The paper explores the mutually-constituted relations between avatars, space, and artifacts depicted in players’ profile portraits in a Second Life BDSM community. The significance of these images is not simply their representation of the lifestyle; they also convey the entertainment and interactive significance of virtual BDSM fantasy play. Through 3D game technology and photographic conventions, participants of BDSM community collectively construct a grammar and symbolism of power and submission through institutional structures (BDSM communities and lifestyle practices), enforced roles (dominance and submission, master/mistress and slave), and virtual photographic technologies (in-game instant snapshots). In the process, the spectator consciously and unconsciously participates in the power dynamics that these portraits depict.
Bardzell, S. (2006). The submissive speaks: The semiotics of visuality in virtual BDSM fantasy play. Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGGRAPH symposium on Videogames, p.99-102, 30-31 July 2006, Boston, United States of America.
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