Pandora's Box

About

I am a researcher examining the social, cultural, and economic variables that affect the production of cross-media experiences. The ultimate goal behind such an endeavor is to examine how these variables are transforming communication, culture, and interpersonal relationships. My research adopts a broader understanding of virtual spaces that includes not only 3D environments but also printed works and social media, as ultimately, these platforms generate virtual spaces in which users can produce and share various visual representations and experiences. As such, the collaborative storytelling initiatives that are taking place through these platforms facilitate the online performances of any given work, thereby enabling it to come alive, albeit within slightly different contexts.

My previous research suggests that one such alternative mode of engagement emerges from the disruptive behaviors of the griefer communities in virtual worlds which have given birth to a particular type of cultural formations that display subcultural tendencies. These activities play out across a wide variety media and platforms, specifically, within non-elite contexts. I am also currently developing my research on how these anti-social activities give birth to a cultural production of a different kind and act as a catalyst that facilitate variegated transformations in virtual worlds. I am primarily examining the social, political, and economic strife that exists amongst the griefer groups themselves, in addition to the one that exist between the griefer groups and the locus of authority. As a side project, in addition to working on my research, I am currently blogging in Alphaville Herald on the daily news related to Second Life.

My interweb handle is either PaleFire or PaleFireR, you can reach me with the latter through Skype and AIM. And yes, it is after Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, as is my icon which is one of the butterflies that he drew