Nick Prior | On the Singing Hologram: Miku, Love and Labour Event details Speaker: Nick Prior (Sociology Department, University of Edinburgh) Date: 20 November 2019 Time: 3.15 - 5.00pm. Venue: Alison House, Atrium (G10) Abstract The advent of the performing hologram opens up significant questions around the fate of “liveness” in the digital age, blurring if not collapsing distinctions between absence/presence, live/real, original/copy as well as transforming well-worn ideas such as authenticity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Japan and the UK, this talk explores the case of virtual idol, Hatsune Miku, originally a marketing mascot for voice synthesis software but who now tours globally and is a representative agent of a new breed of virtual performers. As well as introducing the Miku media model – a relatively flat media ecology where fans are also Miku producers – the talk will offer some speculative thoughts on how a Miku performance “works” as an assemblage of love, labour and socio-technical affordances. Who or what is performing, how is liveness managed when the performer is pure code, and what does this tell us about relations between live music, participatory cultures and virtuality? Biography Nick Prior's profile page Nov 20 2019 15.15 - 17.00 Nick Prior | On the Singing Hologram: Miku, Love and Labour When a hologram performs, who is performing, is it "live", and why does this matter? Nick Prior investigates. Alison House 12 Nicolson Square Edinburgh EH8 9DF Find out more about the venue
Nick Prior | On the Singing Hologram: Miku, Love and Labour Event details Speaker: Nick Prior (Sociology Department, University of Edinburgh) Date: 20 November 2019 Time: 3.15 - 5.00pm. Venue: Alison House, Atrium (G10) Abstract The advent of the performing hologram opens up significant questions around the fate of “liveness” in the digital age, blurring if not collapsing distinctions between absence/presence, live/real, original/copy as well as transforming well-worn ideas such as authenticity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Japan and the UK, this talk explores the case of virtual idol, Hatsune Miku, originally a marketing mascot for voice synthesis software but who now tours globally and is a representative agent of a new breed of virtual performers. As well as introducing the Miku media model – a relatively flat media ecology where fans are also Miku producers – the talk will offer some speculative thoughts on how a Miku performance “works” as an assemblage of love, labour and socio-technical affordances. Who or what is performing, how is liveness managed when the performer is pure code, and what does this tell us about relations between live music, participatory cultures and virtuality? Biography Nick Prior's profile page Nov 20 2019 15.15 - 17.00 Nick Prior | On the Singing Hologram: Miku, Love and Labour When a hologram performs, who is performing, is it "live", and why does this matter? Nick Prior investigates. Alison House 12 Nicolson Square Edinburgh EH8 9DF Find out more about the venue
Nov 20 2019 15.15 - 17.00 Nick Prior | On the Singing Hologram: Miku, Love and Labour When a hologram performs, who is performing, is it "live", and why does this matter? Nick Prior investigates.
