Isabella Haid’s summer 2021 research project culminated in an essay which takes website form, presenting the history and theorizing the impacts of virtual influencers. A statement from Haid’s original proposal is below.

“After a cursory review of existing scholarship on Virtual Influencers, it is clear that researching and theorizing the impacts of this internet phenomenon is still in its early stages. Within the context of the early internet, virtual avatars began as player characters in digital worlds like MUDs and MMOs which prompted questions around controlling versus being one’s avatar.

The proposed research embodies experimentation in both methodology and subject, as it focuses Virtual Influencers as cyborgs and centers experimental knowledge practices by utilizing memetic culture as part of my academic inquiry.”

Organized by Isabella Haid, Bard College Annandale