From Lisa’s blog, I just found this great article on the BBC about a photography exhibit which features photos of people side-by-side with their 3-d computer graphic avatars which they use online. The photos are really interesting and revealing, I think, in terms of the different ways that people use models of themselves to either mimic or enhance different attributes of themselves.

I love the fact that the original usage of the word “avatar” is actually religious, and now it has become associated with video games and “cyberspace”. It comes from the Sanskrit word “avatara”, which means “dsecent” and is used in Hinduism to denote divine or immortal beings who have descended from the heavens to take on a fleshly body for a specific purpose.

Like for example, Jesus Christ could be considered an avatar of God the Father. So you could make some kind of extension, by analogy, that online computer game avatars are the means by which we “descend” from the real world, and put on an electronic body.

It’s also cool to consider the possibilty that maybe there are avatars which exist in cyberspace which are actually independent manifestations of God, descended directly from Heaven to liberate the souls trapped in cyberspace.