Avatar
2004, media installation'Avatar' is a virtual self-presentation installation that explores the relationship between the human body and its digital counterpart. Created with various imaging technologies and developed in collaboration with the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA SZTAKI) and C3 – Center for Culture and Communication, the work investigates how fragments of our physical selves exist as data in the digital realm, and how the artist reassembles these fragments to construct a virtual body – her own avatar.
In the early 2000s, the online virtual world Second Life gained global popularity, allowing users to appear as avatars – dolphins, spheres, flowers, or any chosen form. While many were busy creating alternate identities in virtual space, Anita Sarosi turned her attention to the real body already present in the digital sphere: medical and scientific data.
In 'Avatar', she assembled a complete “virtual body” of herself from these existing fragments – X-rays, ultrasound images, MRI and CT scans, and 3D body data – merging them into a moving digital collage. The resulting work forms a poetic synthesis of technology and identity, suggesting that our physical presence has already been replicated, piece by piece, within the invisible architectures of data in the early 2000s.
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'Avatar' was presented at Solo Exhibition, C3 Gallery, Budapest, HU, 2004
