[Commlist] Animating Digital Identities: Diverse Perspectives on the “Avatar” in the Age of Distributed Digital Environments

ANIMATING DIGITAL IDENTITIES

Diverse Perspectives on the “Avatar” in the Age of Distributed Digital 
Environments

Date: 17 June 2025
Times: 9.30 to 19.30
Location: University of Greenwich, 10 Stockwell St, London SE10 9BD 
Lecture Theatre - 11_0003

Registration:
website <https://www.animatedigital.co.uk/> and
Eventbrite page 
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/animating-digital-identities-tickets-1328324306759> 


Curated by Nicola Bozzi, Ghislaine Boddington, Tatiana Isaeva and Olive 
Gingrich. Supported by the Institute for Inclusive Communities and 
Environments, School of Design, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 
University of Greenwich, in collaboration with the Hybrid Presence 
Research Cluster. This event is supported as the Annual Symposium of the 
Centre for Spatial and Digital Ecologies.

Digital identity has gained unprecedented cultural and social momentum 
in the last decade - both as an individual concern and far-reaching 
asset. From video game avatars to political campaign videos, from family 
WhatsApp groups to virtual health assistants - in our digital everyday 
life, the expression and performance of a wider and increasingly 
accessible range of digital selves and bodies has become commonplace in 
large parts of the world. This has been amplified and complicated by the 
accelerating pace of technical innovation across mediated environments - 
i.e metaverse platforms, AR, XR, generative AI, all linked to 
increasingly hyper-targeted recommendation algorithms. At the same time, 
the cost and speed of data in developing (low and middle- income) 
countries remains a sometimes-existential factor, making sustainability 
an issue for these evolutions.

/- What implications do these omnipresent platforms for representation 
have in terms of inclusion, well-being, and overall social good?/

/- What kinds of new practices of the “avatar” are emerging, between 
gaming platforms, social media, and the many metaverses inhabited by our 
distributed digital bodies?/

We need interdisciplinary discussions, not only about the societal 
repercussions of these technologies, but the opportunities they expand 
for the creative renegotiation of our relationship with technology, the 
self, and each other.

For this reason, this event approaches digital identity as a prism 
through which the social and the cultural are refracted, inviting 
diverse perspectives to examine theories and practices of the “avatar” 
in the age of distributed digital environments.

---

PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY

9.30- 10:00 REGISTRATION

10:00 – 10:15 - OPENING REMARKS by the curators Nicola Bozzi, Ghislaine 
Boddington, Tatiana Isaeva and Olive Gingrich

10:30 – 12:00 Panel 1: Animating Platformed Identities

How are avatars and digital identities becoming a global 
political-economic asset? This panel explores different theoretical and 
artistic ways in which gaming technologies and social media affect the 
expression of identity and how digital identity itself shifts from 
individual bodies/characters towards distributed commodities and 
communities.

Speakers –Aleena Chia, Alexandra Anikina, Nicola Bozzi, Nina Davies
Chair – Jane Frances Dunlop

12.00 - 12:30 - BREAK - Student Showcase

12:30 – 14:00 Panel 2: Animating Avatars for Social Good

How are animated digital identities, increasingly connected to real-time 
data, pushing forward connected access to our individual and group 
social needs as living beings? This panel focuses on a diverse range of 
digital bodies working across time and space, rapidly evolving and being 
adopted in a range of social need sectors, for example education, 
health, social connectivity and wellbeing.

Speakers – Sarah Ticho, Camille Baker, Ghislaine Boddington, Olive Gingrich
Chairs –Ghislaine Boddington and Olive Gingrich.

14:00 – 15:00 - LUNCH and SHOWCASE

15:00 – 16:00
Round Tables: Animating Futures
Rotating discussion around the themes:
/Identity/Representation, Technologies/Infrastructures, Posthuman Creativity
/

Mediators - Eric Wong, Ryan Flynn, JC Kristensen

16.00 - 16.30 TEA BREAK
16.30 - 17:00 Sharings from Round Tables
17:00 - Keynote
17.30 - 18:00 - Conclusions

Student Showcase (running parallel) - curated digital art showcase of 
works by students and alumni of the School of Design, University of 
Greenwich

Reception and Networking

Supported by the Institute for Inclusive Communities and Environments, 
School of Design, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of 
Greenwich, in collaboration with the Hybrid Presence Research Cluster. 
This event is supported as the Annual Symposium of the Centre for 
Spatial and Digital Ecologies.





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