I wanted to create a virtual world avatar that emanated ethereal, mystical beauty. As such, there is this iridescent, fantasy-like glow to the face, with a crown that matches this iridescence as the user’s face moves. As the light catches the user’s face, the colours of the holographic glow merge into one another, creating a glossy, prismatic effect. I believe this look exudes a paradisiacal feel; a delicate beauty that is somewhat otherworldly, and yet, because human features aren’t distorted in the filter, remaining natural. I wanted to keep these mundane characteristics, but warp them slightly to create this surrealistic version of myself as my virtual world avatar. I felt this would elevate the user’s experience with the filter to portray an alternate, distorted version of humans, or perhaps an insight into what the existence of an otherwordly being may look like.
Changing certain aspects of myself was always my intention with the filter from the beginning, which may be due to modern humans’ innate desire to alter their physical attributes to an extent, likely consequential to unrealistic societal beauty standards. By harnessing these insecurities and creating a virtual world avatar version of myself that is magical and transcendental, perhaps subconsciously freed me of this burden. I fabricated a heightened version of myself that is both ordinary and extraordinary; temporal and fey.
The inspiration behind the holographic quality of the filter was to create a mermadic feature to my virtual world avatar, as if I were a mermaid princess (hence the crown). The crown is large in scale and abstractly shaped, reiterating this fantasy element to the filter – an unnatural design that wouldn’t exist in actuality. Combining the unorthodox crown and holographic lighting, I feel I have successfully illustrated a mystical version of myself as my virtual world avatar.