I’ve been thinking recently about how the visual representation of many people I interact with every day, isn’t their face, it’s their Twitter avatar and handle. I only follow people (and let people follow me), who I’ve met in person. Twitter isn’t a way for me to promote myself or my ideas to people I don’t know. I use it more as a connection to my network of friends and interesting people in my work life. Even though many of the people I follow I know very well, some of them I associate as much by their handle, as by their real name.
When people change their avatar picture, it takes me a little while to adjust, a bit like in person if they’d changed their hairstyle significantly. Avatars represent us, but they also say something about us. Our choice of picture, how frequently we change it, conveys messages to people, whether we intend it or not.
Twitter avatars are one aspect of our ‘face’ in the digital world. As such, I thought it was appropriate to cross-stitch the avatar of someone who has consistently extended my thinking about technology and the ‘virtual world’. I first became acquainted with Helen and Chelfyn from Mohawk Media through their slot on National Radio’s Virtual Worlds with Jim Mora. I then met them at a conference, and over time they’ve become my friends.
Photo based avatar’s are very hard to cross-stitch well. Chelfyn’s though is very abstracted down to just a few colours, so it was really fun to cross-stitch, especially the anti-aliasing.
