**Just in time for Black History Month!**
This is my take on films such as Avatar 3D and perhaps a way to use popular culture to study history and heritage, e.g. Ancient Egypt.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines virtuality as the possession of force or power, the essential nature of being, apart from external form or embodiment, or as a virtual (as opposed to an actual) thing, capacity, etc; a potentiality. From the time of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs to contemporary urban culture (hip-hop) this text presents a historical trajectory based on a pursuit for empowerment, space travel, art, and alternate realities as a tool for transcendence, starting with the evolution of the avatar and the current design, use and evaluation of afrofuturism in virtual worlds.
Afrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past. Examples of seminal afrofuturistic works include the novels of Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler; the canvases of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the photography of Renée Cox; as well as the extraterrestrial mythos of Parliament-Funkadelic and Sun Ra, and the recombinant sonic texts of DJ Spooky.
Read more about afrofuturism here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrofuturism
Avatar is both an ancient word and a 21st century social or virtual representation of self. Avatars are, or can be viewed from different perspectives. Avatars can be photos, symbols, or three-dimensional representations of people who use them to interact in society, online, or in virtual 3D worlds. In Hinduism, avatar often translated into English as incarnation, or a deliberate descent from higher spiritual realms to lower realms of existence for special purposes. Avatars also exist in other cultures throughout history.
Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning Effective spirit of Aten. He chose to represent himself differently in public spaces. Artistic representations of Akhenaten give him a strikingly bizarre appearance, with an elongated face, slender limbs, a protruding belly, wide hips, and an overall pear-shaped body. It has been suggested that the pharaoh had himself depicted in this way for religious reasons, or that it exaggerates his distinctive physical traits. Regardless of the reasons for his appearance these features made Akhenaten stand far apart from those he ruled.
Herman Poole Blount was a prolific African American jazz composer, bandleader, musician, poet and cosmic philosopher. Blount abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the ancient Egyptian god of the sun). Sun Ra was a pioneer of afrofuturism, a cultural aesthetic combining science fiction and fantasy with non-Western cosmologies in order to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past.
George Clinton, African American singer, songwriter, producer, and principal architect of P-funk during the 1970s and 1980s drew inspiration from Sun Ra and once declared in an interview, "Yeah, Sun Ra's out to lunch... same place I eat at!" This historical, virtual vein continues with the emergence and global diffusion of hip-hop culture.
Early pioneering DJ Afrika Bambaataa is known as the "Amen Ra" of Universal Hip Hop Culture. Other notable examples include musical groups like the Ultramagnetic MCs and Outkast, as well as Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Kool Keith, and Common--all have laid claim to interplanetary alter egos and cybernetic identities.
**In other words: While it's cool for people to buy into the hype of films such as Avatar 3D they should also know about the long, continuous history and heritage of virtuality and avatars.**
To explore this aesthetic further I have created a virtual 3D build and machinima in Second Life intended to promote a legacy of physical artifacts and cultural elements of afrofuturism throughout history, for the benefit of new and future generations. (YouTube clip coming soon...)
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