id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
spir-12145	Berryman, Rachel; Abidin, Crystal; Leaver, Tama	A TOPOGRAPHY OF VIRTUAL INFLUENCERS	2021.0	6	.pdf	application/pdf	1876	92	39	A TOPOGRAPHY OF VIRTUAL INFLUENCERS Rachel Berryman Curtin University, Australia Crystal Abidin Curtin University, Australia Tama Leaver Curtin University, Australia Introduction Informed by my first six months of doctoral research, this paper offers a topography of virtual influencers that at once acknowledges their continuation of and breaking with the precedents of a lineage of “virtual beings” who have achieved celebrity status. Responding to the ahistoricism of much recent commentary, it draws on archival press and web research to situate virtual influencers at the intersection of technological advancements, discourses, and anxieties similarly characterising Hollywood’s “synthespians” at the turn of the twenty-first century; the legacy of “virtual idols” in East Asia (also known as “Vocaloids” in Japan); and the latter’s recent democratisation by a new generation of “vTubers” across video-sharing sites.	cache/spir-12145.pdf	txt/spir-12145.txt