On a recent trip to San Diego I met the artist Tara Knight who is making a documentary about Hatsune Miku, a “collaboratively constructed cyber celebrity“. Hatsune Miku means “The First Sound from the Future”. According to “Know Your Meme”:
Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) is an application developed by Crypton Future Media. Released in August 2007, using Yamaha’s Vocaloid 2 technology and voice samples of Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita, the program allows the user to synthesize and optimize the singer’s voice to sing any tune. It was first introduced to the Japanese market with an official anime character, who has since reached iconic status within Otaku culture as well as mainstream J-pop and online video culture as well.
It is kind of amazing. Watch the trailer for Tara’s movie here: