Looking outwards 05

This project is a fictional character created by artists Trevor McFedries and Sara Deco who created a 19 year old avatar, Miquela. She is a model and musician and a social media influencer. She has more than a million followers by portraying the lifestyle of an it-girl on Instagram. This project interested me because of the impact that she is having on our society today. Brands are taking her on as a model and an ambassador. Her music is being compared to other virtual musicians such as Gorillaz and Hatsune Miku. What I am fascinated by the most is that she is not a real person yet she feels like one because of how realistic the artists have rendered her (and Photoshop her into photos with real people) to be and her personality/presence on Instagram. She has marked a new era of IA. This project has received both intrigue and criticism where people question whether Miquela is an art project or a social experiment. McFedries and Deco own a company called Brud which is a creative agency specializing in robotics and artificial intelligence and the first computer generated social media persona.