COMMEMORATIVE PRACTICES IN THE VIRTUAL SPACE OF THE COMPUTER GAME «SECOND LIFE»

Abstract

Background. In contemporary reality, digital technologies not only serve as a tool for the implementation of social practices, including commemorative practices, but also fill social gaps, offering alternative ways of interaction with the past in the digital space. In this context, computer games offer a valuable research space for interactions with the past, as they allow us to see the diversity and fluidity of the contemporary commemorative culture and practices.

Purpose. This article is a review of the book Life and Death in the Virtual World. Digital Kinship, Nostalgia and Grief in Second Life” by Margaret Gibson and Clarissa Carden. The author critically examines the ethnographic research presented in the book, focusing on the specifics of memorial culture and commemorative practices in the space of Second Life computer game.

Methods. The author relies on the philosophical-cultural approach, which includes methods of selection, generalization and typology, as well as the methodology of memory studies.

Results. Three interesting observations of the authors of the reviewed book on digital memorial culture are highlighted: (1) autonomy of virtual norms in the process of experience of «powerless grief»; (2) possibility of realization of nostalgic experiences through virtual «time travel»; (3) formation of specific memorial culture in the space of «virtual third places», which is an alternative to the legitimized memorial culture. The author of the review typologizes the digital commemorative practices described in the book in terms of memory objects. It distinguishes commemorations associated with virtual history (implementing the nostalgia for the past of the game itself); imagined history (allowing to «play» history in the space of simulations) and reallife history.

Scope of results. The results can be applied in the study of socio-cultural transformations of commemorative practices in the digital environment, as well as in the formation of research approaches to understanding the specific socio-constructivist potential of computer games.