It is this relationship between the avatar and the creator that is explored in a project entitled "Alter Ego: Avatars and their creators", an exhibit being shown in SL (Click Here for SLURL), and also being reproduced as a book in the real world. In the exhibition, various pictures are on display. These pictures either show a snapshot of an avatar in SL, or a photo of a user. When you click on the picture it switches to the alter-ego of that person. As you stare at the avatar picture, you try to imagine what kind of person lies behind it, and when you switch the picture to the photo, there is almost always a surprise. The pink-clad psycho cheerleader becomes a twenty something male. The be-suited black man becomes a hip-hop white man. The Star Wars bounty hunter becomes a young boy suffering from poliomyelitis. The reasons behind the choices these people have made go unspoken, but pictures speak a thousand words, and after looking through the exhibition, you may never look at another avatar the same way again.

