Modern Times is the era of individual multimedia.
Netizens are creating active and positive internet culture unlike past time as they assert themselves using minihomepage and blogs in cyber space or making one-person broadcasting stations. Besides, ne...
Modern Times is the era of individual multimedia.
Netizens are creating active and positive internet culture unlike past time as they assert themselves using minihomepage and blogs in cyber space or making one-person broadcasting stations. Besides, netizens are producing numerous digital contents in cyber space, and here, respective netizen creates another identity of oneself through an avatar and forms communities between unspecified majority of other netizens, relying on the avatar. The role of a caricature which is used as an expression mean on individual identity off-line, so far, is replaced by an avatar on-line, today, which became an essentially needed factor in the era of individual multimedia. The development of individual media are causing the emission of multi-cultured expression style, and due to this, the importance of avatar is standing out more distinctively, and profound researches in accordance with the trend became necessary more acutely. An avatar is exposed to all netizens in cyberspace, and it is necessary that it`s characteristic and style could be perceived in the possible fastest time. It`s because netizens have, deservedly, the nature that they would accept lots of images as many , simply, and briefly as possible. Likewise, in accommodating visual information, human-beings show the property innately, to grasp the overall characteristic than to perceive parts of an object in fraction. The Gestalt visual perception theory is just the research on this tendency of human beings. The Gestalt visual perception theory is also being applied a lot and frequently for designing avatars on-line, which is due that the application of Gestalt visual perception theory for avatar design enables easily understandable and particularly memorable expression to the eyes of any person.
Though numerous avatars exist on-line, presently, almost all the avatars have similar appearances due to the limitedness in production technology, and can not take sufficient role as the mean of the expression of self identities of netizens. To solve this problematic point, the expression techniques which are used for designing avatars, are surveyed, and the matter how the Gestalt visual perception theory can be applied for the designing, is examined. Cyworld Minihomepage, which is one of the largest social networking websites, in Korea, is selected as the target site for the analysis and data collection, in which the most numbered avatar collection is available, and the present avatar designing trend is clarified by classifying the avatars of the site, according to their styles. In parallel, this study also grasped the Gestalt visual perception theory related phenomena, which appears in the avatar designing through the analysis based on the law of simplicity, law of grouping, law of familiarity, and law of figure and ground by Gestalt theory.
The conclusion of this study can be summarized as below.
First, from the result of the analysis and questionnaire inquiry based on Gestalt visual perception theory, the facts which is appropriate to the hypothesis stated by this study, are revealed, and the conclusion corresponding to the facts is drawn.
Second, the facts that the application of Gestalt visual perception theory raises attention attraction degree, and that caricature expression technique increases the favorable impression in avatar designing, are revealed.
Third, the fact that, presently, the avatars in Cyworld Minihomepage can not sufficiently satisfy the desire of netizens for self expression, is grasped.
Fourth, ahead in the future, avatars will keep existing, and researches on avatars, from various viewpoint, should be continually processed.
By the result of the survey, it is identified that the Gestalt visual perception theory can be applied very efficiently for the perception of various avatars on-line, and the necessity of Gestalt visual perception theory for the preparation of avatar culture which fits very well to the coming era of media, is reaffirmed, and the present trend and future prospect of avatar designing can be predicted. On top of this, the probability of avatar designing development which fits to individual multimedia era, desirable extension and the vitalization way of avatar designing, are also observed.