Session 2: Freedom in Cyberspace

5th Global Conference

Sunday 11th July 2010 – Tuesday 13th July 2010
Mansfield College, Oxford

Avatar: A Tale of Indigenous Survival?
Lola Miralles-Alberola
Centro de Estudios Ciudad de la Luz (Film School), Alicante, Spain

This presentation explores the obvious connections between worldwide indigenous peoples and the Na´vi, the humanoid inhabitants of the satellite Pandora in the film Avatar (2009) directed by James Cameron. It also considers the present and future implications of these connections on the representation of the indigenous persona in mainstream culture, and on indigenous vindications of land, ecology, sovereignty, survival, history and culture.

Departing from my own scholarly research on indigenous contemporary narratives of the Americas, and the compilation of several current articles and opinions from a variety of forums from Native American intellectuals and activists, I propose that this sci-fi film provides a symbolic liberation and a metaphorical decolonization. Nevertheless, this presentation takes into account the stereotypes appearing in the film, namely the good savage and the warrior princess images, and the messianic mission of the outsider.

The explicit message of Avatar addresses current issues affecting, not only indigenous survival worldwide —such as the plundering of their natural resources and the destruction of sacred land by corporations—but also affecting the human race in general. And I say explicit, because there is no doubt the film seeks to send the message to as many people as possible. In this case, the cinematographic language does not show any intention of literary specificity, it does not have a subtle screenplay and leaves very little to audience interpretation. Instead, it relies on an overwhelming use of 3D technology and science-fiction semiotics.

The expectation created by the release of Avatar, and the debate it has opened, along with the negative and positive responses from diverse sectors of society —such as the Vatican, the Chinese Government and the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales—highlight, once more, the influence of film, in general, and science fiction, in particular, on popular culture.

Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)

Immersion and Surveillance in Virtual Worlds
George J. Stein
Cyberspace & Info-Ops Study Center, Spaatz Research Center, USAF Air University, Alabama, USA

This paper will explore the tension between the emergence of cybercultures through Virtual Worlds and the already demonstrated interest by national intelligence and law enforcement agencies in applying a system of surveillance over Virtual Worlds.

Using the well-known “Second Life” as illustration, I argue that the original vision of building a country with its own laws and society, the so-called “immersionist” community, is threatened by an “augmentationist” approach to this virtual world by those who see SL as more a “platform” for other “real world” (RL) activities such as continuing education, commercial activities, conferences, etc. – all of which have a considerably lower commitment to privacy and anonymity. This tension will work itself out “within” the evolution of SL. The more serious challenge to emerging virtual world cybercultures is surveillance by government agencies. The interest by intelligence and law enforcement agencies in virtual worlds is easily documented. (as will be in the paper).

Initially, interest in “goings-on” in virtual worlds focused on more paranoid fantasies that terrorists might be hiding in Second Life to communicate secretly, plan and rehearse. Future surveillance will be based on a more nuanced understanding of the epistemology of virtual worlds. Briefly (and developed in the paper), the “rules of the game” in a virtual world without rules of the game become a new set of rules that can/ may/will translate into the “real” world. If, say, it were observed (as technically easily done) that SL residents building a community/island based on radical “republican” principles began discussing regicide, would domestic intelligence agencies employ techniques within the virtual world to discover the real world identity of these residents? Or, if it were observed that the members of a community building, say, Andalusia, increasingly exhibited radical Salafist “play,” would we expect greatly increased surveillance by the state and, of course, the concomitant degradation of civil liberties?

In essence, a perception that residents of virtual worlds represent an ethical secession from “real” norms and the creation of communities potentially antithetical to “proper” law and behavior, will, I argue, draw increased surveillance and, thus, effectively frustrate the development of a creative cyberculture through virtual worlds.

Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)