This piece was mentioned in the textbook on page 156. The description of the art seemed fascinating. It allows the user or visitor to go to a website where you can create an identity or avatar online but it is limited to the same kinds of restrictions that occur in the physical world. Restrictions of capitalism, bureaucracy, and fixed social categories are what constrains the freedom of a perfect avatar. The restrictions are decided for you. So it is basically creating a character with flaws and limitations.
I tried creating an avatar in the Bodies Inc. website but it seems like an outdated webpage. To my dismay, my browser does not support their service but I can imagine what I could have created. I wish I could of gotten a chance to check out the website but there are plenty of online games with realistic experience embedded in their program, the main ones being Second Life and The Sims. In those games, if you can afford the time and the money, you have access to a luxurious online experience or you can purposely play at "minimum" or disabled attributes to give yourself a challenge. This may not be the same idea Bodies Inc artists had in mind but the concept of creating an avatar to the user's liking are the same.
The idea behind Bodies Inc may have been thought provoking at its conception in the late 1990's but now it's a norm. There are even movies created in the past decade base on this premise. Surrogate and Gamer are movies that questions how life would be if you vicariously live it through avatars. Surrogate is the better one of the two but both are entertaining.
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