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Vocal synthesizer programs such as Vocaloid use artificial intelligence to create humanlike vocal tracks without human singers. These programs often tie their voice banks to animated avatars, making each user-created song a part of a never-ending oeuvre of work for a distinct virtual performer. These avatars can not only be used in images and video, but also in augmented reality concerts through semi-transparent LED screens that make it look like these animated virtual performers are performing live. ‘Vocaloid’ then is not only a software or a genre of music created using that software, but also denotes a hyperreal virtual performer. Through a feminist critique that utilizes Inter-Asian referencing, this paper problematizes the issue of removing the human from the female body to make it widely usable as a medium of expression and question the usage of Vocaloids in consideration of the future of digital technologies.
Caitlyn Ng Man Chuen (Fri,) studied this question.