从空间、感知、实践三维度撰写具身传播与动漫媒介的耦合

From an embodied communication perspective, research on media materiality and data-driven survival focuses on how human interaction and existence can be understood through the physical forms of media technologies and data flows. As concrete manifestations of material and technological aspects, media have long permeated our experiences and lifestyles, shaping our cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns. This study aims to analyze the impact of media materiality on everyday life through specific media designs and data production processes and explore how these influences affect individuals’ data-driven survival, in other words, how individuals construct relationships with themselves and others in an environment with massive data. On the one hand, the importance of media lies in the physical characteristics of the media technology itself, which determine the type, speed, and scope of information exchange. For example, as a media carrier, smartphones' portability and touchscreen operation have significantly changed people's communication habits, promoting an instantaneous and fragmented mode of communication. On the other hand, data-driven survival refers to the impact, construction, and representation of individual survival status in the digital media environment, where the digital representation of personal information and the data-driven interaction of social networks become key factors in shaping identity and social relationships.

The issue of artistic creation and cultural dissemination in Japanese sports anime has received widespread attention, but there is still insufficient attention to the influence of values. This article takes "Slam Dunk" as an example and uses text analysis and questionnaire survey methods to analyze the factors that influence the audience's sports value orientation in Japanese sports anime, their impact on the sports value orientation of Chinese youth, and the differences that arise between different generations. This article analyzes the impact of Japanese anime on the spiritual needs and cultural identity of youth, as well as the problem of communication value deviation caused by quality control and propaganda guidance in cross-cultural communication. Based on this, this article proposes the following suggestions: Japanese anime should use localization methods in cross-cultural communication, understand the cultural habits and current market conditions of the recipients, strictly classify and regulate the content of the works, and organically integrate with the recipient market to avoid cultural barriers and misleading in the transmission process, and convey correct ideas.

The "body turn" of "cloud fitness" has brought a new theoretical logic to communication. In this paper, we make a preliminary attempt at embodied communication in the context of the new Crown pneumonia epidemic, exploring the issues of body movement and moving bodies on "Shake" and "b-station". Here, the author argues that understanding embodied communication is inseparable from reflecting on technology, and that it is a form of communication in which people, media and technology interact. The article explores the changes of the philosophical category of bodily action in the virtual space of the Internet by tracing the origins of embodied communication; then understands the communication of the body as a medium through the "cloud space" and "cloud body"; and in the whole process of communication, the physical attributes of the body give the online and offline behaviors of the body a new meaning and a new meaning and a new meaning. In the whole process of communication, the physical attributes of the body bring tension to the online and offline actors; in the future, with the advent of the scene-oriented era, the body will have multiple symbolic attributes.

New media technologies have opened up new possibilities for the communication of cultural heritage, and digital reading aligns with the participatory shift in museums, becoming an indispensable part of information communication. Currently, there exists a certain contradiction between the professional content of cultural heritage and the non-linear and immersive narrative style of new media. In order to find a balance between form and content, and explore the information communication pattern of cultural heritage in the era of mobile media, starting from practical issues, this article introduces the theory of embodied cognition, combines it with relevant theories in communication studies, and systematically explores the impact of embodied factors on audience reading behavior by using semi-structured interviews and grounded theory. The research reveals that embodied cognition, situational cognition, and interactive cognition have a significant impact on the digital reading information communication of cultural heritage on social media, which includes six factors: functional experience, sensory experience, interactive experience, scene simulation, emotional elevation and social experience. This study further constructed a theoretical model of the factors influencing the effectiveness of information communication in cultural heritage digital reading on the social media platform under the influence of embodied cognition theory, which confirms that these six factors play a significant role in the process of museum content generation, audience understanding, as well as the emergence of and the feedback loop of new meanings.

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As a global cultural phenomenon, Japanese anime has many factors behind its success. This article analyzes the popularity of Japanese anime from the dimensions of narrative techniques, visual presentation, character creation, global communication strategy and social psychological needs , and deeply interprets its cultural significance from the aspects of local cultural heritage, cross-cultural communication, social reality and human nature thinking , aiming to provide a comprehensive analytical perspective for the global popularity of Japanese anime and lay a foundation for research in related fields in other countries .

This study aims to analyze the communication strategies of Radio Suara Muslim Surabaya in producing the Majelis Tafsir Anime (MTA) program as a form of media and cultural convergence in the digital era. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the research explores broadcasting practices, production strategies, and audience interactions through interviews, observations, and documentation of digital media. The findings indicate that Radio Suara Muslim effectively integrates conventional and digital media by utilizing multiplatform channels such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, thereby expanding the reach of Islamic da'wah and strengthening emotional engagement with young audiences. Anime serves as a reflective medium to convey Islamic moral messages contextually through reinterpretation of characters and storylines. The media convergence process, encompassing technology, content, audience participation, culture, collective intelligence, and affect, creates an adaptive and participatory da'wah communication model. In conclusion, the MTA program demonstrates that Islamic da'wah media can transform into a creative cultural dialogue space without compromising spiritual values while fostering audience loyalty through interactive and emotionally engaging approaches

With the application of 5G teleoperated robotics in entertainment and social domains, this paper introduces the concepts of “embodied avatar” and “instant interaction” for the first time, systematically revealing their mechanisms in reshaping human social dynamics. Based on practical observations from the perspective of a technology inventor and application platform. founder, this study finds that social interaction is evolving from “instant communication” to “instant interaction, ” characterized by physical intervention, behavioral dominance, and perceptual fusion. Integrating theories of embodied cognition and phenomenology of perception, the study further proposes that embodied avatars transcend the virtual-symbolic boundaries of traditional instant communication through three mechanisms: physical intervention (directly altering real-world environments) , embodied responsibility (ethical binding of behavioral consequences) , and operational dominance (active control of social processes by operators) . These mechanisms collectively drive a paradigm shift in social interaction from “information transmission” to “entity-driven engagement. ” Spatiotemporally, the “avatar presence” dissolves geographical barriers, creating dual experiences of time-space compression and extension. Cognitively, users internalize remote robot operations as extensions of their body schema, leading to a reconstruction of self-perception. Relationally, technological empowerment restructures social power dynamics, enhances emotional expression through physical intervention, and transforms ethical responsibility from virtual detachment to real-world accountability. This research provides a new analytical perspective for understanding technologically mediated social transformations and offers foundational insights for future studies on human-robot interaction in social contexts

The aim of this paper is to discuss the comicisation of qualitative sociology, i.e., the use of comics as research methods and analytical tools in sociology, drawing from case studies related to illness and neurodivergence. In the first part, we will pinpoint how comics as qualitative research methods enhance the reflexivity of sociologists themselves in the various phases of their research projects: from the definition of a case study to the choice of research and analysis techniques up to the communication of research outputs. In line with El Refaie’s (2012) concept of pictorial embodiment, we will show how producing drawn versions of the self helps to both enhance extended reflexivity and engage with physicality. In the second part of the paper we will illustrate two research experiences, related to the interdisciplinary research area of the Graphic Medicine (Czerwiec et al., 2010). The selected case studies are particularly meaningful in two respects: first, they show how the use of comics in qualitative sociological research contributes to go beyond standard individualistic epistemologies and helps to highlight meso and macrostructural factors which are crucial to analyse social phenomena. Second, they shed light on how comics provide multiple opportunities to portray embodiment and reflect upon the social and cultural dimensions of embodiment processes, thanks to their language and socio-cultural specificities as a medium and cultural object. We will conclude with some reflections on how graphic narratives may be used in qualitative research to investigate how socially marginalised people experience daily interactions and social conditions.

Language is a tool for human thinking and communication, but with the advent of the age of visual culture, anime is becoming a brand new form of cultural expression, and this trend is becoming more and more obvious. Combining the history of anime with the intellectual history, we find that the history of anime is not only externally conditioned, but also inherently generalized in the history of anime itself. The study of anime history is part of the study of history, and depends on the philosophy of history in its overall consciousness. History is neither the history of a certain person, nor the history of a certain number of persons. The general appearance of history is depicted by people. How to make the written history consistent with the real history is the responsibility of the historian and cannot be separated from the culture and language that carries it. The author will take the classic Japanese anime "Shakugan no Shana" in the 2000s as an example, and preliminarily explore the reasons for its popularity and decline from three perspectives of plot setting, character setting and world setting.

This study aims to find out One Piece Anime so that it becomes popular culture among millennials in Bengkulu city. This study used communication theory, anime theory, cultural theory, popular culture theory, and millennial theory. This study also used qualitative research methods. Data collection techniques in this study using the method of observation, interviews, documentation. In general, the results of the study conclude that how One Piece Anime becomes Popular Culture among Millennials in Bengkulu City which has been going very well. Based on the reciprocity of communication flows and cultural trends that arise in society created by One Piece anime fans which can exchange information and spread the culture. Thus, it makes people can accept the existence of this culture. Many people also follow cultural trends, for example imitating styles like characters in anime. For example, Monkey D Luffy who has a spirited character that doesn't complain, always fights to the maximum, makes friends with any race. This character can be applied in everyday life and affects the social community. Likewise with fashion, such as clothes, hairstyles and accessories, for example the shirt that Luffy wore in the Deseirosa Arc.

Understanding physical, embodied space as an emerging form of media and communication became our solution. Digital walls between global regions fall apart when we share space, and in the summer of 2024, several scholars based in the USA were able to be in space and community with scholars from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai University, and The University of Hong Kong; in the following years of research, scholars from around the world have joined us at USC and travelled globally for conferences, research, teaching, and tourism, further expanding our abilities to communicate with one another in a world of increasingly siloed regional platforms. Through this process, we learned not to move beyond the digital, but to situate it, extending connection through physical encounters and co-presence. This special issue argues for a combined approach to emerging media, underlining how the embodied, material, and spatial conditions of media communication work in tandem with the digital to redefine the roles of transcultural fandom and pop culture, shared both online and in person.

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ABSTRACT Although Embodied Cognition and Performance Practice could be said to have in common that they live in the fields of hermeneutics and epistemology concurrently, and with this are interested in perception, knowledge, experience and agency without privileging any of them or presuming a linear or status relationship among them -- there still remains a divisive disciplinary gulf. This paper provides a critical history of the science/humanities divide, exposing prejudices and practices that often impede productive interdisciplinary relationships between Cognitive Science and Performance, and offers suggestions forward towards a more productive middle field allowing for the possibility of new knowledge(s).

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Sociological approaches to culture are divided into interpretive, representational, and embodied perspectives, each grounded in distinct ontologies and causal logics derived from realism and interpretivism. This article aims to bridge embodied and representational approaches and their concomitant philosophies of science. It proposes a concept of meaning-making that unifies representational approaches and embodied approaches to culture and cognition. The article argues that meaning is not solely a result of conscious association of stimuli with concepts. Instead, meaning emerges from iterative unconscious, intuitive, and conscious inferences. This comprehensive view of meaning-making emphasizes the interconnectedness of lower-level and top-down cognitive processes, highlighting the active role of both the body and brain in creating meaning. By framing meaning-making in this way, the article demonstrates how interpretive approaches can incorporate insights from cognitive sciences, building on a common ontological foundation without contradiction.

Unlike Live-action Hollywood movies Hollywood animation movies have rarely expressed social agenda because they have been produced primarily for family audiences. In 1999, a feature animation directed by Brad Bird, “The Iron Giant” was released by a big studio, Warner Brothers. The director conveyed the strong message of humanity through the friendship between a lonely boy and a robot, created as a war machine and embodied it in beautifully animated images. This film expressing serious social agenda has been considered a classic masterpiece despite its box office failure. By studying the directing intention of this classic animation that emotionally expresses heavy social agenda, I hope to contribute to the advancement of the somewhat stagnant Korean feature animation industry for its the diversification of subject-matters.

This paper seeks to present a novel perspective on the enactivist approach, which in turn offers new insights into the comprehension and understanding of contemporary and complex social phenomena such as cyborgization. In the context of this article, the term 'cyborgization' can be understood as denoting the processes of technological transformation of human nature, whereby technological devices are integrated with the human body. This leads to the emergence of new forms of embodied cognition and experience, which result in the blurring of the boundaries between human and machine components, and the formation of qualitatively new ways of interacting with the environment. In this regard, the enactivist approach allows for a productive exploration of ethical issues in the context of modern technological transformations. The article presents a novel perspective on the nature of cognition and experience through the lens of enactivism, with a view to demonstrate its potential for overcoming the limitations of traditional naturalistic conceptions of consciousness. The author aims to examine the fundamental tenets of enactivist theory, encompassing visual perception and extending to the intricate subject of moral judgment formation and the phenomenon of ideological oppression. Particular attention is paid to the synthesis of enactivism with the principle of free energy and its potential application to research into human cyborgization. The article demonstrates that the enactivist approach enables us to transcend dualistic notions of the relationship between humans and technology. Furthermore, it has the potential to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the essence and processes of technological transformation of human nature. Based on a critical examination of utopian and scientific trends in the evolution of enactivism, promising avenues for future research are identified. This analysis presents a multitude of potential pathways for establishing an ethically sound philosophical foundation for technological advancement. It offers a framework within which the complexities of the modern era can be fully understood and constructive solutions to emerging ethical challenges can be devised.

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The objective of this article is twofold. In the first part, I discuss two issues central to any theoretical inquiry into mental imagery: embodiment and consciousness. I do so against the backdrop of second-generation cognitive science, more specifically the increasingly popular research framework of embodied cognition, and I consider two caveats attached to its current exploitation in narrative theory. In the second part, I attempt to cast new light on readerly mental imagery by offering a typology of what I propose to be its four basic varieties. The typology is grounded in the framework of embodied cognition and it is largely compatible with key neuroscientific and other experimental evidence produced within the framework. For each imagery variety, I make some elementary suggestions as to how it may typically be cued by distinct narrative strategies.

Subak, a traditional Balinese irrigation system, is an agricultural management method and a cultural heritage embodying the Tri Hita Karana philosophy, which emphasizes harmony between humans, nature, and the divine. However, modern challenges such as land-use changes, urbanization, and declining agricultural engagement among younger generations threaten its sustainability. This study aims to develop a 3D animated film as an educational tool to enhance public understanding of pawongan, the social aspect of subak, through digital media. The research follows the Multimedia Development Life Cycle (MDLC) method for animation production and a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test evaluations to measure its effectiveness. Data analysis includes paired sample t-tests to assess comprehension improvements and qualitative analysis from interviews and observations. Results show that the experimental group, which watched the animation, demonstrated a significantly higher understanding of pawongan than the control group, which received conventional education methods. Furthermore, audience engagement and discussions post-viewing suggest that digital media fosters a stronger emotional connection and motivation for cultural preservation. This study highlights the novel use of 3D animation as an effective medium for cultural education, bridging the gap between traditional knowledge and digital learning. Future research should explore interactive applications, such as augmented reality (AR) or gamification, to enhance public engagement and long-term impact on subak preservation.

In the era of new media, Chinese animation characters have become increasingly visible in global cultural communication. This study examines how audiences perceive and interpret iconic Chinese animation characters drawn from representative works: Ne Zha in 2019, White Snake in 2020, The Legend of Hei in 2019, and New Gods: Yang Jian in 2022; which collectively embody contemporary Chinese aesthetic styles, mythological narratives, and digital storytelling. The research adopts a mixed-methods design combining content analysis, online surveys, and semi-structured interviews. Specifically, the study analyzes 1,200 online audience comments. Results show that international audiences express strong emotional resonance toward visually distinctive and narratively compelling characters such as Nezha, Bai Suzhen, and the Monkey King. Meanwhile, new media environments enable viewers to become active cultural participants through commenting, remixing, fan art, and narrative reinterpretation. These characters function as cultural symbols that communicate Chinese mythology, values, and identity; however, challenges such as cultural distance, symbolic complexity, and uneven global exposure persist. The study concludes that character design, mythological reinterpretation, and transmedia dissemination play central roles in strengthening the global influence of Chinese animation. Enhancing audience engagement and refining digital communication strategies are essential for expanding the international reach of Chinese animated culture.

This paper examines the transformative potential of performativity in reimagining the concept of dwelling and of domestic spaces. Drawing from enactivist and embodied cognition perspectives, we delve into the dynamic relationship between individuals, their bodies, and the architectural environment. Emphasising the role of bodily engagement, sensorimotor experiences, and interoceptive awareness, we explore how individuals actively participate in and shape their architectural surroundings. Moving beyond individual interactions, we also highlight the social and collective dynamics influenced by the built environment, underscoring the impact of cultural conventions and societal norms. This paper investigates some contributions that advocate for a reappropriation of institutionalised domestic spaces through imaginative interventions that challenge conventional norms and envision future-oriented dwelling practices. Within the context of institutionalised domestic spaces, we investigate the role of the fantastical and the monstrous as disordered qualities that challenge traditional boundaries and offer opportunities for transformation. Through case studies, we examine projects that blur the lines between public and private realms, enabling participatory practices and urban influences to reshape functional space utilisation. In conclusion, this paper underscores the importance of a dialogue between embodied performativity and the concept of dwelling. It proposes a re-evaluation of our relationship with space that is not just functional but enactive, and it champions the transformative potential of the arts in conceiving our future homes. With a renewed focus on sustainability, participation, and the interplay between the human body and space, we can begin to imagine a future of dwelling that is as dynamic, inclusive, and vibrant as the lives we wish to live within these spaces.

In many consumer virtual reality (VR) applications, users embody predefined characters that offer minimal customization options, frequently emphasizing storytelling over user choice. We explore whether matching a user's physical characteristics, specifically ethnicity and gender, with their virtual self-avatar affects their sense of embodiment in VR. We conducted a $2\times 2$ within-subjects experiment ($\mathrm{n}=32$) with a diverse user population to explore the impact of matching or not matching a user's self-avatar to their ethnicity and gender on their sense of embodiment. Our results indicate that matching the ethnicity of the user and their self-avatar significantly enhances sense of embodiment regardless of gender, extending across various aspects, including appearance, response, and ownership. We also found that matching gender significantly enhanced ownership, suggesting that this aspect is influenced by matching both ethnicity and gender. Interestingly, we found that matching ethnicity specifically affects self-location while matching gender specifically affects one's body ownership.

A virtual reality scenario called “We Wait” gives people an immersive experience of the plight of refugees waiting to be picked up by a boat on a shore in Turkey to be illegally taken to Europe, crossing a dangerous stretch of sea. This was based on BBC news reporting of the refugee situation, but deliberately depicted as an animation with cartoon-like characters representing the refugees. Of interest was the level of presence that might be experienced by participants and the extent to which the scenario might prompt participants to follow-up further information about the refugee crisis. By presence we refer to both Place Illusion, the illusion of being in the rendered space, and Plausibility, the illusion that the unfolding events were really happening. The follow-up was assessed by whether and when participants accessed a web page that contained further information about the refugee crisis after the experiment. Two factors were considered in a balanced between-groups design with 32 participants. The Responsiveness factor was either “None” or “Look at.” In the first the virtual characters in the scenario never responded to actions of the participant, and in the second they would occasionally look at the participant after the participant looked at them. The second factor was Embodiment, which was either “No Body” or “Body.” In the No Body condition participants had no virtual body, and in the Body condition they would see a virtual body spatially congruent with their own if they looked down toward themselves. The virtual body was animated by the head tracking move the upper body. The results showed that the major factor positively contributing to presence was Responsiveness (“Look at”), and that Embodiment (“Body”) may have contributed but to a lesser extent. There were important differences between men and woman in the degree of follow-up, with men more likely to do so than women. The experiment shows that adding in some simple responses in an immersive journalism scenario, where the characters acknowledge the presence of the participant through gaze, can enhance the degree of presence felt by the participants.

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The Metaverse, a transformation of the internet by XR-technologies progressively blending the digital and physical world, is already changing our social structures. The success of VR-headsets like Quest has made both virtual worlds and the “metaverse” ubiquitous. This technological evolution yields the potential to fundamentally change the way we communicate, live, and work together. At the same time, the perceptions of how these worlds affect our lives differ considerably. To that end, this study investigates the perceptions of 115 younger people from the generations Y and Z, the potential “power users” of virtual worlds. In addition, it investigates differences in perception between non-academics and academics. We looked at perceived knowledge, preferred usage scenarios, interaction with avatars and embodiment, perceived problems and challenges, personal worries, solutions for safeguarding, and institutions to drive safeguarding. While generation Y and Z are often aligned, it is a major finding that in the cases they differ, the younger generation Z is more skeptical. Likewise, non-academics are more skeptical than academics. Finally, we found differences in perception related to gender and provide possible explanations and recommended actions.

This cross-cultural study $(\mathrm{N}=108)$ examines how cultural differences between Japan and Sweden influence participants social behaviors and perceptions when joining a free-standing group of two agents. Agents within the group, embodied as humans, robots, and virtual characters, respectively, use three distinct behaviors, varying with respect to politeness strategy, to request the participant to join on a specific side and position in the group. The experimental results showed that Japanese participants, from a culture characterized by higher power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, restraint, and collectivism, were more likely to comply with the agent's request regarding the joining position, compared to Swedish participants. This trend was even more pronounced when comparing different types of embodiment: Japanese participants more strictly complied with human agents than with non-human agents. Additionally, Japanese females and Swedish males adhered more to social norms by avoiding walking between group members (i.e. through the group's o-space) when joining. Second, cultural differences also significantly impacted the perception of agents' politeness behaviors, while the effect of embodiment on feelings of friendliness and closeness varied depending on the culture. We reflect on our results as a basis for highlighting key challenges involved in the design of culturally adapted agents and their behaviors toward enhancing the localization of human-agent interaction.

: This study explores the changing perceptions and reactions of the public towards PLAVE, a virtual idol, in the evolving media landscape where virtual idols are gaining increasing attention. To achieve this, the study employs text mining to analyze comments on PLAVE’s debut song on YouTube. The analysis is divided into two temporal phases to capture the shifts in public perception over time. In the initial phase, public attention was predominantly focused on virtual idols' visual appeal and technological innovation with reactions highlighting novelty and uniqueness. On the contrary, in the later phase, emotional bonds and fan engagement became more prominent with PLAVE’s musical narratives and live broadcasts, which played a significant role in shaping audience responses. These findings demonstrate that virtual idols such as PLAVE are not merely digital characters but entities capable of forming meaningful emotional connections with the audience, resembling the acceptance of traditional idols. The study emphasizes the importance of designing content that fosters emotional connections and provides fan experiences. It also highlights the potential of virtual idol content as a foundation for further research and a significant contributor to K - Contents' expansion. As an initial investigation into public perceptions of virtual idols, this study is a starting point for more in - depth discussions in future research.

The rapid progress of artificial intelligence enables the creation of virtual influencers, AI-generated anthropomorphic or animated characters, in social media. Tools such as MidJourney create highly realistic images and raise questions about the distinction between real and AI-generated people in the digital space. This study examines the acceptance of virtual influencers among young people in Romania, with a focus on a male Romanian virtual influencer. For this purpose, two focus groups were conducted, each with ten social media-savvy young adults. Before the discussion, the participants followed the Instagram account of a Romanian AI-generated influencer for a week. The discussions showed that novelty in particular, a key concept for evaluating technological developments, influences perception and acceptance. Persuasive knowledge, source credibility, congruence and the Uncanny Valley effect also played a role in the evaluation of the virtual influencer.

Creative labour is undergoing transformation within XR environments, where identity is expressed through avatars, fashion is created as digital assets, and the body increasingly functions as an interactive interface. As fashion and gaming industries converge, issues such as monetization of self-expression, bodily autonomy, exploitation, and representation give rise to new sociotechnical tensions. To explore these, we used a speculative design approach to examine blurred boundaries between labour, play, and identity. A fictional scenario developed during a design workshop, combining “playbour camps” and “virtual fashion”. The scenario is enacted through four archetypal characters, each embodying a distinct perspective on technological change in creative industries. The analysis of dialogues highlights two key areas of tension: complex relations between online play and labour, where activities such as influencer work, fashion design, and platform-based creation blur boundaries between self-expression, economic value, and professional legitimacy; entanglement of avatar identity and physical embodiment, which illustrates how digital presence and bodily experience intersect, while also revealing generational divides in the recognition of virtual labour. These fictional interactions reflect current dynamics in XR-based content creation, wearable technologies, and virtual economies, raising critical questions around user autonomy, bodily integrity, and ethical responsibility. Rather than offering a singular vision of the future, the scenario opens a reflective space for critically examining how creative industries are reshaped within immersive environments. This study demonstrates how speculative narratives can surface sociotechnical frictions and contribute to broader discussions on design, labour, and embodiment in XR.

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The article examines the use of the mascot in the cultural and educational activities of museums as a tool capable of transforming traditional formats of interaction with the audience. The importance of an integrated approach to the creation and use of a mascot character is emphasized, including its integration into the real and virtual space of the museum to form a unified communication field. The article substantiates the need to take into account the target audience, the mission of the museum and the emotional impact of the mascot, who acts not only as a transmitter of knowledge, but also as a carrier of cultural meanings, strengthening the identity of the institution. The article analyzes examples of successful use of mascots, demonstrating their role in creating interactive educational scenarios, as well as limitations when using a character exclusively in a virtual environment associated with the loss of tactile and emotional contact. Special attention is paid to recommendations for developing a mascot that combines adaptability (variability of content for different ages), technological engagement (AR, VR, mobile applications) and commercial potential (souvenirs, merch). It is concluded that a well-thought-out mascot can become a key element of the museum's strategy, increasing visitor loyalty, expanding the target audience and generating additional sources of income.

Despite significant historical progress, discrimination and social stigma continue to impact the lives of LGBTQIA+ individuals. The use of AI-generated virtual characters offers a unique opportunity to facilitate advocacy by engaging individuals in simulated conversations that can foster understanding, education, and empathy. This paper explores the potential of AI simulations to help individuals practice LGBTQIA+ advocacy, while also acknowledging the need for ethical considerations and addressing concerns about oversimplification or perpetuation of stereotypes. By combining technological innovation with a commitment to inclusivity, we aim to contribute to the ongoing struggle for equality in both the legal framework and the hearts and minds of the community. We present a study evaluating virtual characters driven by generative conversational AI simulating the social interactions surrounding “coming out of the closet”, a rite of passage associated with LGBTQIA+ communities. In our study, virtual characters embodied as queer individuals engage with users in a text-based conversation simulation paired with visual representations. We investigate how the interactions between the virtual characters and a user influence the user’s comfort, confidence, empathy and sympathy. The AI simulation includes distinct visual personas deployed in a series of conditions. We present findings from our deployments involving 307 users. Finally, we discuss the design implications of our work on the potential future of embodied, self-actuated and openly LGBTQIA+ intelligent agents.

This paper examines the intricate interplay between personal dynamics and virtual dilemmas in Robert Venditti’s graphic novel The Surrogates. It unveils the different aspects of near-future society where peoples interact through robotic avatars called ‘surrogates’. The narrative of the novel delves into the psychological and social implications of living vicariously through technology. The focus of this paper is to deal with critical questions about the nature of reality and the ethical ramifications of substituting human experience with virtual engagement. By analyzing the tensions between human connection and technological mediation, this study highlights the broader societal challenges posed by advancing technology and its impact on personal relationships. It explores how the reliance on technology affects marital dynamics, highlighting the emotional distance and communication breakdowns that arise when partners opt for virtual interactions over genuine connection. Through the characters of Harvey Geer and Margaret Geer, the paper investigates the tensions between love and isolation, exploring how the characters negotiate their identities and desires in a mediated environment. Ultimately, Venditti’s work serves as a poignant reflection on the dilemmas of modern existence, inviting readers to reconsider the value of genuine human interaction in an increasingly virtual world.

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Conventionally, human-controlled and machine-controlled virtual characters are studied separately under different theoretical frameworks based on the ontological nature of the particular virtual character. However, in recent years, the technological advancement has made the boundaries between human and machine agency increasingly blurred. This manuscript proposes a theoretical framework that can explain how various virtual characters, regardless of their ontological agency, can be treated as unique social actors with a focus on perceived authenticity. Specifically, drawing on the authenticity model in computer-mediated communication proposed by Lee (2020) and a typology of virtual characters, a multi-layered perceived authenticity model is proposed to demonstrate how virtual characters do not have to be perceived as humans and yet can be perceived as authentic to their human interactants.

: At a time when the whole world is preparing to enter the metaverse life, people on various social media platforms can realize the ideal role setting through technological means, ranging from the choice of avatar to language expression habits, audio and video dynamic images, etc. However, contradictions inevitably arise between the real self and the virtual image. In this paper, we will explore and discuss the contradictions between people's real selves and virtual characters on social media from the perspective of Social Performance Study, and try to study the solutions from the intersection of sociology and performance disciplines.

Abstract This paper will address ethical concerns surrounding the representation of vulnerable groups as well as the methodological challenges inherent in using artificial intelligence and human-like computer-generated characters in human studies that involve representing such groups. Such concerns focus on consequences arising from the technological affordances of new systems for creating narratives, as well as graphical and audio representations that are capable of portraying beings with close resemblance to humans. Enacting such virtual representations of humans inevitably gives rise to important ethical questions: (1) Who has the right to tell certain stories? (2) Is it ethical to change the medium of a narrative and the identity of a protagonist? (3) Do such changes, or technological mediations, affect whether a vulnerable group will be fairly and accurately portrayed? (4) And what are the implications, either way? While the backdrop of the paper involves discussing the potential of virtual representation as a meditative tool for moral and social change, the ethical implications inherent in the use of new cutting-edge technologies, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman, to create human-like virtual character narratives call for theoretical scrutiny from a methodological perspective.

The re-emerging nature of virtual reality (VR) and recurring waves of hype have made this technology a conduit for imaginations of solving complex social and ecological problems. Recent iterations of VR, such as mobile VR and VR head mounted displays (HMDs) for casual users, have made it evident that the spatial relations of VR are multiple and complex. This article utilizes the Foucauldian concept of heterotopia to explore how spatilities of VR are imagined and practiced as counter-spaces in a digital landscape of smartphones and social media. Focusing on the heterotopia’s ability to provide a space for contesting and inverting the societies within which they exist, I show how VR is constantly juxtaposed against other technologies, digital places, and techno-embodiments in user imaginaries and practices. Through ethnographic materials on domestic VR usage collected in Swedish homes, I found that notions of VR as an “other” or different medium are laden with imaginings of VR technology bringing about a better society—a virtual utopia. These positive futures are paired with and derived from dystopic imaginaries and fictions. Recognizing the necessity to take media imaginaries and their inherent spatiality seriously, through how they are expressed and acted upon in the digital geographies of everyday life, I explore how VR users’ contesting ideas are deployed to make VR a hopeful other in a technological landscape. I conclude that conceptualizations that are slippery, self-contradicting, and do works as tricksters have much to offer digital geographies.

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The object of the study is virtual influencers – digital characters created with the help of computer programs and artificial intelligence, on behalf of which agencies maintain pages in social networks to increase the number of supporters and promote branded goods and services among them. This concept emerged in the last decade in a practical environment and is currently actively developing, attracting the attention of researchers. The relevance of the article, on the one hand, is related to the novelty of the phenomenon of virtual influencers, its lack of research, and on the other hand, the significant potential of influencing the formation of public opinion and changes in the principles and formats of communications in the digital age. The purpose is to conceptualize the “virtual influencer” phenomenon, define its role and place in modern digital communication, and outline its opportunities and risks. The research methods are a critical review of theoretical sources, publications in the industry media, and expert blogs of recent years, as well as a SWOT analysis based on consideration of practical aspects: content specifics, methods of interaction with the audience, and statistical indicators of the profiles of the most popular virtual influencers in social networks. The main conclusions are that virtual influencers are a new specific type of communicators, artificial technological and informational products of collective creativity that compete with live bloggers in digital reality. Currently, virtual influencers cannot communicate with the audience on their own. However, with the development of artificial intelligence technologies, they will learn this based on the analysis of the content of social networks. They will not just imitate live contact but will conduct meaningful communication. Over time, virtual influencers will overcome the evolutionary distance from exotic communication tools to self-managed carriers of meaning. They will become independent actors of social communications, bringing society closer to the metaverse.

The study aims to identify the main socio-philosophical characteristics of digital culture. The article examines the key dimensions of digital culture: forms of temporal and spatial embodiment and the transformation of subjectivity. It is shown that the temporality of digital culture is characterized by distribution across three modalities – past, present, and future. Among the spatial characteristics of digital culture, the author highlights mobility, self-organization, and the interweaving of real and virtual segments. Together, the temporal and spatial characteristics of digital culture determine complex configurations of the types of subjectivity that form it. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the socio-philosophical problematization of digital culture in the unity of its dimensions, which can contribute to enriching the methodology of socio-humanitarian research on the functioning and development of modern technologies in terms of their socio-cultural and technological characteristics. As a result, the author concludes that digital culture, dynamically represented as a heterogeneous network of objects of various natures, is a source of new forms of spontaneous sociality and can be successfully interpreted using the theoretical and methodological resources of M. DeLanda’s assemblage theory.

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Immersive design fiction is a novel approach that embeds speculative interactions within a rich virtual reality (VR) storyworld. Immersive design fictions use VR to translate new design opportunities into story-driven, embodied experiences by positioning the participant as a character in a narrative world. This paper presents a case study of an immersive design fiction that depicts a fictionalized reimagining of an industry partner's work practices. This VR experience explores speculative interfaces for creative work and collaboration in the context of a fictional workplace environment. By placing design fictions within rich immersive contexts such as room-scale VR, researchers and practitioners can go beyond prototyping imagined interfaces to also speculate about the interaction rituals and surrounding social context within an experiential storyworld. This approach makes methodological and theoretical contributions to design fiction research by demonstrating a toolkit for exploring and reflecting upon the intersections between speculation, embodiment, and narrative context.

With live streaming rising in popularity, many people stream the creation of 3D avatars However, many of these avatars end up following a similar output: a hyper-feminized anime girl. Why is this? What are the social and technological processes constructing these avatars? To answer these questions, I propose that human (streamer and audience) and non-human (streaming platform and 3D modeling software) participants interact to produce the cultural experience of the live stream, re-producing common heteronormative, cisgendered, and racialized tropes about bodies and desirable avatars. And so, I take as my object of study the interaction that happens when all of these participants merge, forming what I call a white heteronormative assemblage. I argue that this assemblage is collective, relational, and self-reinforcing. Analyzing the relations between human and non-humans participants helps us turn our analytical lens away from media content or streamer motive, and instead toward the restrictive outcomes of such interactions.

The article presents the anime TV series Paranoia Agent by Satoshi Kon and its major themes: escapism, lack of communication and the guise of victimhood, which is as a method of denial meant to mute a conscience burdened by the horrors of World War II prevalent in contemporary Japanese society. Certain phenomena of Japanese consumer culture, such as fine goods, kawaii and character goods are also presented. These phenomena form an important cultural background for an analysis of Kon’s oeuvre, as the author uses them as lens through which he portrays the problems facing contemporary Japanese society — not least of all the ways in which it is influenced by the ubiquity of media. His insights are quite well grounded in reality, and his conclusions are rather bleak. Even the apocalyptic destruction of Tokyo cannot change ways of the Japanese people, who are thoroughly engulfed by non-communication and hyper-consumerism.

Bromance in media often poses as a farce, but, oddly, also fortifies queer intimacies among men. According to Michael DeAngelis (2014), bromance acts with a dual function: ideologically and mythically. It plays a crucial role in representations of male-to-male friendship through its paradoxical capacity to both reinforce hegemonic norms and refuse heteronormative ideal for men. Imaginative illustrations of the antinomy of bromance is seen in anime, or Japanese animated cartoons whose most popular genre, shonen, depicts the hybridized goal of bromance to solidify male homosociality that often gets borderline homoerotic (if viewed through a queer lens). To demonstrate the hybridized capacity of bromance in media, this study presents a metaphorical analysis of the bromantic inter-male homosocial bonds in Beastars (Matsumi, 2019-2021), an anime featuring anthropomorphic animals. From an analysis based on bromance media studies, three thematic metaphors emerged: proximity, perversity, and concealment. These metaphors illustrate a reverence to “soft masculinity,” an East-Asia-formulated androgynous male performance which indirectly dismantle hegemonic representations of men by preventing the figurative death of the male-on-male friendship at the hands of the heteronormative gaze.

This paper examines two aspects of subjectivity—sexuality and singularity—that are considered fundamental to a modernist notion of the person. These aspects of subjectivity are under siege as new technologies of reproduction challenge our understanding of sexed bodies and as, simultaneously, a postmodern world-view brings forward the multiplicity of sexual subject positions and embodied hybridity that modernist thinking sought to control or dismiss. In this time of conceptual crisis regarding subjectivity and embodiment, the popular culture media of many advanced countries have produced increasing numbers of narratives about cyborgs, those embodied amalgams of the organic and the machinic. I begin by explaining why the concepts “sexuality” and “singularity” are so important in this context, and why Japanese popular culture is a particularly fruitful ground for exploration of cyborg subjectivities. Then I discuss two recent anime narratives-Shinseiki Evangelion (1995-96, Neon Genesis Evangelion) and Kôkaku kidôtai (1995, Ghost in the Shell)—in terms of their depictions of specific aspects of sexuality and as the nexus of contemporary fears or desires regarding subjectivity that is being negotiated through those depictions. I conclude with observations about what these narratives reveal about new, postmodern conceptions of subjectivity.

Virtual reality departs from and transcends reality, and the VR reset of “The Legend of Sword and Fairy I” aggregates the complete industrial ecology formed by the extended development of old game IP and the VR blue ocean commercial market. From two-dimensional to VR, the digital technology field has shaped the virtual embodied world where traditional culture and modernity are intertwined, and constructed the “Immortal Sword World” that gathers, condenses and reshapes the national complex, cultural consciousness and modern discourse. A series of physical operations enables players to interact with the “Immortal Sword World” in real time and in a natural way. The absolute and unique rules and mechanisms of “The Legend of Sword and Fairy I” VR create a 3D community discourse field with an entire new social system + technical system. The open interactive architecture of “Immortal Sword World” provides a meta-statement for free exploration, ideally presenting the pre-determined sequence of the immersive “Immortal Sword World” and allowing players to open up an imaginary future dreaming space in a step beyond reality.

Based on embodied cognition theory, this study employs a mixed-method approach of grounded theory and fsQCA and analyzes the influencing factors and configurational paths for tourists’ happiness in metaverse tourism. The results indicate that in metaverse tourism, tourists’ happiness is influenced by the three dimensions of body, perception and context. The body dimension includes factors such as body fatigue, the perception dimension includes factors like immersion and the context dimension includes factors such as gamification. No single factor alone can generate happiness for metaverse tourists; it is the result of a combination of various factors. A cross-national comparison reveals 20 sufficient configurational paths explaining the formation of happiness for Chinese and American tourists, with differences in paths attributed to social and cultural variances. The research findings not only broaden the perspective of metaverse tourism studies but also provide practical references for companies in constructing metaverse tourism spaces.

Works of African orature, owing to their performative and participatory nature, are challenging to reproduce in written text, or as linear media in audio or video formats (animation or live action). This has created a research gap in virtual heritage research where emphasis has been placed on digitalization of tangible culture. In my dissertation, I examine the implication of bodily, expressive non-verbal characteristics of performance in traditional African oral storytelling to position their mediation in digital media formats using Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs). Using the iconic Song of Lawino [2] as a research example for reenactment using ECAs, I illustrate that applying these performance elements and techniques can result in a new digitally embodied oral narrative that mimics the unique relationship in traditional African orature between a storyteller, the space in which the story is told and the audience.

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, the Metaverse emerges as a transformative force, integrating augmented reality, virtual reality, and the internet, to redefine online interactions. This collective virtual shared space promises to revolutionise global collaboration, communication, and information engagement. Our study consisted of the application, through an online form builder, of a questionnaire to Portuguese adult gamers, analysing the results with descriptive statistics. Our research question was the following: how is the Metaverse perceived and represented by gamers? In this context, we trace four objectives: (1) verify the representations of the Metaverse; (2) verify the representations of immersion; (3) verify the representations of the multiverse; and (4) verify the importance of these concepts in daily reality. Our findings explored the Metaverse, immersion, and multiverse concepts, uncovering gamers’ perceptions with emphasis on animation, gaming, and virtual worlds as foundational elements. The Metaverse arises as an evolving force that bridges emotional experiences, offering limitless possibilities for experimentation and exploration.

  This paper investigates the issue of identity construction in the emerging field of virtual clothing, using a set of digital artworks and a gaming community case study as research objects. Within the globally influential ACG (Animation, Comics, and Games) subculture, the digital “Avatar” has become the primary site for identity construction. Employing a mixed-methods approach that combines semiotic analysis, case studies, and exploratory metrics, this paper argues that virtual clothing, hairstyles, and aesthetic modifications are not mere representations but are practices imbued with performativity. The article uses a triangular theoretical framework composed of Roland Barthes's fashion semiotics, Judith Butler's theory of performativity, and Homi Bhabha's concept of the “Third Space” as its main structure, supplemented by theories such as the “Proteus effect”, the “extended self”, and posthumanist thought, to provide a multi-dimensional interpretation of digital identity construction. The core proposition of this paper is that the “digital skin”, as a “performative interface” and “wearable capital”, not only constructs fluid, networked identities but also embodies social and economic value that operates within specific platform ecosystems. Through the analysis of visual grammar, in-game unlock mechanisms, and community discourse, this paper aims to reveal that the study of digital self-presentation has become a critical new frontier in the field of costume and culture studies, elucidating how identity is shaped, negotiated, and capitalized upon in the increasingly prevalent virtual environments of the 21st century.

This study examines the representation of masculinity within the female body through the character Kiriko in The Boy and the Heron (2023), directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Using Jo Ann Arinder’s feminist theory, the research highlights how Kiriko embodies masculine traits such as physical strength, courage, and leadership that are traditionally associated with men in gender constructions. Through a qualitative approach and narrative analysis of visuals and dialogue, the study reveals that Kiriko serves as a symbol of resistance against the stereotype of passive and weak women. She appears as a nurturing figure who also protects and leads, thereby blurring the boundaries between masculinity and femininity. These findings affirm that gender representation in animation can be fluid, creating space for new interpretations of female identity in popular media. The study also illustrates how Studio Ghibli consistently presents complex and strong female characters, while promoting values oriented toward social change in its visual storytelling.

Mass culture is regarded as space of realization of different forms of escapism, which is understood as the result of human desire to get liberated from the routines of everyday life. Escapism, which has existed in different epochs and in different cultures, has become wide spread today. The reasons are, on the one hand, the extension of the realm of everyday life, demythologization of culture, on the other – great technological opportunities, which allow the escapist to construct his own fantastic worlds with the help of new technologies. In mass culture the escapist gets a lot of opportunities to implement his fantasies, which may have different and contradictory consequences for real life. Such forms of escapism have been examined as fantasies embodied in different literary genres and screen forms, mass tourism, creating attractive images of «Orient», and virtual reality as the most important space for creating «other-worldliness». Mass culture, with its cult of game and entertainment, creates rich possibilities for different forms of escapism. Popular literature allows the reader to get immersed in the romantic world of love or a fantastic fairy tale. Screen arts, from cinema to computer art, make this immersion still deeper and more exciting, and virtual reality, which has embraced the whole world with the advent of computer era, drags in both children and adults, creating new worlds, where people choose their identity by themselves, construct their surroundings. Cultural industry creates new forms of entertainment and games with its commercial profit in view, but for an individual a quest for «other worlds» may turn into a dramatic break with reality.

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This article presents an overview of three queer virtual reality projects, Virtual Drag (2016), Domestika (2017) and Untitled (2020). These are considered alongside other examples and design experiments by the authors that also take a critical, queer approach to representing bodily forms in virtual environments. This consideration includes looking at how bodies are represented in the environment that the participant explores, as well as the embodied experience of the participant visiting the environment either via a head-mounted display or via desktop. Through the discussion of queerly performed embodiment offered by these precedents, we propose a queer sensibility of disembodied presentness for virtual reality that embraces a position of immersion and presentness in multiple physical and virtual realities at once, as a theoretical and aesthetic grounding principle. Queering of presentness is a key concept that emerges through these works, in part due to the multiplicity of perspectives that VR affords. In Virtual Drag (2016) by Alison Bennett, Megan Beckwith and Mark Payne, we see the use of photogrammetry and glitch aesthetics to bring ideas of queer performativity and drag ‘realness’ to the fore when imaging bodies with permeable, porous boundaries in virtual reality. In Domestika (2017) by Jacolby Satterwhite, the virtual environment is populated with multiple avatars that repeat recordings of the artist’s dance performances; in this multiplicity of repeated traces, a viewer is unable to settle on a fixed representation of the artist’s self. This effect is amplified by the participant’s non-corporeal presence, demonstrating the creative potential of queer disorientation in virtual environments. In Untitled (2020) by Tarik Ahlip and Tactical Space Lab, we are immersed in a cinematic environment, filled with simulated light. There, we encounter the artist’s body, disembodied and forcing the viewer into the role of virtual voyeur and onlooker to actions out of time.

This paper asks what we can learn from discomfort in virtual reality (VR) beyond perception-altering or consciousness-raising technical affordances. I accomplish this by directing focus upon the everyday VR user and using ethnographic participant observation. I first define a working concept called “discomforting VR” within the context of a corporate marketing scheme, a concept that focuses on unsettling feelings generated by VR experiences. Second, I report on research methods that aim to take a grounded approach toward how to better listen to and feel users in VR. I present two distinct “ethnographic logs,” which are a narration from fieldwork in operation, and I argue that VR can best be understood as a technology that hosts significant community. These findings take us beyond understanding VR as a space offering an embodied sense of immersion/interaction. The paper is a contribution to those interested in the study of Social VR. It will serve as a resource to any who wish to think productively about VR as a focal point for contemporary digital life.

Purpose Play and playful literacies shape essential spaces for belonging, connection, transformation and joy: from embodied immersions into fantasy worlds, to the creation of interest-led groups overflowing with varied knowledges and identities, and the disruption of societal hierarchies through roleplayed restorying. Yet, theorizations delineating playful possibilities – while plentiful and varied – are often rigidly constructed in relation to neoliberally/biopolitically motivated notions of value, use and productivity. Imbued with forms of modern power, play’s full flourishing has been regulated and quelled, particularly within the realm of education. This study, a literature review, seeks to defy this fatuous notion of a frivolous play. Design/methodology/approach Drawing from research within the fields of literacy and educational studies, the author centers playful methods commonly trivialized in contemporary discourse, including in global out-of-school spaces (e.g. gaming clubs, improvisational theater groups), with popular culture texts (e.g. picture books, digital fanfiction) and for older youth and adults. Findings This exploration of play’s potential across lifespans, formal/informal learning ecologies and worldwide contexts foregrounds its intrinsic nature and essential entwining with socio-culturally/materially mediated forms of knowledge and communication. Originality/value With a unique focus on the playful literacies emerging across ages, spaces and places, this review advocates a turn toward the imaginative, messy, uncontrollable worlds of play in future research and practice.

This paper explores the immersive character of digital media art in relation to aesthetic theories of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. It asks what contribution Benjamin and Adorno have to offer media art criticism. In particular, it seeks to understand how their different approaches enable us to critique the “virtual” experience of an interactive digital installation. Benjamin is famous for his complex, non-deterministic relation to technological media. In “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936), he offers what has become the twentieth-century’s most influential interpretation of both the threats and opportunities posed by the mechanical media of film and photography. Theorists of digital media have seized Benjamin’s ideas, such as the notion that the work of art comes to look more and more like the work of art meant for reproduction. In contrast to Benjamin’s ambiguous embrace of the spectator’s new critical agency brought about by mechanical media, Adorno held a more antagonistic relationship to technology, and a more redemptive role for art. Adorno understood art as a reservoir of critique – ascribing to art a capacity to challenge the instrumental rationality and repressive authority of capitalism. In this paper I am interested in locating Benjamin’s and Adorno’s ideas in relation to the experience of immersion characteristic of digital media installations. While immersion has a long history in Western aesthetics (as traced by Oliver Grau), in the face of new media artworks that require the active involvement of the viewer – in which the work is constantly updating and transforming itself – we are left with the “interface” in place of the art object. For example, photo-based art in the digital era increasingly becomes a spatialised interface for embodied viewer interaction. Its “flexible data set” (Mark Hansen) may be contrasted to the traditional photographic image’s static inscription of a moment in time. The temporal experience of new media art also involves a process of spatialisation that challenges the tradition of aesthetic distance. As Oliver Grau points out in his book Virtual Art, “in certain seemingly living virtual environments a fragile, central element of art comes under threat: the recipient’s act of distancing, which is essential for producing the “aesthetic image space” and enabling critical reflection. In an unusual turn of phrase in Aesthetic Theory, Adorno writes: “Aesthetic experience becomes living experience only by way of its object, in that instant in which artworks themselves become animate under its gaze. . . . Through contemplative immersion the immanent processual quality of the work is set free. . . . This immanent dynamic is, in a sense, a higher-order element of what artworks are” (175–6, emphasis added). Adorno’s notion of “contemplative immersion” appears paradoxical, suggesting both a distance and a nearness. In this paper I explore Adorno’s paradoxical phrase in light of Benjamin’s understanding of aura, distraction and the spectator’s critical agency. At a time when art criticism is widely held to be in crisis – even without reference to the changes of production, transmission and reception that media art bring – this paper examines the unrealised potential of Benjamin and Adorno to media art criticism.

This study examines cosplay practices, particularly crossplay, within contemporary popular culture. General Background: Cosplay is a performative cultural practice where individuals embody fictional characters through costume, gesture, and roleplay. Specific Background: In Indonesian society, gender is shaped by patriarchal norms and binary constructions of masculinity and femininity, often generating resistance toward cross-gender performance. Knowledge Gap: Limited research conceptualizes crossplay as a systematic deconstruction of gender stereotypes grounded in Judith Butler’s performativity and Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction. Aims: This study explores how cosplay and crossplay renegotiate gender meaning beyond biological determinism. Results: Using a qualitative descriptive approach with in-depth interviews involving ten active participants, findings show that crossplay enables identity negotiation, coping with social pressures, skill development, and reinterpretation of gender as fluid and context-dependent. Despite offline stigma, digital platforms provide more inclusive spaces for expression and community support. Novelty: The study integrates performativity and deconstruction to frame crossplay as a symbolic practice that destabilizes binary gender oppositions. Implications: Cosplay represents a cultural arena that rearticulates gender stereotypes and broadens scholarly discourse on gender fluidity within cultural communication studies. Highlights: Participants Reinterpret Masculinity and Femininity Through Symbolic Performance and Role Immersion. Digital Platforms Create Supportive Arenas Compared to Offline Societal Reactions. Role-Playing Practices Facilitate Identity Negotiation and Resistance to Patriarchal Expectations. Keywords: Cosplay, Crossplay, Gender Stereotypes, Performativity, Deconstruction      

In the context of the deep integration of digital technology iteration and cultural heritage protection, the cross-cultural communication of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Qiaoxiang (hometowns of overseas Chinese) is undergoing a paradigm shift from "digital storage" to "intelligent generation." As a significant source of Chinese overseas migration culture, Jiangmen Qiaoxiang's ICH resources carry unique diasporic memories and ethnic identities. However, facing the intergenerational gap of the new generation of overseas Chinese and the contextual barriers of heterogeneous cultures, traditional static display and one-way communication modes have become ineffective. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AIGC), with its powerful multimodal generation, deep semantic understanding, and human-computer interaction capabilities, provides ontological technical support for reconstructing the communication field of Qiaoxiang ICH. Based on theories of media ecology, phenomenology of perception, and narratology, this paper deeply analyzes the triple narrative paradigm shift of Qiaoxiang ICH communication driven by Generative AI: the shift from visual gaze to embodied immersion in "presence" narratives, utilizing multi-sensory channels to reshape the hometown experience of diasporic groups; the shift from static replication to creative generation in "recreation" narratives, activating the endogenous power of ICH through the modern translation of cultural symbols by algorithms; and the shift from one-way inculcation to emotional resonance in "empathy" narratives, rebuilding intergenerational emotional connections through anthropomorphic interaction and affective computing. The study suggests that AIGC is not merely a technical tool but a generative force reconstructing Qiaoxiang cultural memory and identity. By building a "human-machine collaborative" living inheritance mechanism, it can effectively dissolve the "cultural discount" in cross-cultural communication and realize the global expression and localized acceptance of excellent traditional Chinese culture.

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1. Preliminary MovesWhat does it mean to take a "second-generation" approach to the cognitive study of literature? Since this label can easily lend itself to misunderstandings, we want to make clear that "second-generation" refers to a specific strand in contemporary cognitive science, one foregrounding the embodiment of mental processes and their extension into the world through material artifacts and socio-cultural practices."First-generation" theories in the cognitive sciences conceive of the mind as based on abstract, propositional representations. Like a computer, the first-generation mind would process information as largely independent from specific brains, bodies, and sensory modalities. By contrast, "second-generation" approaches-a term coined by Lakoff and Johnson (Philosophy 77-78)-reject previous models of the mind as unduly limited to information processing, placing mental processes instead on a continuum with bioevolutionary phenomena and cultural practices. We treat "second-generation cognitive science" as interchangeable with another, more technical-sounding label used by cognitive scientists-that of "e-approaches" to cognition (Menary; Hutto). Here the e's stand for theories bringing to the fore the enactive, embedded, embodied, and extended qualities of the mind. To this list we may add "experiential" and "emotional," since this new paradigm gives experience and emotional responses a much more important role in cognition than first-wave, computational cognitivism. Bringing these e-approaches together under a common tag is at some level problematic, as Menary points out (459-461 ), because the theories and methodologies that it encompasses often prove distinct on closer examination. We will have to keep in mind this caveat as we explore the potential of these cognitive models for literary interpretation and theorization. The diversity of the secondgeneration framework is, in itself, a reminder that-again in Menary's words-"our cognitive lives are rich and varied and that simple homogenous explanations do not do justice to the complexity of cognitive phenomena" (461). At the same time, second-generation approaches also show some remarkable continuities: they converge on a view of the human mind as shaped by our evolutionary history, bodily make-up, and sensorimotor possibilities, and as arising out of close dialogue with other minds, in intersubjective interactions and cultural practices.These are the shared tenets of a second-generation account of cognition, and the complexity of the resulting framework is, as we will show, perfectly suited to match the complexity of literary (and, more generally, artistic) practices. Hence, this special issue attempts to map out the continuities among e-approaches and bring them to bear on longstanding narrative, literary, and aesthetic questions. In this process of interdisciplinary bridge-building, the essays touch on all the e's of e-approaches, exploring how perception and mental imagery are enacted through sensorimotor patterns (Kuzmicova; Muller), how creativity is extended through material artifacts (Bernini), how the reading process is shaped by embodied schemata and lived experiences (Caracciolo; Kukkonen; Troscianko), and how characters' fictional minds are in themselves embodied and embedded in socio-cultural contexts (Bernaerts). Though our main focus will be on literature, by including Muller's essay on the embodiment of film viewing we would like to underscore the connections between literary scholarship and the neighboring field of film studies, where cognitive approaches have gained explicit recognition, often by drawing on what we are calling "second-generation" cognitivism here.Contrasting first-generation and second-generation cognitive science does, of course, raise the question of whether a similar split exists, or can be identified, within cognitive approaches to literary narrative. Lakoff and Johnson themselves point out that their distinction "has nothing to do with the age of any individual or when one happened to enter the field The distinction is one of philosophical and methodological assumptions" (Philosophy 78). …

Information technologies, such as IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality (VR), have seen so much development that there is now a wide variety of digital equipment incorporated into the infrastructure of daily life. From the agrarian society (Society 1.0) through the information society (Society 4.0), humankind has created farmlands and cities by structuring natural environments physically and has built information environments by structuring them informationally. However, despite the rapid development of information environments, it may be fair to say that the perspectives of the human body have not changed at all since the industrial revolution. In the context of these recent technological developments, greater attention is being paid to human augmentation studies. These studies aim for a new embodiment of “human-computer integration,” one which can physically and informationally compensate or augment our innate sensory functions, motor functions, and intellectual processing functions by using digital equipment and information systems at will, as if they were our hands and feet. It has also been proposed that the technical systems that enable us to freely do what we want by utilizing human augmentations be called “JIZAI” (freedomization) as opposed to “automation.” The term “JIZAI body” used in these studies represents the new body image of humans who will utilize engineering and informatics technologies to act at will in the upcoming “super smart society” or “Society 5.0.” In these studies, human augmentation technologies are an important component of JIZAI, but JIZAI is not the same as human augmentation. JIZAI is different in scope from human augmentation, as it aims to enable humans to move freely among the five new human body images: “strengthened sense” (augmented perception), “strengthened physical body” (body augmentation), “separately-designed mind and body” (out of body transform), “shadow cloning,” and “assembling.” In the society of the future where JIZAI bodies widely prevail, we will use technologies that enable us to do what we have failed at or given up due to limitations of our physical bodies. We believe that a future society, one in which aging does not reduce our capabilities but instead increased options give us hope, can be realized. This special issue, consisting of two review papers and twelve research papers, deals with diverse and wide-ranging areas, including human augmentation, robotics, virtual reality, and others. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all the authors and reviewers of the papers contributed to this special issue and to the editorial committee of the Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics for their gracious cooperation.

An increasing number of museum exhibits incorporate multi-modal technologies and interactions; yet these media divert visitors’ attention away from the cultural heritage artifacts on display. This paper proposes an overarching conceptual structure for designing tangible and embodied narrative interaction with cultural heritage artifacts within a museum exhibit so that visitors can interact with them to comprehend their cultural context. The Tangible and Embodied Narrative Framework (TENF) consists of three spectra (diegetic vs. non-diegetic, internal vs. external, and ontological vs. exploratory) and, considering how different interactions map along these three spectra, can guide designers in the way they integrate digital media, narrative, and embodiment. In this paper, we examine interactive narrative scholarship, existing frameworks for tangible and embodied interactions, and tangible and embodied narrative projects. We then describe the design of the TENF and its application to the pilot project, Mapping Place, and to the case study project, Multi-Sensory Prayer Nuts. The findings indicate that embodied engagement with artifacts through a narrative role can help visitors (1) contextualize the meaning of artifacts and (2) make personalized connections to the artifacts. Based on this work, we suggest design recommendations for tailoring the use of the TENF in the cultural heritage domain: simulate cultural practices, associate visitors with cultural perspectives, and provide simultaneous digital feedback. We conclude by describing future directions for the research, which include generating other possible projects using the TENF; collaborating with other designers and museum professionals; and exploring applications of the TENF in museum spaces.

Yoruba folktales are endangered in the face of globalization, Westernization, and inter-ethnic interaction, with the few that are available not being competitive with foreign cartoons and movies. The purpose of this work is to develop a digital animation film using Yoruba folktale narrative as a case study with a view to providing a framework to enhance the production of animated folktales as well as supporting Africa's rich cultural heritage, using relevant technology resources. The resulting folktale animation was evaluated by both the target audience and multimedia experts. The formal digital animation system resulting from the study is useful for formal and informal children's education and enlightenment as well as a source of enlightenment for society on different sociocultural problems which invariably results in a more conscious and civilized society.

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Based on the context of a deeply mediatized society, this paper examines how short videos reshape social communication and trigger potential risks from the perspective of three dimensions of "Communicative Figurations". The study finds that at the thematic framework dimension, the visual narrative logic of short videos promotes the transfer of power relations to the sensory level; at the actor network dimension, multiple nodes such as algorithms, users, and institutions form a new type of interactive network; at the communication practice dimension, embodied behaviors such as "checking-in" reconstruct individuals' spatial experience of the integration of virtuality and reality. The research indicates that while the "Communicative Figurations" of short videos expand connections, they also change the operational mechanism of social power. For instance, the priority of senses over rational cognition, the dissolution of public order dominated by algorithms, and the reshaping of reality perception through the integration of virtuality and reality all require dialectical examination.

In this research, we investigate the potential of enhanced interactivity in providing new possibilities for interactive narratives within Virtual Reality (VR). We introduce "Rekindle," a first-person narrative experience in VR. The narrative offers the interactor an embodied experience as a gay protagonist on a journey to reclaim lost memories, set against the backdrop of a dystopian future where a regime enforces stringent heteronormativity through the manipulation of memories. Central to this experience is the Memory Retrieval Mechanism, which empowers the interactor to explore and retrieve scattered memories. This activity reinforces immersion and the interactor’s connection within the narrative. By integrating coherent interactions grounded in narrative, "Rekindle" facilitates the creation of dramatic agency, thereby enhancing the narrative by making the story more compelling and consistent.

Recent developments in Virtual Reality (VR) applications, such as hand gesture tracking, provide new opportunities to create embodied user experiences. Numerous gesture elicitation studies have been conducted. However, in most instances they lack validation of implemented gestures, as well diversity of participant groups. Our research explores the digitalization of intangible cultural heritage in collaboration with one of the San tribes in Southern Africa. The focus is on particular gestures as embodied interactions of a VR implementation of a traditional San hunting story. In this paper, we present a gesture study, which entails an in-situ elicitation of natural gestures, a co-designed integration, a VR story implementation with grasping and three mid-air gestures, and a user evaluation. Based on our findings, we discuss the anthropological value of gesture implementations determined by an indigenous community, the local usability of a grasping gesture, and in-VR gesture elicitation, as an extension of existing methods.

No abstract available

Traditional approaches to teaching moral dilemmas often rely on abstract, disembodied scenarios that limit emotional engagement and reflective depth. To address this gap, we developed \textit{Ashes or Breath}, a Mixed Reality game delivered via head-mounted displays(MR-HMDs). This places players in an ethical crisis: they must save a living cat or a priceless cultural artifact during a museum fire. Designed through an iterative, values-centered process, the experience leverages embodied interaction and spatial immersion to heighten emotional stakes and provoke ethical reflection. Players face irreversible, emotionally charged choices followed by narrative consequences in a reflective room, exploring diverse perspectives and societal implications. Preliminary evaluations suggest that embedding moral dilemmas into everyday environments via MR-HMDs intensifies empathy, deepens introspection, and encourages users to reconsider their moral assumptions. This work contributes to ethics-based experiential learning in HCI, positioning augmented reality not merely as a medium of interaction but as a stage for ethical encounter.

Animation media has a role in the process of global cultural exposure, especially through the designed worldbuilding in it. An animated work with worldbuilding that designs culture well is the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. This research is focused on exploring the differences between the cultures of the Southern and Northern Water Tribes in the world of Avatar based on Hofstede's four layers of cultural theory (Symbols, Heroes, Rituals, & Values), especially in women's culture. The research was conducted using comparative qualitative methods. In this research, differences were found in Symbols (clothing, hair, jewelry), Heroes (Katara and Yue), Rituals, and Values in the two water tribes. Southern women prioritize practicality and survival, as reflected by Katara while northern women emphasize social order and tradition, embodied by Princess Yue. This research shows that in worldbuilding, various cultures can be formed and deepen the narrative of an animation.

In Social Virtual Reality (SVR), mediated social communication blends with simulated virtual environments and bodies. However, little is known about how these social and physical (or embodied) affordances intersect in user experiences. We bridge this research gap by applying phenomenological analysis to SVR user interviews to reveal embodiment in SVR based on their lived experiences. We contribute empirical evidence to the concept of “collective embodiment,” described as a mutually maintained feeling of embodiment that SVR provides beyond individual experiences and avatar-related sensations. This involves intertwined senses of agency, location, and appearance influenced by the presence and actions of others in the virtual environment. We also observed SVR users’ difficulties controlling avatar visual representations and communication or social functions. This research uncovers the multifaceted nature of collective embodiment in SVR, offering insights into its social dynamics, design, and user experience implications.

Matching avatar characteristics to a user can impact sense of embodiment (SoE) in YR. However, few studies have examined how participant demographics may interact with these matching effects. We recruited a diverse and racially balanced sample of 78 participants to investigate the differences among participant groups when embodying both demographically matched and unmatched avatars. We found that participant ethnicity emerged as a significant factor, with Asian and Black participants reporting lower total SoE compared to Hispanic participants. Furthermore, we found that user ethnicity significantly influences ownership (a subscale of SoE), with Asian and Black participants exhibiting stronger effects of matched avatar ethnicity compared to White participants. Additionally, Hispanic participants showed no significant differences, suggesting complex dynamics in ethnic-racial identity. Our results also reveal significant main effects of matched avatar ethnicity and gender on SoE, indicating the importance of considering these factors in VR experiences. These findings contribute valuable insights into understanding the complex dynamics shaping VR experiences across different demographic groups.

No abstract available

Virtual Reality (VR) developers create experiences that result in both gender dysphoria and euphoria for Transgender and Genderqueer individuals. Avatar Creation Interfaces (ACIs) and the game mechanics associated with them engage with these effects. Since all experiences in VR begin with a body in space, ACI mechanics can inform a more inclusive experience for Transgender and Genderqueer individuals. Research of ACIs’ effects on people with gender dysphoria and euphoria is limited and does not address the subject in VR. Given this knowledge gap, research on the euphoric and dysphoric effects of embodiment that Transgender and Genderqueer individuals have within VR is constructive. To this end, as part of a qualitative study, survey data from 29 individuals and interview data from 7 of those individuals were analyzed using the emergent method of grounded theory analysis. The data suggest that ACI VR experiences that give interactors creative agency, greater gender diversity, and the opportunity to be embodied in mundane and gender-affirming situations are dysphoria relieving and euphoria inducing.

Embodied virtual interactions can contribute to more immersive perspective taking experiences, which in turn can increase empathy and affiliation. This study sought to investigate these outcomes in the context of unconscious bias related to gender identity during interpersonal interactions. We conducted a simulated interview in virtual reality, in which participants embodied a transgender or cisgender avatar and interacted with a human-controlled agent (transgender woman). Preliminary results reveal differences between women and men in their experiences of empathy and emotional state when embodied as a transgender avatar.

Previous research has uncovered racialized avatar experiences in desktop virtual worlds, but less attention has been given to how this has evolved into the more immersive medium of social virtual reality (VR). Leveraging Intersectional Tech and the Virtual Identity Discrepancy Model as frameworks, we report on findings from two complementary studies aimed at understanding the avatar embodiment experiences of Black users on VRChat, a popular social VR platform. Study 1 draws on interview findings (n = 11) to examine how Black users navigate, negotiate, and respond to avatar-based racial inequity and defaults of whiteness in this immersive context. Participants took on racialized burdens and immersive repercussions when curating their digital appearance, including embodied glitches, navigating racialized encounters with avatar creators, relying on DIY solutions (e. g., learning avatar creation), and conscious consideration of the marginalization of Black virtual bodies when selecting their representation. Study 2 extends these findings with a quantitative experimental study (n = 41) that examined how the discrepancy between physical and virtual attributes influenced Black users ’ psychological experience in social VR while manipulating their avatar ’ s visibility. Avatar discrepancy was negatively correlated with spatial presence and, in the absence of a virtual mirror, avatar discrepancy was negatively correlated with avatar embodiment. We use these mixed-methods findings to identify new perspectives on the embodied consequences of racial discrepancies in social VR, underscoring the privilege of immersion. By centering perspectives from Black users and discussing implications for designers and researchers, we expand avatar research on the multi-faceted experiences of racially marginalized users in social VR and Black virtuality.

This study examines how avatar gender transitions in the metaverse influence user identity and gender perception, focusing on the cultural and social implications of these experiences. Conducted on the ZEPETO platform, the research involved female participants adopting male avatars to explore the effects on identity confirmation and self-identification. The study analyzes how metaverse elements, such as avatar representation, embodiment perception, and avatar-space interaction, contribute to identity formation and challenge traditional gender norms. Results indicate that transitioning to male avatars enhances avatar identification and identity confirmation, with these effects extending to users’ real-world gender identities. These findings highlight the metaverse’s potential as a transformative space for exploring and reshaping gender identities, emphasizing the need for further research into the cultural and spatial dynamics of virtual environments.

The immersion of virtual reality (VR) can impact user perceptions in numerous forms, even racial bias and embodied experiences. These effects are often limited to head-mounted displays (HMDs) and other immersive technologies that may not be inclusive to the general population. This paper investigates racial bias and embodiment on a less immersive but more accessible medium: desktop VR. A population of participants (n = 158) participated in a desktop simulation where they embodied a virtual avatar and interacted with virtual humans to determine if desktop embodiment is induced and if there is a resulting effect on racial bias. Our results indicate that desktop embodiment can be induced at low levels, as measured by an embodiment questionnaire. Furthermore, one’s implicit bias may actually influence embodiment, and the experience and perceptions of a desktop VR simulation can be improved through embodied avatars. We discuss these findings and their implications in the context of stereotype activation and existing literature in embodiment.

Past research has discussed how the embodiment of an outgroup avatar in virtual reality (VR) can reduce intergroup bias. However, little is known about the mechanisms and boundary conditions that shape this effect. This study examines how the embodiment of both outgroup and ingroup VR avatars in different orders influences attitudes and perceived closeness toward a co-ethnic immigrant outgroup in Singapore. It also investigates the role of empathy and social identity orientation (SIO) in this relationship. An experiment with four avatar embodiment conditions (ingroup-then-outgroup, outgroup-then-ingroup, ingroup-only, and outgroup-only) was carried out with 171 participants from a public university in Singapore. Results showed that embodying an outgroup avatar alone, compared to embodying an ingroup avatar alone, significantly improves both attitudes and closeness toward an immigrant outgroup. The order of embodiment matters to an extent, suggesting the greater effectiveness of outgroup-first over ingroup-first embodiment in reducing bias. Empathy mediates the effect of all three outgroup embodiment conditions on improved attitudes and closeness toward immigrants. It was also found that the stronger one’s SIO is, the more effective embodiment is in improving perceived closeness with the outgroup via empathy. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

No abstract available

The aim of this work is to examine how the process of emotional embodiment can restructure various aspects of the person, with a particular focus on sexuality. As highlighted in the full chapter ‘Digital Sexuality and Artificial Intelligence’ of the book ‘Emotion, Embodiment and the Virtual World’ (Auriemma, 2024), this phenomenon emerges as a crucial element in contemporary life. Interaction with virtual elements, such as bots, automated chats, auto-responders and avatars, is increasingly frequent. Contrary to what Grosz argues, in the digital context the body is not defined by organs or physicality, but by processes delineated by the digital world. In this environment, people ‘meet’ and experience pleasures and passions through the avatar, which is controlled by the person in the physical world. The activities carried out range from the most complex to the most elementary, thus influencing behaviour. This work takes up fundamental elements of sociological classics, in particular the concepts of action and alienation of Marx and Weber. The analysis focuses on the role of the concept of embodiment in virtual sexuality, exploring how it is co-constructed, represented and inserted in a discourse of social action. The avatar becomes the point of contact that facilitates interaction between people, mediated by new technologies. This study aims to understand how emotional embodiment in the digital context can influence sexuality and social behaviour, offering a new perspective on human interaction in the virtual world. In addition, the ethical and psychological implications of these virtual interactions will be considered, analysing how the perception of the self and the other is modified through the use of avatars and other forms of digital representation. We will discuss how virtual sexuality can challenge traditional norms and create new forms of expression and identity. Finally, we will explore the therapeutic potential of emotional embodiment in the digital world, assessing how these technologies can be used to improve people’s emotional and relational well-being.

The analysis situates itself within cyborg anthropology and posthumanism, interrogating the liberational potential of bodily transformations and player-avatar relations in Baldurs Gate 3 (BG3). It also examines BG3s inclusivity, questioning whether the games audience transcends traditional gamer demographics to include marginalized groups, reflecting socio-cultural shifts in digital media. Employing a mixed-methods approach integrating qualitative interviews and quantitative textual analysis of the games eight relationship-building characters, this paper examines the complexities of identity construction and bodily augmentation in virtual spaces. It explores how players leverage BG3s affordances to navigate and negotiate personal and social identities, effectively performing a 'second life' within the game's expansive world. The study critically assesses the extent to which these virtual embodiments reflect or diverge from players' real-life identities and how this process facilitates a form of posthuman play. Data gathered from online gaming forums and social media platforms, combined with insights from player interviews, reveal a significant trend of players using BG3 to explore aspects of their identities constrained in real life. Preliminary findings indicate that players frequently create avatars embodying their ideal physical forms, gender expressions, and relational dynamics. These virtual experiences provide a liberational space for players to experiment with and affirm their identities, reinforcing the view of video games as potent sites for posthuman exploration and identity transformation. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of shifting paradigms in game design, offering critical insights into the transformative potential of video games as sites for identity exploration and bodily experimentation.

Social virtual reality (VR) serves as a vital platform for transgender individuals to explore their identities through avatars and foster personal connections within online communities. However, it presents a challenge: the disconnect between avatar embodiment and voice representation, often leading to misgendering and harassment. Prior research acknowledges this issue but overlooks the potential solution of voice changers. We interviewed 13 transgender and gender-nonconforming users of social VR platforms, focusing on their experiences with and without voice changers. We found that using a voice changer not only reduces voice-related harassment, but also allows them to experience gender euphoria through both hearing their modified voice and the reactions of others to their modified voice, motivating them to pursue voice training and medication to achieve desired voices. Furthermore, we identified the technical barriers to current voice changer technology and potential improvements to alleviate the problems that transgender and gender-nonconforming users face.

The dynamic development of virtual reality (VR) technology is reconfiguring the relationship between humans and their avatars in virtual worlds. Physical bodies and spaces become entangled with their digital counterparts and are engaged in events within virtual environments, necessitating a shift in the approach to conducting anthropological research in VR. This essay challenges digital dualism through the exploration of the hybrid nature of embodiment in VR. The aim of the text is to lay the groundwork for a postdualistic and posthumanist approach to VR anthropology, which emphasizes the entanglements between humans and technologies, and between physical and digital bodies, blurring the boundaries between these dichotomies. In this approach, I conceptualize VR users as cyborg assemblages, emerging in intra-actions between humans, technologies, and digital bodies, thereby highlighting the agency of non-humans in co-shaping their hybrid somaticity.

Social virtual reality (VR) platforms have unleashed new possibilities to reimagine Marshall McLuhan’s classic idea of the “global village” in the digital era. We situated our inquiry in the case of identity negotiation between Chinese mainlanders and diasporas in VRChat, a popular social VR platform. Through a 2-year-long digital ethnography and interviews, this study revealed how Chinese mainlanders and those living abroad have confronted, separated, and integrated each other in identity negotiations. The results highlight the good, bad, and ugly sides of social VR as a novel convergence of VR, Massively-Multiplayer-Online-Role-Playing Games, and social media, particularly how the immersive experience of VR embodiment, avatars, and real-time voice chat may rejuvenate intercultural communication. These findings also illuminate a possible alternative global village enabled by social VR that not only has inherited certain violence from intercultural conflicts but also pioneering new paths to restore constructive communication.

No abstract available

Abstract As the fashion industry increasingly explores virtual worlds to expand product ranges, understanding users’ perceptions and behaviors in relation to their avatars, selves, and the overall virtual fashion culture is becoming even more important. This study investigates virtual dressing practices by applying the triad of dress, body, and identity explored in conventional dressing practices. Utilizing the key components of practice theories—material, competence, and meaning—this research employs autoethnography to delve into the author’s personal experiences and reflections on virtual dressing practices. It examines how avatars, as the dressed body, function as both a private embodiment and a public representation within virtual worlds, comparing these aspects to those in the offline world. The findings suggest that while virtual dressing practices uphold the triad’s dynamics, the materiality, competences, and cultural meanings differ markedly. Furthermore, a user’s situatedness can profoundly affect their dressing practices and perceptions in virtual life. Grounded in practice theories and an autoethnographic approach, this study’s methodological framework provides a nuanced and relatable understanding of virtual fashion, transitioning from the broader concept of situated bodily practices to a more defined, embodied practice that is shaping a new facet of fashion practices.

No abstract available

In immersive virtual reality (VR) environments, experiences of harassment can be exacerbated by features such as synchronous voice chat, heightened feelings of presence and embodiment, and avatar movements that can feel like violations of personal space (such as simulated touching or grabbing). Simultaneously, efforts to govern these developing spaces are made more complex by the distributed landscape of virtual reality applications and the dynamic nature of local community norms. To better understand this nascent social and psychological environment, we interviewed VR users (n=25) about their experiences with harassment, abuse, and discomfort in social VR. We find that users' definitions of what constitutes online harassment are subjective and highly personal, which poses significant challenges for the enforcement of platform- or application-level policies. We also find that embodiment and presence in VR spaces make harassment feel more intense, while ephemerality and non-standardized application controls make it difficult to escape or report unwanted behavior. Finally, we find that shared norms for appropriate behavior in social VR are still emergent, and that users distinguish between newcomers who unknowingly violate expectations for appropriate behavior and those users who aim to cause intentional harm. We draw from social norms theory to help explain why norm formation is particularly challenging in virtual reality environments, and we discuss the implications of our findings for the top-down governance of online communities by platforms. We conclude by recommending alternative strategies for community governance.

In the virtual world, people can reconstruct their identity the way they want with avatars. Many expect the high degree of freedom in avatar customization will give new chances to socially marginalized people experiencing discrimination against their physical traits. Accordingly, research on a virtual embodiment of marginalized people has been steady with increased interest in equity and inclusion. However, even discourse alienates people with disabilities. In addition, there are few studies on the virtual representations of people with disabilities. Therefore, this paper explores the shared perception of avatar-based disability representations among people with disability to help understand how they want to construct their disability with avatars. The study also gives direction for a barrier-free virtual world. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with people with physical impairments who used virtual world services and performed a core-periphery analysis of social representations. This study expands the range of academic adoption of the social representations theory and provides insights for stakeholders such as service providers to design an inclusive virtual world.

No abstract available

This study examines the effect of perspective-taking via embodiment in virtual reality (VR) in improving biases against minorities. It tests theoretical arguments about the affective and cognitive routes underlying perspective-taking and examines the moderating role of self-presence in VR through experiments. In Study 1, participants embodied an ethnic minority avatar and experienced workplace microaggression from a first-person perspective in VR. They were randomly assigned to affective (focus on emotions) vs. cognitive (focus on thoughts) perspective-taking conditions. Results showed that ingroup bias improved comparably across both conditions and that this effect was driven by more negative perceptions of the majority instead of more positive perceptions of minorities. In Study 2, participants experienced the same VR scenario from the third-person perspective. Results replicated those from Study 1 and extended them by showing that the effect of condition on ingroup bias was moderated by self-presence. At high self-presence, participants in the affective condition reported higher ingroup bias than those in the cognitive condition. The study showed that in VR, the embodiment of an ethnic minority is somewhat effective in improving perceptions towards minority groups. It is difficult to clearly distinguish between the effect of affective and cognitive routes underlying the process of perspective-taking.

The objective of this paper is to propose a sociological and interdisciplinary framework for analyzing the digitization of emotions in adolescence. This contribution aims to promote theoretical reflection and inform educational and political interventions in the digital age, framing adolescents’ digital experiences as emotionally embodied and socially integrated processes. These aspects are of paramount importance due to the rapid proliferation of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, which have precipitated a profound transformation in the emotional, relational, and educational experiences of adolescents. The role of digital and AI-based environments in mediating communication is expanding beyond the scope of simple facilitation. These environments are increasingly implicated in the production, modulation, and regulation of emotions, thereby influencing developmental trajectories and identity formation processes. This phenomenon is theorized as a socio-technical process, wherein emotions are embodied, narrated, and governed within digital environments. The article introduces the concept of digital emotional embodiment, drawing on the sociology of emotions, theories of embodiment, and critical perspectives on artificial intelligence. Specifically, the concept refers to the manner in which adolescents experience and express emotions through avatars, images, emojis, algorithmic feedback, and AI-mediated interactions. Therefore, it is imperative to underscore the evolution of empathy, which is progressively configured as a virtualized and datafied process, diverging from the tradition established by Hume and characterized by sympathy. In contemporary processes, shaped by the logic of platforms, recommendation systems, and emotionally reactive technologies, conventional emotional concepts have undergone deconstruction, and digital constructs are undergoing a gradual restructuring. In this context, AI systems do not merely reflect adolescents’ emotions but rather actively contribute to the construction of emotional narratives, influencing emotional regulation, social connection, and future orientation. Digital environments have been shown to encourage emotional expressiveness, experimentation, and inclusivity. Conversely, they have the capacity to encourage emotional standardization, dependency, and forms of affective vulnerability, particularly during a sensitive developmental stage such as adolescence.

Abstract:Queer and trans media studies scholars have celebrated ‘the glitch’ as a tool for resisting racist, cissexist, and biopolitical systems by revealing the socially regulated dimensions of the body. However, glitches are unpredictable events that cannot be reproduced, nor do they serve as universal remedies for all forms of injustice. Because of this, we need a praxis of noticing and understanding the sociality of each glitch to grasp the context of its liberatory potential.This article explores glitches as openings for transformative experiences for gender-nonconforming users in social virtual reality. Through autoethnography and participant observation, I analyze responses to a glitch in a virtual world I created, where players unexpectedly detach from their avatars. Rather than ‘fix’ this glitch, I enshrined it and invited trans VR enthusiasts with deeply personal relationships with their avatars to experience the ‘break’ it generates. When players merged, warped, and froze, the experience felt unexpectedly affirming. To understand these responses, I draw on theories of transness not as a fixed identity but as a speculative, expansive force that reshapes possibilities for being. By gathering at the glitch, we collectively confronted the norms that govern both actual and virtual worlds, fostering a praxis-oriented approach to trans embodiment that more accurately reflects the variability of transness as it is socially lived. Finally, I speculate how we as artists and audiences might develop skills for noticing when the transformative potential of the glitch emerges.

Virtual and artificial YouTubers (VTubers) show us digital embodiments that appear as computer-generated avatars and are animated by motion-tracking software. In their videos, their bodies traverse overlapping environments – streaming platforms, video games and even their physical environment. One figure through which one can understand these bodies as technocultural assemblages in their complex entanglements is the cyborg. As an analytical tool, the cyborg has emerged as a concept to think about bodies outside of mere juxtapositions such as nature and culture or man and woman. Instead, she emphasizes organic–machinic connections. By looking at the three examples of Miquela Sousa, Ai Angel and CodeMiko, I reconsider VTubers’ videos as cyborg imagery. Accordingly, I re-examine the figure of the cyborg and its limitations as a tool for analysis. In doing so, I ask about the (dis)embodied and animated facets of VTubers and their avatars’ bodies. Finally, I discuss VTubers as posthuman icons beyond the cyborg, examining the relationship of VTubers’ bodies to transcendence and immanence.

In virtual idol fandoms, fans often follow shared norms that shape how they interact with one another. This research draws on fandom, norms, and negotiation theories to explore how such norms emerge and are negotiated within the Plli fandom on social media X, focusing on the figure of “Terra Plave” as the controlling presence behind Plave’s virtual idol avatar. Based on data from phenomenological interviews with four Indonesian fans, the study identifies two central aspects of these norms: the types of accounts fans use and their responses to provocative posts and doxxing. The findings suggest that the norms surrounding Terra Plave reflect an ongoing process of negotiation among fans, aimed at resolving internal conflicts triggered by official statements from Plave’s label.