The Body In The Metaverse:Research On The Digital Avatar In Science Fiction Films

As a unique film genre,science fiction film carries human’s imagination about the future.Especially under the tide of the meta-universe,human beings in the virtual space of survival and communication activities will be completed with the help of a new type of body,that is,digital avatar.This study takes the "digital avatar" in science fiction movies as the research object,and with the help of the three frameworks of Don Eid’s body classification,based on the three body views of experience body,cultural body and technical body respectively,analyzes the survival and communication activities of digital avatar in the meta-universe and its impact on the real body.This paper attempts to take the future represented by the metauniverse as the rearview mirror,to reflect on whether the existence of the body in the sense of the flesh is still necessary when the avatar can simulate and replace the real body in the metauniverse for survival communication,and to rethink the value of the body in the communication.The first part of this paper,from the perspective of experiential body,analyzes the similarities and differences between the perceptual experience obtained by the digital avatar in science fiction movies and the real body experience in the meta-universe,and how this experience will shape the experience system of the existing body.The second part,from the perspective of cultural body,analyzes whether digital avatar is affected by socio-cultural factors like real body in the meta-universe,and on this basis analyzes how digital avatar obtains a new identity in the meta-universe and the existential anxiety and identity anxiety it brings to the subject.The third part is based on the perspective of technological body,starting from the core concept of the relationship between one person and technology,"technological embodiment",to explore how digital avatar,as technological body,is embodied in the experiential body and cultural body,and combined with the state of digital avatar presented by technological body in science fiction movies,to analyze the risks it may face in the meta-universe.Digital avatar is not only a new body in the meta-universe,but also a form of existence of the post-human body.From the imagination of digital avatars in science fiction movies,we can see the changes brought by the appearance of avatars to the field of body existence.The real space is not necessarily the eternal dwelling place of the body.In the future,human beings can also survive in the meta-universe with the form of avatars.However,the virtual body represented by digitalization seems to get rid of the heavy shackles of the physical body and realize the transcendence of the real body,but it still faces the possibility of being bound by other implicit shackles in the meta-universe.More importantly,with the continuous development of the future meta-universe,the worship and yearning for the virtual body may become popular among human beings.In the process of pursuing the virtual body,they may miss the real body,and therefore miss the world that the body can perceive,which is bound by the fragility and limitation.In this sense,digital avatars can help us more clearly understand the importance of physical existence and its unshakable status,and through digital avatars,we can transcend the barriers of the physical body and see the wider world and a more distant future.