Browsing by Subject "VTuber"
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Item Open Access Boundary between Virtuality and Reality: Comprehending VTubing Phenomenon through Posthuman(2024) Xu, DanniWhen Kizuna AI debuted as the first VTuber in the world, a new Japanese popular culture emerges. In just five years, as a new category of YouTubers, a group of VTubers (virtual YouTubers) is gradually coming into the public eye. Different from other YouTubers, VTubers use a digital avatar to represent their body and response to their audience. By using technologies such as 3D and live2D, VTuber are able to create any characters they want ignoring the limitations of their real-life identity. Through their interactions with audience through digital avatars, some VTubers have gained a large number of followers and earnings during live streaming. Graphics technology and VTuber’s performance create a connection between virtuality and reality. However, since the emergence of VTuber agencies in 2018, the VTubing phenomenon faces several new limitations. The agency’s business contract shatters the fantasy world that VTuber brings to their audience and prompt the audiences to shift their attention from the VTuber's behavior to that of the people manipulate the avatar (naka no hito). The result dilutes or even eliminates the connection between the VTubers and their digital avatar.
Item Open Access Virtuality and Vulnerability: The Queer Performances of Chinese VTubers(2023) He, XuanyeVTubers, short for “Virtual Youtubers,” refer to online content creators who have animated avatars and a persona associated with their avatars in live streams and videos. Facilitated by motion-capture, facial recognition, and live2D technologies, VTubers first emerged in Japan around 2016 and later developed into a global industry, reaching millions of audiences in Asia, Europe, and North America. As the performers behind the VTubers (“zhong zhi ren”) stay anonymous, the audiences are attracted to the VTuber personae that not only fulfill audiences’ fantasy and also feel authentic. However, investing in a virtual relationship also raises many questions: how should we understand the disjuncture between the VTuber persona and the performer’s own identities? What opportunities and/or concerns emerge from such disjuncture? In this thesis, I analyze cases of Chinese VTubers to examine the VTuber-audience relationship and the dynamics between the performer, the avatar, and the VTuber persona to explore the queer potential of VTubing in China.