[Air-L] Invitation to ANIMATING DIGITAL IDENTITIES: Diverse Perspectives on the “Avatar” in the Age of Distributed Digital Environments (17 June 2025 @ Greenwich)

[Nicola Bozzi]

Dear all,

With apologies for cross-posting, I am happy to share an event about
avatars and digital identities that is taking place at Greenwich on 17
June. Please find more info by visiting the website
<https://www.animatedigital.co.uk/> and Eventbrite page
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/animating-digital-identities-tickets-1328324306759>
to register. I am also pasting the programme below.

The event will also be accessible via streaming on Teams, for those unable
to reach our location in London:
Join the meeting
<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NGRiMDIwNzYtZTUwNS00YTZjLTkyNDgtZTI2YmEyMmFlNzJk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%223516f40a-5ae9-4956-bbab-395162e589ce%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2262a365d8-7ac6-4a23-8c57-81944f9d29f8%22%7d>Meeting
ID: 349 170 467 888 4
Passcode: tV7aF94X

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Best,
Nicola Bozzi
Lecturer in Critical Media Practice
University of Greenwich, School of Design
schizocities.com / @schizocities


ANIMATING DIGITAL IDENTITIES

Diverse Perspectives on the “Avatar” in the Age of Distributed Digital
Environments

Date: 17 June 2025
Times: 9.30 to 19.30
Location: University of Greenwich, 10 Stockwell St, London SE10 9BD Lecture
Theatre - 11_0003

Curated by Nicola Bozzi, Ghislaine Boddington, Tatiana Isaeva and Olive
Gingrich. Supported by the Institute for Inclusive Communities and
Environments, School of Design, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
University of Greenwich, in collaboration with the Hybrid Presence Research
Cluster. This event is supported as the Annual Symposium of the Centre for
Spatial and Digital Ecologies.

Digital identity has gained unprecedented cultural and social momentum in
the last decade - both as an individual concern and far-reaching asset.
>From video game avatars to political campaign videos, from family WhatsApp
groups to virtual health assistants - in our digital everyday life, the
expression and performance of a wider and increasingly accessible range of
digital selves and bodies has become commonplace in large parts of the
world. This has been amplified and complicated by the accelerating pace of
technical innovation across mediated environments - i.e metaverse
platforms, AR, XR, generative AI, all linked to increasingly hyper-targeted
recommendation algorithms. At the same time, the cost and speed of data in
developing (low and middle- income) countries remains a
sometimes-existential factor, making sustainability an issue for these
evolutions.

*- What implications do these omnipresent platforms for representation have
in terms of inclusion, well-being, and overall social good?*

*- What kinds of new practices of the “avatar” are emerging, between gaming
platforms, social media, and the many metaverses inhabited by our
distributed digital bodies?*

We need interdisciplinary discussions, not only about the societal
repercussions of these technologies, but the opportunities they expand for
the creative renegotiation of our relationship with technology, the self,
and each other.

For this reason, this event approaches digital identity as a prism through
which the social and the cultural are refracted, inviting diverse
perspectives to examine theories and practices of the “avatar” in the age
of distributed digital environments.

---

PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY

9.30- 10:00 REGISTRATION

10:00 – 10:15 - OPENING REMARKS by the curators Nicola Bozzi, Ghislaine
Boddington, Tatiana Isaeva and Olive Gingrich

10:30 – 12:00 Panel 1: Animating Platformed Identities

How are avatars and digital identities becoming a global political-economic
asset? This panel explores different theoretical and artistic ways in which
gaming technologies and social media affect the expression of identity and
how digital identity itself shifts from individual bodies/characters
towards distributed commodities and communities.

Speakers – Aleena Chia, Alexandra Anikina, Nicola Bozzi, Nina Davies
Chair – Jane Frances Dunlop

12.00 - 12:30 - BREAK - Student Showcase

12:30 – 14:00 Panel 2: Animating Avatars for Social Good

How are animated digital identities, increasingly connected to real-time
data, pushing forward connected access to our individual and group social
needs as living beings? This panel focuses on a diverse range of digital
bodies working across time and space, rapidly evolving and being adopted in
a range of social need sectors, for example education, health, social
connectivity and wellbeing.

Speakers – Sarah Ticho, Camille Baker, Ghislaine Boddington, Olive Gingrich
Chairs – Ghislaine Boddington and Olive Gingrich.

14:00 – 15:00 - LUNCH and SHOWCASE

15:00 – 16:00
Round Tables: Animating Futures
Rotating discussion around the themes:

*Identity/Representation, Technologies/Infrastructures, Posthuman
Creativity *

Mediators - Eric Wong, Ryan Flynn, JC Kristensen

16.00 - 16.30 TEA BREAK
16.30 - 17:00 Sharings from Round Tables
17:00 - Keynote
17.30 - 18:00 - Conclusions

Student Showcase (running parallel) - curated digital art showcase of works
by students and alumni of the School of Design, University of Greenwich

Reception and Networking

Supported by the Institute for Inclusive Communities and Environments,
School of Design, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of
Greenwich, in collaboration with the Hybrid Presence Research Cluster. This
event is supported as the Annual Symposium of the Centre for Spatial and
Digital Ecologies.