Bots : Automated and Autonomous Performance Art in Second Life

This chapter explores the history, state-of-the art, and interactive aesthetic potential of “SL-Bots”. SL-Bots are avatars (i.e. “agents”) that are designed and controlled using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Second Life. Many of these SL-Bots were originally created in Second Life for purposes such as: rudimentary chatinventory management and copying, asset curation, embodied customer service, generic responsive environments, scripted objects, or as proxy-audience members (aka “campers”). However, virtual performance and installation artists – including two of the chapter’s authors [ca. 2011-present] have created their own SL-Bots for aesthetic purposes. This chapter suggests ways in which SL-Bots are gradually being extended beyond their conventional applications as avatar-placeholders. This book chapter concludes with the speculation that future virtual agents (including next generation SL-Bots) might one day transcend their teleological aesthetic purpose as mere automated-objects by evolving into more complex autonomous aesthetic personas.