Golem Lover: Avatar–Mediated Relationships and the Emergent Languages of Game Worlds - Jenna Caravello

PANEL 1: GENEALOGIES OF ANIMATED FORM Tuesday, June 9th, 11:20-11:50

Golem Lover: Avatar–Mediated Relationships and the Emergent Languages of Game Worlds 
Jenna Caravello (UCLA department of Design Media Arts)

This paper explores animation as a real-time process for agency and communication, analysing emergent play in massive multiplayer online video games. I will highlight specifically the anonymized interpersonal relationships and bonding behaviours that develop across virtual gaming platforms. I focus on habits and rituals in networked games that casually subvert developer-intended mechanics, allowing players intimate access to one-another, as well as the ludolects (game-specific languages) that shape how communities interact within game microcosms. I connect these behaviours to the avatar as a kind of digital golem; a crafted body that players project on, inhabit and animate, one that becomes central to how language, intimacy and shared practices take form. I argue that building relationships across networked games has become so ubiquitous that it influences game design more broadly, contributing to the rise of simulation-style gameplay in both triple-A and indie titles. Through true stories, reflective artworks and case studies including Active Worlds and VRChat, I show what avatar-mediated friendships, romances and intimacies look and feel like within the virtual bounds of a game, and what these behaviours reveal about how players navigate identity, presence, communication and connection while embodying an animated body in a game world.

Jenna Caravello (1988) is an artist and storyteller working with animation and video game software to explore deeply personal narratives, the identity politics of digital avatars and social relationships across online forums. Her work foregrounds emotional and often marginalized topics in tech spheres, like longing, absurdity and love, across experimental video game forms, interactive sculptural installations, animated films and mixed-reality audiovisual performances. Caravello is an Assistant Professor at UCLA in the department of Design Media Arts and Associate Director of the UCLA Game Lab. Her animation, game and installation works have been featured internationally, including at the Melbourne International Animation Festival, the National Taiwan Arts Education Center, REDCAT in Los Angeles, the Seoul National University College of Fine Arts, the Raindance Film Festival, the GIRAF International Animation Festival, the Nimoy Theater, and Slamdance. She is the recipient of a 2018 Jules Engel Award from CalArts and a 2018 Princess Grace Award.