About the Author
This website represents the culmination of my time at the University of Texas at Austin receiving my Masters in Media Studies.
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I first began to take an interest in machine-human interactions and relationships in Dr. Sharon Strover's "Communication, Technology, and Culture" class, where I was first introduced to the digital influencer Lil Miquela. Miquela was the start of my thinking about the ways that we integrate machines and technology into our daily lives. In following this line of enquiry, I found myself contemplating the way that in taking a recuperative stance toward technology, and in looking at our images of machines and tech through a queer lens, can reveal new modes of being in the world. I found myself transfixed by the ways that these creations are frequently the backdrop that allow humans a way to imagine a different world and a different self. More often than not, these imaginings take on a distinctly counter-hegemonic sensibility.
Halfway through “Communication, Technology, and Culture” (Spring 2020), the COVID-19 pandemic forced us into remote online courses. I’m writing this section on the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring a worldwide pandemic. Since then, I’ve completed the majority of my Masters remotely.
Toying with a Posthuman definition
Issues of queerness, agency, and the continued reliance on her creators.
In looking at Lil Miquela through a queer lens, I first attempt to grapple with the fact that Brud has made her appear to behave autonomously. Due to this, I will not be analyzing Miquela’s performance as a queer person, even though she identifies as such. While there is more to queerness than just romantic interest, Miquela has never had a partner that wasn’t a self-identified man. Her character also doesn’t display the staunchly anti-capitalist, anti-normativity, anti-racist, abolitionist mentality that undergirds so much of a queer sensibility. There have been a few posts referencing “cute girls” and other causes but nothing that has manifested into a concrete course of action, other than her relationship with the model, Nick.
I investigate how Miquela’s queerness manifests outside of her narrative construction. Her existence and users' interactions with her are constantly in flux and mediated by the platforms where she resides. I look towards the ways that Miquela occupies a space between creativity/art and consumer and data capitalism. In teasing out how she operates both within and outside of these structures, I assert that she is a queer entity, but in a form that deals less
with her narrative performance of queerness, and instead lookstowards how she is constructed as something “beyond human.”
(Beyond) Human on a Platform
The first two years Miquela was on Instagram, she fully believed she was human. However, Brud was aware that the project could lose some of its “luster,” if they continued to try and convince the audience that she was a human. Their solution was to manufacture a feud between Miquela and Bermuda. Bermuda hacked Miquela’s Instagram and threatened to tell the truth about her unless she and Miquela could meet. After Miquela got her account back, she posted a screenshot of her notes where she addresses her fans.
In a truly brilliant move by Brud, they’ve addressed all of the issues attached to Miquela while progressing her narrative, and seemingly absolving themselves of the problematic issues inherent in Miquela by simply having her address them head on. From this moment on Miquela outwardly lives as a robot, along with Blawko and Bermuda.
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In doing so, Miquela rids herself of the “ ‘natural’ self…
[becoming] an amalgam, a collection of heterogeneous components, a material-informational entity whose boundaries undergo continuous construction and reconstruction” (Hayles 3). Her boundaries are in constant flux. Every single post, repost, share, like, comment, etc., reconstructs her boundaries on the various SNS (social network service) platforms where she resides. Miquela Sousa regains a small amount of agency in being networked. Her ability to expand across a users’ accounts is out of Brud’s control. Miquela is a datapoint on millions of people’s Instagram accounts. If someone is an active follower of Miquela, meaning they like, comment, or share her posts, she then represents multiple data points on said person’s account. While this engagement can be leveraged to benefit Brud, as “capitalism can exploit any number of data sources” (Couldry and Mejias 7), Brud is unable to force users to like Miquela’s posts and they have no control over how these data points affect each individual user's algorithm and habits. Both Miquela Sousa, the narrative, and Miquela as a concept are “produced by market relations [they do] not predate them” (Hayles 3).
A helpful approach to conceptualize Brud’s (lack) of control over Miquela, is to visualize a dropper of food coloring over a glass of water. The dropper and amount of coloring put into the water can be controlled. However, once the drops leave the dropper the way it disperses in the water cannot be controlled. Miquela behaves in much the same fashion on the platforms. Brud constructs her narrative and uploads the videos or images, but then loses control over the way she disperses across users’ accounts.
“’Brown' was a choice made by a corporation. ‘Woman’ was an option on a computer screen. My identity was a choice Brud made in order to sell me to brands, to appear ‘woke.’”
 Miquela and the Uncanny Valley |
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 Unreal and Verified |
 Back to Theoretical Concerns |