says Lynnix, "Next day we went to his house to pick up some stuff." And with that, they moved in together. "We found out so much about each other in [Second Life]," says Charlie, "it was like just meeting [in real life] solidified it all."

By building relationships in 3D worlds such as Second Life, the couple has more opportunity for collaboration and cooperation through the in-world building tools and events that take place within the walls of virtual structures. Couples (avatars) can in fact co-habitat without the same social repercussions they experience in the physical world, but even this has an effect on lives outside of the world. In the following example, one Second Life couple decided to move in together, virtually. Their experience influenced their physical world by the social dilemmas presented in the sense that it morally conflicted with who they were in real life.

“After a couple of weeks, we realized we were really close to each other, so I invited her to share the cabin with me [Fig 9]….She knew that her living here might give off the wrong idea to some people. …. I have a strong faith…and therefore, am not someone that would 'shack up' like you see a lot of in real life." So their spiritual convictions led them into a rather unique conversation: While they considered pre-marital cohabitation sinful, what exactly was the sin quotient involved with living together in an online world? "We talked about the idea of her living here in the cabin," says Bob. "When it came down to it, we decided it would be OK, because quite frankly, we aren't doing anything like sleeping together…we aren't physically intimate with one another, although we are growing closer and closer together. So, whenever people make comments like 'so you guys are getting it on' or something to that effect, we gently let them know that we don't believe in that sort of thing…."We discussed just where the lines would be drawn," he says, "what would and wouldn't be acceptable behavior. Now, we will hug and even kiss, but if we were together in real life, we would do that. I tell everyone that I talk to [in-world] about this. Who you see in SL is the same person you would see in RL."

Amplification of nonverbal communication is one result of being in a virtual world. When we gesticulate in the virtual world, we must choose what our avatars will do, cognitively maneuvering the mouse/keyboard in order to select run, jump, wave, hug, sit etc. Reception of these nonverbal signals has the potential of being taken literally or as a serious offense in some cases. When someone’s avatar runs over another by accident in the virtual world, and the offending avatar doesn’t turn to say “I’m sorry”, we might be more affected by the act itself. If we know the person, we might be prone to avoiding them both physically and virtually, depending on our sensitivity to the situation. Likewise, when we experience other feelings virtually, they might creep into our real lives more than we’d like:

"…instead of standing by me as he swore he would, he ran away, and left my heart broken in a million tiny shards." "Really?" I asked."”…There are real feelings that seep into the role-playing. Not like 'in love' or anything, but caring, and losing still hurt." "In real life," I said after awhile, trying to take the male point of view, "a lot of guys get jitters when it comes to moving in with a woman." "But this isn't real life," she said, "This is Second Life." "But male psychology is the same [in both], maybe!" "Who knows," said the lovely woman, "They say women are hard to understand... " "Cheer up!" I said later, …and before I left the dock, I told her: "You're a lovely avatar, and there are other …avatars in the sea.”

A more positive affect of virtual communities is the ability to bring likeminded people together to meet in the physical world. Currently around our country, there are “blog” (a.k.a. online journal) groups getting together and meeting in the physical world for the first time. There are other virtual communities who have come together in other cities to form a community outside their virtual one. Building social networks through virtual communities can become a major asset in our lives, and these groups have proven this to be true.

By communicating with someone in both a physical and virtual setting, we might catch a glimpse of what goes on inside. Groups of people who know one another in both the physical and virtual world oftentimes are dealing with an alternate personality, or a side of the person they do not normally see in the physical world. Take the example of someone we will call "Sam". Sam participates daily in a technical virtual community where he is very highly regarded. His social capital there supersedes that of his physical network. The communication coming from Sam in the virtual community is very different from that of Sam in the physical, face-to-face setting, where Sam is shy and withdrawn. There are things he would say to someone in the virtual community that he knows he would not get away with, socially, in his physical world. This is one example of the views of an individual that become apparent after dealing with them in both the physical and virtual world. When a user communicates in a virtual world, they are among factors recreated to simulated physical aspects of their real world. While some young players of video games may realize when they are in a game-state, and when they are not, their game interface may simulate situations that influence their physical world. The same might be hypothesized for virtual worlds, where online communities create something the virtual community affords, and later decides it would be a good thing to bring into their physical world.

Problems
There are aspects of communicating nonverbally in virtual environments that are potentially problematic. Research on affect and communication is difficult for a number of reasons. First, without the nonverbal signals we receive in face-to-face communication, the ability to discern when someone is lying is almost impossible to detect. While pupil dilation and body language provide cues in the physical world, our avatar movements are a result of a cognitive decision to emote virtually. The level of subconscious movement is absent when it comes to communicating through avatars. By trying to decode suggested virtual signals such as facial expression and direction of head while conversing, we are perhaps placing too much importance on the virtual embodiment of the person, rather than the person him/herself. Trust itself becomes an issue. We could be more apt to mistrust another human being in the real world because of our experiences with lack of trust in the virtual one. Additionally, by cultivating research interest on an industry that places itself in a gaming arena, we remove accountability of participant’s nonverbal communication behavior by assigning a “game state” to it, to some extent. That is, we remove any meaning from the actions of a character in a game simply because it is a game.

Conclusion
Throughout the course of this essay, we have focused our investigation on factors of current nonverbal communication methods as they apply to the virtual world. By using the common social event of the wedding, we have looked more closely at this shared experience and the nonverbal signals employed at specific virtual weddings. From environment to physical characteristics to behavior, we come increasingly closer to creating a new container for expression and interaction with a lid that tends to pop-off, on occasion. The notion that communication in virtual worlds has the ability to affect our real world is exhibited in various examples stated by participants in the online game Second Life. By continuing to study nonverbal communication in virtual worlds, we acknowledge that the virtual communication environment is as vast as our physical one, and therefore; has the potential to create as many sublevels of research as the technology will allow. The highly provocative name, Second Life, merely hints at what is possible.

References
Rossney, Robert. Metaworlds, Wired. V.4 n.6 p.140, 1996

Knapp, M. L., Hall, J. A. Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction. Fifth Edition, p. 5-7
(Thompson Learning, Inc) 2002.

Stewart, B., The Living Internet. MUDs; Historical Summary www.livinginternet.com 1996-1999

Nova, N. Socio-cognitive functions of space in collaborative settings: a literature review about Space, Cognition and Collaboration. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, 2003

Ibid

Csikszentmihalyi, M., Rochberg-Halton, E., The meaning of Things. Domestic symbols and the self. Cambridge University Press, 1981

Taylor, T.L., Living Digitally, Embodiment in Virtual Worlds. The Social Life of Avatars. London: Springer-Verlag. Ch. 3 p. 51. 2002

Anon., The Canons of Good Breeding (Philadelphia: Lee and Blanchard, 1839), pp 14-15.

Knapp, M. L., Hall, J. A. Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction. Fifth Edition, p. 227
(Thompson Learning, Inc) 2002.

Ibid p. 305

Ekman, P., Friesen, W.F. Facial Action Coding System. Consulting Psych. Press. 1978

Goffman, E. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday p. 17, 1959

Quote from user, “Charlie Omega” taken from the Second Life member’s online community forums dated February 26, 2003. http://www.secondlife.com

Quote from user, “Fey Brightwillow” taken from the Second Life member’s online community forums dated May 29, 2003. http://www.secondlife.com

Wagner, J. A. “Preacher Man (or Crashing the Party II)” from New World Notes; Second Life online journal. http://secondlife.com/notes/2003_06_09_archive.php#20030609 June 12, 2003

Wagner, J. A. “Travels with Charlie (And Lynnix) from New World Notes; Second Life online journal. http://secondlife.com/notes/2003_04_28_archive.php April 29, 2003

Wagner, J. A. “House as Home (part II)” from New World Notes; Second Life online journal. http://secondlife.com/notes/2003_10_06_archive.php#20031010a October 6, 2003

Wagner, J. A. “Heartbroke)” from New World Notes; Second Life online journal. http://secondlife.com/notes/2003_08_11_archive.php#20030815a August 15, 2003

e-Mote: Output Example

Users can create a desktop pattern by selecting specific variables and adjusting settings. This example shows mood/color and the date in a chronological pattern so that relationships to mood/date might be realized. Each day the user emotes adds to the pattern dynamically....

e-Mote: A system application to record and display emotion.

e-Mote is the digital version of the aforementioned e-Mote kit, which allows users to record daily emotions and create pattern based on their own emotional input. The digital version is prototyped to simulate a system level application that runs in the background and reminds users to emote once a day. The digital version uses five variables with different numbers of values that can be applied. Users can choose shape, color/mood, texture, words and gestures. It should be noted that as a student project, the illustrated characters that refer to gesture are taken from Pieter Desmet's Dissertation entitled, "Designing Emotions".

The historical record of daily emotions can be viewed at any time. The view desktop pattern feature that allows users to customize and create a desktop pattern using a variety of settings, and print out hardcopies if desired. Similar in purpose to its analog counterpart, the digital e-Mote is designed to make users more aware of their emotions, by learning what emotional patterns they might have, and what might trigger certain emotions.

Emote Kit (Analog)

The Emote Kit was created in order to collect emotional data using analog methods over a specific period of time in order to investigate, and promote emotional intelligence. Two kits were created allowing two users to map 10 universal emotions to the color palette of their choice. Each day, users chose a colored square, a word in the form of a label, and attached it to a smaller book. The date was stamped each time the user "emoted" in order to track patterns.

The objective of having users record daily emotions is to allow them to become more aware of patterns in their emotional histories, and to discover what daily events might trigger certain emotions. This analog method of tracking emotions allows users to physically commit their decision to memory by using tactile, tangible devices. Over time, individual patterns evolve and create customized emotional *art* to be displayed, potentially, in the home or office.

Transformations

This three-fold, hand-bound book is designed to function as a narrative and a commentary on the symbiotic relationship of the maker and the made. The first image changes from ice to water. The second, from mud to clay. In this instance, the narrative depicts a beginning ceramicist, and her clay, while the book acts as a metaphor for the transformation of any artist and her medium.

"The novice maker is (at first) rigid and unforgiving, her material maleable and unobjectionable. She craves control, it is wet and impressionable. Playing push-me, pull-me as sweat pours from her brow. It wins. "Things are starting to take shape" she says. "How does this look?" "Work with me" it whispers. "What was that?" She leaves with it all over her, and returns with intensity."Why don't we begin again?" (now we know each other better) "This time it will be better" she thinks. She's right. Without the warmth of her touch, it lay still and quiet, leatherhard, then stiff. Inflexible. Gently she carries it, reminiscing about their first encounter, and open to new possibilities."

This project unfolded after I gained perspective on my summer experience in a beginning ceramics class, it occured to me that I had approached the medium with rigid, stiff hands. Cold, like ice. After several projects I slowly began to understand how to surrender many of my ideals and work with the clay. I became more maleable in my approach, and let the clay inform the outcome a bit more. I realized that the adjectives used to describe the change in me, was the inverse of the adjectives used to describe the clay itself. That is, clay starts out as maleable and become hard over time.