4/7 Readings, Symbols.
April 7, 2008
The readings this week deal generally with the human reaction to words as symbols, and how an emotional reaction is generated by the symbols involved. The readings dealing with virtual reality explore how entering these text based programs into the human space, whether it be through simple animation or a complicated installation art piece, enhances or changes how a human reacts to them.
The Turner reading, in ritual study, informs these more artistic or theoretical readings with some social science observations, and are able to give greater depth to the relationship between visual stimulation and the meaning within those symbols and the greater impact they have within a ritual.
Turner observes what he calls the ‘dominant symbols’ as having constancy and consistency throughout a ritual or many rituals. They create a constant from which more specific characteristics can be derived or attributed. The dominant symbols create a baseline. In modern virtual spaces, a dominant symbol is a necessity. There needs to be a link from the created virtual space to the real world environment in which the user sits. The symbol could be a simple avatar or a username in simple applications where little performative action is needed to progress. However, a more complicated system requires a more complicated use of symbols to accurately and effectively depict the environment.
Such a symbol could be what Douglas introduces as ‘the Fifth Business” the character one meets within a game who serves as a guide. These characters are rarely fully developed complex narrative characters, but rather play a flat role with implied significance placed upon them by the user. An example observed in class is Navi, the small fairy which guides Link trough “Zelda”.
There is a dependent tow way relationship between the user and the fifth business. The user is dependent upon the character to provide meaning and initiative within the new foreign virtual space, and the fifth business character is dependent upon the user to perform in order for the symbol to have any use or any meaning.
