Hatsune Miku in the »uncanny valley«. Vocaloids, gender and cyberspace

Abstract

The vocaloid Hatsune Miku appears as a multifold phenomenon, that started to exist as a Manga illustration for a computer program enabling to compose with digital voices, became a virtual popstar and is furthermore used as a figure in cosplay contexts. In my paper, I examine how this phenomenon is constantly hovering at the boundaries of the uncanny, and analyze this with psychoanalytic, theatre and media theories. Especially D.W. Winnicott’s concept of transitional phenomena is suitable to investigate the complex relation of gender and cyberspace that circle within Hatsune Miku’s polysemic and ambiguous structure. Through linking the phenomenon to more general questions of the humane and the humanoid, the debate on Artificial Intelligence is discussed from the angle of cultural production.