Masters Progress?

[laura_seabrook]

Saw a counsellor at the uni today. I don't seem to have got anywhere much in the last two weeks with my Masters in Fine Art, and I'm thinking of changing the subject of my research paper. It currently reads

I propose to write a paper tentatively entitled The Art of the Transformed Self: real and virtual art reflecting gender transition. This paper will research exactly how art and technology has both reflected and influenced gender variant minorities "such as transsexual and transgendered persons) within Western Society. In particular this may focus on emergent technologies and interactive systems such as Second Life(R), a "3-D virtual world created by its Residents”5. In such worlds users/players create an "avatar” "3D model of a person) that represents themselves within such a world. They may alter, dress and customise such avatars without regard to real world particulars. This may also investigate movements such as "Trans Humanism" and how such impact ideas about gender, art and species.

However, while I think that this is a valid research topic, I also think this might be a bigger topic than I can handle. Earlier today I was searching the net and came across Virtual Transgender Suit, avatar termination and other online world tales, Performance Art in Second Life, Brooklyn is Watching (which I've been to in SL), Avatars in the Flesh: The Girlfriend Experience, Becoming Dragon and Art in Second Life. Maybe, I might just tackle examining Art within and related to Second Life (and other global virtual realities) instead. It's more my area of expertise, maybe more fun to research, and I suspect I have a higher likelihood of completing it.