Avatars: Dancing in Transit is a featured essay co written by Kyriacos Christofides and Meera Badran on behalf of 2050+, and is part of “I, Like Many Things”, a publication edited by Diana Smiljković, Gustav Nielsen, Rachael Tsai and Jack Rusk and published by Yale School of Architecture in 2023. The essay explores the relationship between dance in the physical and digital context as this emerged from an ongoing research and a curated public program by 2050+ and Slam Slam, in the context of Circle (a digital think-tank launched by the two agencies with focus on the triad of bodies-movement-urban environments). 

The essay questions the agency of digital reproduction and the role of avatars, which, despite being promoted as blank canvases (cybernetic tabulae rasae), are the direct product of capitalistic systems and ideologies that are associated with their development – often at the expense of minority cultural identities. An undeniable advantage of the temporary occupation of a digital environment is the possibility of “inhabiting” multiple identities, allowing for new forms of alliance and coexistence to be tested within and beyond the digital space.