Real life, after a fashion

Lisa Dap to is a ravishing young woman in almost every sense:lean and leggy as a gazelle, pretty face, and a thick mane of auburn hair that swings heavily down to a tiny waist. She looksquite something, hovering on this cliff top, arms outstretched,bodysuit silvered black and tight as a second skin, pointy bootshalf a dozen centimetres above the ground. Suddenly, she drops herarms, draws them back like a swimmer on a starting block and,gazing at a distant glittering sea, takes off. Flies. "Actually, she's about years younger and a lot cuter thanme," says Dr Lisa Dethridge, jolting us back to reality from herdesk, which is ringed with computer screens, in a shadowy cornerbeyond Lisa Dapto's fantastic but unreal world. "But that's what wedo in Second Life - we idealise." Advertisement: Story continues below Lisa Dap to - who is being projected life-size onto an arc offloor-to-ceiling screens amid the blackness and blinking technology of an RMIT media studio - is Dethridge's creation and alter-ego.She is an "avatar" (named for the sanskrit word meaning "heavenlybeing descended to Earth"), who "lives" in the 3D virtual worldknown as Second Life. Usually, the real Lisa manipulates the fantasy Lisa from akeyboard and small screen on her desk at RMIT, where sheco-ordinates the Creative Strategies course. But today isdifferent; she plans to introduce her avatar tonight at a lecturefor the National Gallery of Victoria, titled Virtual Media -Fashion and Identity in Second Life. Dethridge is a media PhD from New York University and a formerlecturer at universities in Los Angeles and Melbourne. She chose fashion as her focus, she says, because it is among the mostintriguing aspects of Second Life, and one that every one of itsestimated 15 million (and expanding) "residents" worldwide must come to grips with Rosetta Stone Greek . "Everyone (on Second Life) tries their hand at fashion design," she says. Indeed, they have no choice. To create a virtual self, they mustbe hyper-sensitive to the power of appearance. "It starts thestrange sort of psychological thing: your relationship with youravatar," Dethridge says. "You have to create, you have to choose, maybe choose what tochange in yourself. You have to pick out the eyes you want, thebody you want, and you can create the fashions you want, what you'll wear, where and when." Dethridge believes the purity of this freedom is unique. "In theabsence of smell, touch, and the entire electro-magnetic spectrum of nervous vibration and mood indicators (that we have in real life), we must represent ourselves with colourful graphics." Fashion, in other words. In the virtual world it offers a visuallanguage even more powerful than in reallife, one that reaches beyond clothing and accessories. "It's empowering to create an absolute version of your self,"Dethridge says. "And, it's not always about perfection." It is hard not to doubt that, however, as she guides Lisa Dap to- awkwardly running or walking, effortlessly flying or instantlyteleporting from island to island, resort to town, parkland toseaside - through her parallel universe. Most avatars on SL appearto be young, slim and attractive, with cool haircuts and clothes.But Dethridge points out that there are also avatars idealiseddifferently - in wheelchairs, for example. Just not as many. "And they can fly too." Her own avatar, created two years ago, is younger than the real Dethridge but the lean figure and small waist are only slightlyexaggerated. "I wanted to create her as near to me as I could," she says, and- not for the first time - slips into the first person whenspeaking for Lisa Dap to."I like to change, though. For special occasions, or if I'm going to a party, I'll put on my special hair.

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