Specter
It is always nighttime in the Metaverse

Phantom (2021)
Sian Fan



How does making avatars affect your sense of identity?

“The avatars in Phantom are developed using a hyper-edited image of myself. This photo was put through an image enhancement app, creating an anime-like version of my face, before being mapped onto a 3D character using Reallusion. Whilst designing the character I was struck by the sexist limitations of the styling options available and felt that the restrictive nature of this prominent indie game design tool was a self-fulfilling prophecy for the industry. If the only character creation options available are sexist and shallow, then those are the only characters that will be created. I felt this was deeply problematic and this led the work to explore and subvert the contrived stereotypes of female video game characters, using my own image, body and movement.”


Access Phantom VR on itch.io