Compulsive Creativity: Virtual Worlds, Disability, and Digital Capital

Authors

  • Donna Z. Davis University of Oregon, Eugene
  • Tom Boellstorff University of California, Irvine

Keywords:

creativity, digital culture, disability, ethnography, virtual worlds, social capital

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the intersection of creativity and agency by examining what might appear to be a very different intersection: disability and the digital. We do this by exploring what we term “compulsive creativity” as experienced by persons living with Parkinson’s disease who are active in the virtual world Second Life. To address forms of social and cultural capital, we introduce the notions of “digital embodied states” and “digital objectified states.” In doing so, we suggest ways that compulsive creativity speaks to questions of cultural capital in the context of disability online and emerging creative economies.

Author Biographies

Donna Z. Davis, University of Oregon, Eugene

Assistant Professor, School of Journalism & Communication

Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine

Professor, Department of Anthropology

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Published

2016-04-15

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Articles

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