eLouai

Last year I pointed out a site called Paper Doll Heaven which allows you to dress up celebrities. Lately, I've been playing on another fabulous site--eLouai--which allows you to design entire rooms and houses as well as people, smilies and animals.

This is the new, improved me for 2006 (of course, i secretly want to be a mermaid, but for now, wings will do). I have decided to opt for comfortable footwear this year.

Given the growing interest in online avatars (one section of the site allows you to create caricature avatars), identity and the importance of play, sites like these are important to examine and play with.

Note my use of the term 'play'. There is a fabulous ESRC seminar series called "Play, creativity and digital cultures" continuing throughout 2006. The blog of the series is Let's Get Digital: Play.