Ilker Bahar | Digital transformation of body, identity and intimacy through social VR: The case of VRChat

Ilker Bahar | Digital transformation of body, identity and intimacy through social VR: The case of VRChat | University of Amsterdam- ASCA Research School- Media Studies Department | Supervisor(s) Professor Dr. Misha Kavka, Assistant Professor Dr. Toni Pape | September 2023- September 2027 | i.bahar@uva.nl

Supported with gradually advancing AR and VR technologies, social VR platforms began to offer various opportunities for users to interact, communicate, and create with others in a shared digital space. Launched in 2014 and used by millions across the world today, VRChat platform is one such place where participants engage in practices such as role-playing, ASMR, and cross-gender avatar embodiment and form communities such as mirror dwellers, furries, and memers. Despite burgeoning research on the technological and economic aspects of virtual worlds and the parallel developments in blockchain, NFT, and immersive technologies, there is still a lack of scholarly research on the social and cultural dynamics of these digital ecosystems. To fill this gap, this research will investigate 1) how users interact with each other, form and maintain relationships, and experience intimacy and sexuality in VRChat, discuss 2) the role VR and AR wearables play in users’ perceptual, affective, and embodied experience, and explore 3) the impact of immersion technologies on self-expression, identity, authenticity, and performativity. To address these topics, a digital ethnography will be conducted in VRCHat by drawing on the methodological and theoretical insights of scholars such as Turkle (1995), Taylor (2006), and Boellstorff (2008) who comprehensively analyzed the social, cultural implications of virtual worlds and video games prior to the advent of immersive technologies. Overall, this research will contribute to our understanding of the prospects of mediated body, identity, and intimacy in the Web 3.0 era by engaging with queer, affect, and cultural theories.