- M. Elizabeth.Reid

 tesi, 1994

Cultural Formations in Text-Based Virtual Realities

 http://www.aluluei.com/cult-form.htm

Cultural Studies Program Department of English, University of Melbourne - Beginning with an understanding of virtual reality as an imaginative experience and thus a cultural construct rather than a technical construction, this thesis discusses cultural and social issues raised by interaction on 'MUDs', which are text-based virtual reality systems run on the international computer network known as the Internet. MUD usage forces users to deconstruct many of the cultural tools and understandings that form the basis of more conventional systems of interaction. Unable to rely on physical cues as a channel of meaning, users of MUDs have developed ways of substituting for or by-passing them, resulting in novel methods of textualising the non-verbal. The nature of the body and sexuality are problematised in these virtual environments, since the physical is never fixed and gender is a self-selected attribute. In coming to terms with these aspects of virtual interaction, new systems of significance have been developed by users, along with methods of enforcing that cultural hegemony through power structures dependent upon manipulation of the virtual environment. These new systems of meaning and social control define those who use MUDs as constituting a distinct cultural group.

----------------------------------------------

 tesi, 1991

Electropolis: Communication and Community On Internet Relay Chat

 http://www.aluluei.com/electropolis.htm

University of Melbourne, Department of History - This paper discusses interaction on 'Internet Relay Chat', the synchronous computer-mediated communication system available on that network. It is shown that the structure of IRC forces users to deconstruct many of the cultural tools that form the basis of more conventional systems of interaction. Within this environment new methods of creating shared systems of significance, and methods of enforcing that new hegemony, have developed. IRC's internal system of cultural deconstruction and regeneration is mirrored in its implications for the external system of academic discourse. It is proposed that the forms of interaction seen on IRC problematize and necessitate the reconstruction of some of the methods of analysis that have been applied to computer-mediated communication. IRC - and computer-mediated communication in general - offer challenges to disciplines such as linguistics, sociology and history that demand a reconstruction of those discourses.

----------------------------------------------

 ricercatore - sito web,

Reid Elizabeth

 http://www.aluluei.com/

Tra le prime ricercatrici sulle realtà sociali del cyberspazio. Nei primi studi sulla Rete all'idea di un soggetto razionalmente orientato, si è andata via via sostituendo una visione molteplice, complessa, decentrata dell'agente sociale -- visione che ha messo crisi i paradigmi classici delle scienze sociali. Nella sua paper del 1991 (tra le prime sul tema a circolare copiosamente online), Electropolis: Communication and Community on Internet Relay Chat, Elizabeth Reid pone tra le cause di tale disorientamento anche l'esigenza di affrontare l'analisi della comunicazione sincronica via computer: "le forme di interazione viste su IRC problematizzano e necessitano la ricostruzione di alcuni metodi di analisi che sono stati applicati alla CMC. In generale, IRC e CMC pongono una sfida a discipline come linguistica, sociologia e storia, richiedendo loro la ricostruzione dei propri discorsi."

----------------------------------------------

Lista autori