Skip to content

Character

Jill Walker Rettberg edited this page Apr 10, 2021 · 2 revisions
  1. How to tag characters:
  • Remember that characters are agents where we want to capture more than “just humans”. If you need generic humans, it’s an entity, use the “Humans in general” in the the “Generic Entity Action” in [Situations](https://github.com/jilltxt/machinevision/wiki/Situation).
  • If you want to refer to a fictional character, create a node for the character, then return to the form, start typing the character’s name in this field and it will autocomplete and link up.
  • If the user is a character or the character is a “blank” avatar (e.g. first-person view without any extra information), use the “Generic Entity Action: User” in [Situations](https://github.com/jilltxt/machinevision/wiki/Situation).
  • If the character is a performance by/of a real person, e.g. Joy Buolamwini, write that person’s name in quotation marks: “Joy Buolamwini”.
  • If a tag doesn’t apply, leave it blank.
    1. Current taxonomy:
      Name:
  • If the character has no name, put its title/reference as the name and the work in brackets, e.g. Alien (Alien: Blackout) or UAV operator (Unmanned).

    Description:

    • Brief description of the character (or role) if appropriate.

    Group:

    • Tick this box if you are describing a group of people. Leave unticked if the character is an individual. If describing a group, only select characteristics that are shared by the whole group. E.g. mark the group Circle Users as Human, but leave the rest empty.
    Gender
    Female Presents as female.
    Male Presents as male.
    Non-binary/Other “Other” refers to fictional genders, such as alien species with three genders or no genders.
    Trans Someone who has transitioned from one gender to another, or is in the process of doing so.
    Unknown/Not applicable





    Race/ethnicity
    Asian (REVISIT)
    Black
    Immigrant
    Indigenous If a group of people is explicitly framed as being indigenous.
    Multiple/Complex (REVISIT)
    Person of color
    White
    Unknown/Not applicable It’s not made clear in the work, or it’s not relevant for this character, or we aren’t sure whether it’s made explicit in the work.





    Species
    Animal Non-human animal or animal-like creature. Can include actual animals living on Earth and fictional animals. A robot dog should be tagged with “Animal” and “Machine”. The emphasis is not on organic nature but representation.
    Cyborg A being with both organic and mechanical/machinic body parts.
    Fictional species E.g. elves, orcs, extra-terrestrials.
    Human Character appears to be more or less equivalent to homo sapiens.
    Machine Includes robots and androids, as well as AI systems etc.
    Unknown/Not applicable





    Age
    Child Young, immature person who would typically be looked after by older people. If character’s age changes during the course of the work, either tag the most dominant or important age, or if several ages are important, tag all.
    Young adult Teenager or young person who is partly but not fully independent yet.
    Adult Mature member of society.
    Elderly Senior member of society. Would often be represented as retired or having physical characteristics of age, such as grey hair, failing body etc.
    Unknown/Not applicable


    Optional notes:

    • These notes are only visible to users who are logged into the database.
  • Clone this wiki locally