Virtual Influencers
Virtually Real: Humanlike Virtual Influencers
and Politics of Artificial Technologies
and Politics of Artificial Technologies
(book manuscript in preparation)
What does it mean to be human in mediated communication environments? How do we want to be together?
I am currently working on my first book project Virtually Real: Humanlike Virtual Influencers and Politics of Artificial Technologies to tackle these questions. Virtually Real examines the cultural implications of "humanlike" artificial technologies' increasing social integration in our everyday cultures through the case of virtual influencers, uniquely drawing on fieldwork that incorporates English, Korean, and Japanese language-based examples and participants. I critically trace various (hidden) people, things, and structures in the phenomenon to explore how these "humanlike" artificial social actors become meaningfully (or as some would say, virtually) "real," however with unresolved ambiguities around issues of power and accountability.
Related Works
Here are some shorter spin-off pieces that were inspired during the Virtually Real project development.
AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research (2023):
"Real But Fake, Real Because Fake: Technologically Augmented K-pop Idols and Meta-Authenticity."
An introduction to a case study on parodic AR K-pop idols that expands on Virtually Real's original concept of "meta-authenticity."
Click the link to read the article: https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2023i0.13437
In Media Res (2021):
"Artificial Not Welcome, Real Is Better? Sus Virtual Beings Among Us."
#virtualbeing #ai #robot #virtualinfluencer #authenticity
A short, discussion-friendly curatorial piece that introduces my research interest in "virtually real," humanlike virtual influencers, focusing on the topic of authenticity.
Click the link to read the article: https://mediacommons.org/imr/content/artificial-not-welcome-real-better-sus-virtual-beings-among-us-2
Click to read about In Media Res