Derived embodiment: Interrogating posthuman identity through the digital avatar

This paper investigates the question of posthuman identity via the trope of the avatar and proposes an alternative model for its conceptualization and formulation through the framework of derived embodiment, whereby the posthuman construct is determined not by the independence of its digital data nor the disavowal of real-life bodily experience, but by the derivation of embodiment as presence enmeshed with information. Employing the theories of, among others, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Vivian Sobchack and Elizabeth Grosz, I argue that the interrogation of posthuman identity should be conducted through a more nuanced strategy of slippage between real and virtual worlds, specifically in two ways: (i) ascertaining the unique embodiment of the avatar by examining its specific actions and behaviour in virtual worlds; and (ii) mining the interstices of experiences between the real and the virtual, whereby the user's control and activation of the avatar translates into sensorium, embodied memory and sensory perception. The result of this paper is to present the avatar as an alternative text to assert the posthuman identity of an information-processing being embedded and enmeshed with the tactility and sensuality of derived embodiment.