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Research project In virtual worlds, individuals explore new experiences of holiness. An avatar is the representation of the individual self, controlled like a marionette, like Pinocchio, by invisible threads. Behind the avatar is the driver or puppeteer, who commands the expression of the avatar. This project investigates how the religious experience of the avatar is related to its driver, and vice versa, and if and to what extent the avatar, like Pinocchio, can emancipate himself from the puppeteer and live a life of his own.
Can an avatar tear itself loose from its puppeteer's threads and control and live a (religious) life of its own? Maybe in a virtual, parallel world. In such worlds one finds avatars seeking experience of the holy, as well as entrepreneurs creating environments where avatars' (people's) experiences of the holy may be held together in a meaning system. One investigation is about the avatars seeking the holy (and their agents), another about the entrepreneurs constructing environments (and their avatars). Why do they hang around in virtual worlds, and why do they build churches and congregations there?
Finansår , 2010, 2011
huvudman: Jørgen Straarup, finansiar: Vetenskapsrådet, y2010: 972, y2011: 972,