Digital Creativity

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Hatsune Miku: an uncertain image

Stina Marie Hasse Jørgensen, Sabrina Vitting-Seerup & Katrine Wallevik

To cite this article: Stina Marie Hasse Jørgensen, Sabrina Vitting-Seerup & Katrine
Wallevik (2017) Hatsune Miku: an uncertain image, Digital Creativity, 28:4, 318-331, DOI:
10.1080/14626268.2017.1381625

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Published online: 09 Oct 2017.

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DIGITAL CREATIVITY, 2017
VOL. 28, NO. 4, 318–331
https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2017.1381625

Hatsune Miku: an uncertain image

Stina Marie Hasse Jørgensen, Sabrina Vitting-Seerup and Katrine Wallevik
Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
In this article, we discuss the vocaloid pop star Hatsune Miku as an uncertain Hatsune Miku; fan
image, which embodies networks of fans functioning as cultural producers, participation; creative
making it unclear whether creative statements are affectively dialogical or statements; uncertain image
function as entrepreneurial campaigning. Here we describe Hatsune Miku as
an image that is not only desired by fans, but that itself desires. We critically
debate the affective investments and distributed ownership in the attention
economy in relation to the cultural phenomenon of Hatsune Miku, and
consider the pop star to be continuously animated, produced, circulated and
consumed by fans, while profit is channeled back to the company behind the
image: Crypton Future Media. We further argue that this channeling has been
enabled by new digital infrastructures, creating a risk that networks of fans’
affections and desires may be transformed and mutated into feelings that are
entangled with commercial interests, thus producing uncertain images of
desire such as Hatsune Miku.

Hatsune Miku and the embodiment of

the same way as if it were a trumpet or piano
fans
plug-in, or another digital instrument in a
The pop star Hatsune Miku attracts thousands sound production studio programme. The
of fans to stadium concerts from Tokyo to Los vocaloid, created by manga artist Kei, is por-
Angeles. Unlike other pop stars, however, trayed as an young girl with long legs, short
‘she’1 does not have to eat and drink in order miniskirt and long turquoise hair styled in two
to stay alive. The Japanese name, Hatsune pigtails (see Figure 1).
Miku, can be roughly translated as meaning Since Hatsune Miku was released in 2007,
‘the first sound of the future.’ Above all, Hat- more than 170,000 songs have been made
sune Miku is a sound, or more precisely: ‘She’ using the vocaloid’s voice on the video-sharing
is a vocaloid. A vocaloid is a synthesized voice platforms YouTube and Niconico (the Japanese
programme or application developed by equivalent of YouTube), and the number is still
Yamaha. One of Japan’s leading music technol- growing. All Hatsune Miku songs are produced
ogy companies designing voice characters using and shared by fans, ranging from ‘bedroom
the Yamaha software is Crypton Future Media. musicians’ to professional producers and com-
The company has created Hatsune Miku with posers around the world. According to Drew
voice samples from the Japanese voice actress Millard, writing for the online magazine Noisey,
Fujita Saki. Fans can buy and compose songs the fans use the voice of Hatsune Miku as a
with the Hatsune Miku voice-bank package in pathway to success. Any producer willing to

CONTACT Stina Marie Hasse Jørgensen rhj282@hum.ku.dk Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen,
Karen Blixensvej 1, 2300 København S, KUA1, Denmark
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
 DIGITAL CREATIVITY 319

Figure 1. The Hatsune Miku hologram performing in front of fans, posted by Jrharbort (2016).

buy the vocaloid can create a song using the personalities into the narrative: Hatsune Miku
Hatsune Miku software, with ‘a distinct possi- is her fans, and her fans are Hatsune Miku’
bility that that song will become a hit in (2016).
Japan’ (Millard 2016). Merging fans and the aesthetic object they
The potential reach of a song is an important desire in this way constitutes an uncertain
element when one wishes to gain recognition as image that is hard to classify. But rather than
a pop artist. Social media platforms such as discussing what Hatsune Miku is, in the follow-
YouTube have created infrastructures that ing analysis we will ask the imperative question:
enable fans to crowdsource pop stars, the iconic what is it Hatsune Miku wants?
example being Justin Bieber, who went from
being a YouTube user to being one of the
The want of an uncertain image
most well-known pop stars in the world because
his fans, also called ‘beliebers,’ liked, shared and When we describe Hatsune Miku as an uncertain
promoted his songs on YouTube (Falsani 2011). image that is not only desired by fans, but that
Hatsune Miku and Justin Bieber share a his- itself desires and ‘wants,’ we draw on W. J. T.
tory as fan-promoted pop music phenomena. Mitchell’s definition of ‘the word image’ as
However, Hatsune Miku and Justin Bieber dif- ‘notoriously ambiguous,’ connoting both phys-
fer strongly in their relationship to their fans, ical objects, imaginary entities and acoustic
because Miku is crowdsourced by ‘her’ fans in images, as well as producing analogies or resem-
a much more radical way. As Erica Russell bling ‘imitations of life’ (2005, 2). These imita-
from Popcrush writes: ‘Unlike other fictional tions take on ‘lives of their own’ (89), meaning
music acts, the character of Hatsune Miku was that images can ‘come alive and want things’
designed with no backstory, allowing users to (9). In What Do Pictures Want, Mitchell argues
project their own fantasies, ideas and that images and their ‘wants’ or desires are
320 S. M. H. JØRGENSEN ET AL.

dominant in our visual culture, and therefore we play a special role. As Emilia Petrarca from W
need to engage with what images communicate, magazine notes: ‘I think Miku is already the
do, and desire (28). By arguing this, Mitchell present of music, in that she embodies a vast
does not claim that images ‘have life or power’ movement, brought about by the Internet, and
(10), but rather that images ‘lack something,’ which blurs the line between creators and
and that this lack can be interpreted as a desire users’ (Petrarca 2016).
(10). What the image desires is among other The public discourse in popular media often
things ‘to change places with the beholder, to focuses on Hatsune Miku as a fan-created pro-
transfix or paralyze the beholder, turning him duct that empowers ‘her’ fans, enabling them to
or her into an image for the gaze of the picture’ influence the very aesthetic commodity they
(36). consume. Hatsune Miku embodies networks
In the case of the image of Hatsune Miku, the of different fans’ desires, including musicians,
beholder, here also often the fan, takes part in producers, cosplayers, vloggers, tech nerds, Ota-
creating the image, using it as a vessel for living kus, visual artists, designers, etc.
out their own desires and fantasies. This makes Fans creating new versions of their desired
Hatsune Miku an uncertain image, such uncer- images are of course nothing new. Even long
tainty arising due to the blurring of boundaries before the rise of the Internet and social
between labour, ownership, creativity and media, fans were creating fan art and fan fiction
desire. In asking what the image wants, Mitchell which served as statements in affection-based
argues that we should ‘make the relationality of dialogues and collaborations within fan com-
image and beholder the field of investigation’ munities, but as Jenkins, Ford and Green write
(49). In this article, we will therefore investigate in Spreadable Media; ‘traditional branding the-
the relationality of Hatsune Miku as image, ory has valued controlling meaning rather
Crypton Future Media and ‘her’ fans. Our than inspiring circulation’ (2013, 201). This
focus will be on the uncertainty that links up had an influence on fan culture and fan partici-
with the loss of control of Hatsune Miku’s aes- pation. In the Western market, fan productions
thetic life. This blurring of boundaries is due to have most often been produced and consumed
four main factors: the production and circula- in closed networks of fans because of copyright
tion of creative statements made by fans, Cryp- laws, meaning that these fan productions were
ton Future Media’s continuous recapturing and hardly ever recognized by the companies
channeling of the fans’ creative statements, the behind the original aesthetic commodities to
(im)materiality of the figure Hatsune Miku, which the fan productions contributed. DC
and the entanglement of the fans’ desires and Comics superhero Batman is a good example
Hatsune Miku’s desires as an image. In other of this kind of relation.
words, we will focus on what Hatsune Miku Batman is, like Hatsune Miku, a brand and
wants as an uncertain image intertwining econ- an identity that has been shaped and sold in a
omics with aesthetics. variety of different commodities, all relating to
the social and cultural figure of the brand.
Media scholar Eileen Meehan describes how a
The entanglement of producers and
huge number of different products featuring
consumers
Batman hit the stores as soon as DC Comics
Hatsune Miku’s character has been compared to found out that their fictive hero had grown
an empty vessel, as ‘she’ makes it possible for into a social presence with a major cultural
fans to project themselves, their desires, and impact in the United States. Tons of commod-
their creativity onto the pop icon (Sone 2017, ities in all sizes and shapes suddenly ‘flooded
149). In this way, the fans of Hatsune Miku malls across the United States with images of
 DIGITAL CREATIVITY 321

Batman’ (Meehan 1991, 47). In capitalizing on same ways Hatsune Miku can, in that they pro-
the Batman brand in this way, DC Comics vide a framework for users to operate within,
were utilizing the traditional branding strategy and from where they can find and enjoy creative
described by Jenkins, Ford and Green, in that statements produced by other users.
they met the fans’ desire for more/new Batman Media theorist David Gauntlett writes that
commodities in a way that valued control rather the social networking site YouTube can be
than inspiring circulation. In short, DC Comics understood as being a platform for creativity,
owns Batman as a trademark and holds the where everyday people can express themselves
copyright to the brand of Batman. This means creatively and share, view and like creative
that DC Comics can produce and sell Batman expressions made by other everyday people
commodities in as many varieties as they like, online. The circulation of creative statements
and Batman fans can then buy and consume is a way of participating online, and the social
them. Despite DC Comics owning the Batman networking sites can be understood as cost-
copyright, fan-made fiction about and fan- free platforms through which participants can
made drawings of Batman are nevertheless cre- connect with others through these creative
ated, collected, and distributed via non-profit statements. This all sounds well and good, but
online platforms such as DeviantArt and as Gauntlett (2011) further points out: ‘as
Archive of Our Own. However, DC Comics users move around YouTube, willingly indicat-
do not publicly engage their fans in animating ing their interests and preferences through their
and re-creating the Batman figure, and Batman searches, clicks, and ratings, they generate valu-
fans are not invited to alter or affect the Batman able marketing data which is gathered by the
figure in any way. This is the job of the writers, corporations and used for commercial pur-
artists, animators, editors, producers and others poses’ (90).
hired by DC Comics (Thompson 2010). The creative statements are substantiated by
Unlike the clear division of roles within DC a value system of online recognition, in what
Comics between the producers of the Batman has been coined the ‘attention economy’ (Gold-
character and the fans as the consumers buying haber 2006), where it is capitalized through
Batman products, the roles of producer and measurement of traffic and clicks (Battelle
consumer are entangled and uncertain when it 2005; Scholz 2013). The theorist and activist
comes to the image of Hatsune Miku. However, Tiziana Terranova (2012) elaborates on the
things have of course changed considerably workings of the attention economy as a capital-
between the creation of Batman in 1939 and ist endeavour:
the release of Hatsune Miku in 2007.
The abstract quality of attention and at the
same time the fact that the ‘attentional assem-
blages’ of digital media enable automated
Digital platforms for creativity in the
forms of measurement (as in ‘clicks’, ‘down-
attention economy loads’, ‘likes’, ‘views’, ‘followers’, and ‘sharings’
Creative statements and personal comments in of digital objects) open it up to marketization
and financialization. (2–3)
the form of e.g. videos, photos, or songs made
by everyday people in public spaces have The likes, views and shares can also, apart
increased significantly with the rise of digital from generating online recognition, generate
social networking sites such as YouTube, Face- profit, as Terranova observes (2012). The atten-
book and Instagram, and fandom websites such tion economy and the constant measurement of
as DeviantArt, MediaMiner and FanFiction. the ways in which users participate in online
These online platforms can all be considered platforms and social media, has also resulted
vessels for creative statements in some of the in a marketization of creativity. The sociologist
322 S. M. H. JØRGENSEN ET AL.

Andrew Ross writes, ‘In the business world, recognition and attention doing something
creativity is viewed as a wonderstuff’ (2008, 6), they are passionate about: making, circulating
because the more creative outputs a company and rating aesthetic commodities. We argue
can produce, the more ‘views,’ ‘likes,’ ‘followers’ that this attention-seeking behaviour is making
and ‘sharings’ it will be granted. This marketiza- the role of the fan unstable; the lines are becom-
tion of creativity is clearly expressed in online ing blurred between being creatively driven
social networking sites for the sharing of cul- from a desire to affectively share and collabor-
tural content such as YouTube. ate, and producing what can be called affective
In addition to these networking sites, the fan labour.
effects of the attention economy are also evident The social relations of and the emotional
in relation to what could be called aesthetic investments made by fans have changed in the
commodities, which can be defined as when attention economy, increasingly incorporating
‘aesthetic production […] become integrated affective, dialogical and collaborative relations
into commodity production,’ as literary critic of fan culture into the model of the market,
and political theorist Fredric Jameson writes making not only the aesthetic commodities pro-
in Postmodernism or The Cultural Logic of duced in this contact ephemeral and ever-chan-
Late Capitalism (1991, 4). Jameson argues that ging, but also making the role of the fan
the ‘dispersive, atomistic and individualistic’ uncertain. In Fans, Bloggers and Gamers, Jen-
logic of capitalism results in aesthetics that kins writes; ‘It is important to distinguish
replace depth with surface, or multiple surfaces, between these fan-generated materials and
in the aesthetic commodity (62). Jameson also commercially produced works’ (42). This, how-
argues that the value of aesthetic commodities, ever, might not be possible any longer. Very
like music, videos, literature and art, can be much like YouTube, the vocaloid pop star can
reduced to their consumption value. Here the seem like the perfect social platform in the
usage is even more important than the specifici- attention economy where participation is cele-
ties of the aesthetic commodity itself; the value brated (Black 2011) and where prosumers’
of design and art is reduced to the purpose of (Toffler 1990; Manovich 2008) ability to influ-
use for the individual, and is as such what ence and customize commodities is highlighted
defines their value (343). However, it can be as essential for customers and users worldwide
argued that aesthetic commodities today, (Ritzer and Jurgenson 2010). As Ibtimes writer
when connected to the rise of platforms for Charles Poladian states: ‘Hatsune Miku is the
creative statements, do not only have to be perfect pop star for a generation growing up
reduced to the value of consumption, but also with social platforms to express every whim or
include the value of production in terms of action on a daily—or minute by minute—basis’
how users animate and circulate aesthetic com- (2016). The vocaloid does seem to fulfil the
modities online. desires of a growing fan base, but the fans them-
The cultural theorist and fan scholar Henry selves are also defining and fulfilling these desires
Jenkins has defined fan culture as ‘dialogic through countless fan creations. It is therefore
rather than disruptive, affective more than ideo- interesting to look closer at how fan participation
logical, and collaborative rather than confronta- is channeled and marketed in the case of the
tional’ (2006, 150). However, today a large uncertain image of Hatsune Miku.
group of online consumers are fans who freely
create, share and like, as well as consume, aes-
Fan participation in Hatsune Miku
thetic commodities. The fans do all this affective
work for free because, besides getting pleasure Studies of fan networks emphasize the positive
out of what they are doing, can also gain features of exchange and empowerment which
 DIGITAL CREATIVITY 323

derive from participating in networks, sharing organize links and aggregate content for per-
the same interests and pleasures through affec- sonal or social consumption in the form of e.g.
tive and open dialogue (Jenkins 2006, 14). fan wikis with vocaloid trivia or music playlists
Online, such features take the form of a partici- with Hatsune Miku songs. The joiners join com-
pation culture in which fans appropriate, share, munities such as fan sites and chat forums and
discuss, like and follow cultural phenomena, e.g. subscribe to other fans’ YouTube channels or
on social media websites. The participating fans blogs, thereby contributing to the attention
feel that their contributions matter and they economy by rendering the dedication of fans vis-
find some kind of social connection with others ible and quantifiable. The spectators read blogs,
who share their interests. Technology and mar- watch YouTube videos, and listen to songs with-
ket researchers Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff out subscribing to any lists or channels, thereby
categorize how social media users participate generating ‘clicks’ and ‘views,’ which are the
online in different roles, namely creators, con- cents and pennies of the attention economy.
versationalists, critics, collectors, joiners, specta- The inactives can, in this context, be understood
tors and inactives. Creators are defined as as ‘non-fans’ who do not interact or connect
‘online consumers who at least once a month with the Hatsune Miku commodity in any way.
publish a blog or article online, maintain a web- Apart from the inactives, the different levels
page, or upload videos or audio to sites like of participation can be said to create an inter-
YouTube’ (2011, 43). The conversationalists related network feeding and promoting each
take part in dialogues and conversations on other’s participation continuously; when the
social media platforms. The critics ‘react to con- producers, musicians or animators create a
tent online’ (44), commenting on and reviewing music video featuring the vocaloid voice and
the works of others, e.g. on wikis. The collectors visual identity of Hatsune Miku, adding to the
tag and aggregate information ‘organizing the image of the Japanese idol, the fan critics review
tremendous amount of content being produced these, evaluating the music video production.
by Creators and Critics’ (45). The joiners ‘par- Then the fan collectors take the best songs
ticipate in or maintain profiles on a social net- and videos and create playlists for the joiners
working site like Facebook’ (2011), and the to subscribe to, making it possible for the spec-
spectators ‘consume what the rest produce’ tators to choose the most popular playlists to
(2011). Finally, Li and Bernoff define the inac- watch or listen to. The huge number of specta-
tives as ‘non-participants […] completely tors, shown as hits on YouTube, makes it attrac-
untouched by social technologies’ (2011). tive for the creators to choose Hatsune Miku as
Using the categories put forward by Li and their platform for expression, since the creators
Bernoff can clarify how fans participate in ani- are more likely to receive attention and recog-
mating and revitalizing Hatsune Miku in the nition when using Hatsune Miku rather than
online attention economy. another vocaloid with a smaller fan community.
The creators produce content with the Hat- Hatsune Miku can therefore be argued to be
sune Miku vocaloid or anime character; they a socially networked phenomenon that engages
compose and upload songs, animate music fans more and more through endless circula-
videos and produce drawings. The conversa- tions of different modes of participation and
tionalists participate in dialogues about Hatsune communication, resulting in Miku’s ever-
Miku songs, videos and concerts on YouTube, increasing fan base, maintaining the vocaloid
Facebook and in fan fora. The critics submit as a global, widespread cultural phenomenon
reviews and rate this content, e.g. rating and (see Figure 2). Hatsune Miku can be understood
reviewing individual fan-produced songs or as a fragmented, aesthetic commodity shaped
Hatsune Miku Expo concerts. The collectors by the action and labour of users or fans: a
324 S. M. H. JØRGENSEN ET AL.

Figure 2. The different ways fans participate in Hatsune Miku, by (listed from top to bottom, left to right) Danny-
choo (2008), 4everdrum, Holly Ann Ann (2016), hatsune_miku and Hatsune Miku Official Page.

synthetic voice for musicians to produce songs YouTube or SoundCloud—online spaces the
with, a visual identity that artists can draw fans did not create, but that they freely contrib-
and animate, a character that cosplayers can ute to with fan productions and other creative
dress up as, and an emblematic figure used in statements. Hatsune Miku, too, can be seen as
games as well as in dozens of commercials. Hat- an online structured space, from where creative
sune Miku can therefore be seen as a social plat- statements are produced and circulated by the
form enabling multiple fan-created renditions vocaloid’s fans. The fan participation in Hat-
in a diversity of different creative statements sune Miku can arguably be said to create an
with fragmented and eclectic aesthetics, embo- uncertainty of form, mutating and crystalizing
died in one single brand. Hatsune Miku according to ‘her’ fans’ desires.
The participation of fans appropriating, This constant modification and distribution
sharing, debating and liking Miku contributes constitutes the very core of the business strategy
to the development of Hatsune Miku as a cul- behind the multi-surfaced commodity of Hat-
tural phenomenon and social presence in what sune Miku.
media studies scholar Emma Keltie calls struc-
tured online spaces. She writes that ‘partici-
The value of fan productions
pation occurs within the bounds of structured
spaces that those participating did not create. The fans’ massive investment in Hatsune Miku
These spaces govern the possibilities and constitutes in itself the core of Crypton Future
potentialities of engagement in participatory Media’s business model, as the scholars Alex
practices’ (2017, 36). Such spaces could be Leavitt, Tara Knight and Alex Yoshiba write:
 DIGITAL CREATIVITY 325

When Crypton Future Media saw what people performed as part of the vocaloid hologram
were creating with Hatsune Miku, rather than Expos, they create a canon of the preferred ver-
looking the other way or shutting down this sions of the Hatsune Miku commodity as the
bottom-up fan production, they built a
whole company around fostering participation pooling of fan-created songs such as World is
and creativity. (2016, 223) Mine by the composer Ryo and the doujin
group Supercell or Weekender Girl by Hachiou-
The result of this ‘participation and creativ- jiP and kz(livetune). Both of these songs have
ity’ are productions that might still have been also proved very popular among fans with
made by fans even if Crypton Future Media many fan-made remixes and re-makes. This
did not acknowledge them—as in the case kind of recognition is highly valuable to the pro-
with Batman and DC Comics. But what is ducing fans, who are often honoured by the fact
new in the case of Hatsune Miku is that these that their productions are chosen above others.
productions are recognized by Crypton Future The reason why fan-made songs featuring
Media in e.g. the many Expo concerts. Hatsune Miku, as well as the popular fan-
The economist Richard E. Caves argues in made remixes of Hatsune Miku songs, are leg-
his book Creative Industries: Contracts Between ally possible is due to the Creative Commons
Art and Commerce that the insecurity of licence CC-BY-NC that Hatsune Miku was
demand is a constant reality for the creative released under in 2012 (Chiaki 2012). The Crea-
industries (2002), which is why branding strat- tive Commons was founded by academic, attor-
egies that engage potential buyers and make ney and political activist Lawrence Lessig in
them participate in the making of the cultural 2001. It was a licence made in order to create
product are indispensable. The attention econ- new infrastructures for digital creativity, chal-
omy has made it possible for companies to lenging the ownership of the media industry in
channel and transform the online participation the era of Internet culture, because, as Lessig
of media users and fans into something that can writes, the control of culture was in the hands
generate profit for companies. The media users of very few as a result of the existing copyright
and fans create products and share them online laws (2005, 169). Creative Commons was a
in exchange for ‘views,’ ‘likes’ and other online licence that was designed, among other things,
demonstrations of recognition. The problem to pose an alternative to the existing copyright
with this is, as Jenkins, Ford, and Green point laws. Before Creative Commons was a legitimate
out, that media producers can no longer ‘con- licence, remixers, amateurs, tinkerers and fans
trol what their audiences do with their content (154–161) were charged fines for sampling or
once it leaves their hands’ (2013, 298). In hacking existing code or musical works and
order to counterbalance ‘this loss of control, thereby violating the copyright that artists and
media producers and networks are developing cultural industries, as copyright holders, had.
new business models seeking to benefit from The Creative Commons licence makes it
at least some forms of grassroots circulation’ possible for Crypton Future Media to own Hat-
(Jenkins, Ford, and Green 2013). This is what sune Miku as their intellectual property (Leavitt,
Crypton Future Media is doing. As the com- Knight, and Yoshiba 2016, 208), allowing them
pany behind the vocaloid commodity, it has a to retain the commercial rights over ‘her’, while
powerful position in the attention economy, in still allowing the fans’ more or less free rein with
that it can provide institutional recognition the character. The Creative Commons licence is
when it comes to curating and valuing the fan making it possible for fans to use, remix and
productions featuring Miku. When Crypton animate the vocaloid’s voice and visual charac-
Future Media curate the ‘best’ music pro- ter in fan projects matching their desires—as
ductions from YouTube and Niconico to be long as these are considered noncommercial
326 S. M. H. JØRGENSEN ET AL.

activities and do not violate the vocaloid’s iden- The question of who profits from Hatsune
tity as it is defined by Crypton Future Media Miku is not often raised in the media, who
(Lalwani 2016). mostly focus on celebrating the democratic,
This gives Crypton Future Media the power socially engaging product of Hatsune Miku as
to decide what Hatsune Miku is without having a contemporary trend. There are occasionally
to create the variations and products themselves. some critical voices, such as Erica Russell, who
The curating and canonizing is one way for writes ‘[…] if Miku’s content is primarily
Crypton Future Media to sustain their power crowdsourced, who should benefit from her
over the multi-surfaced aesthetic commodity profits?’ (2016). However, Russell continues:
that is Hatsune Miku without having to keep ‘For now it seems that these are questions better
all the laborious productions ‘in house.’ Crypton left to be pondered another time, as the joys and
Future Media mainly curate and canonize opportunities she brings currently outweigh the
specific representations of Miku by channeling unknown variables at large’ (2016). Russell is
the producing fans’ online participation, and not alone in her opinion: many writers and
effectively updating the Hatsune Miku brand, critics choose to focus on the democratic and
while at the same time creating close connec- positive aspects of Hatsune Miku (Verini
tions among fans through the fan productions 2012; Mallenbaum 2013; Buenneke 2016). We,
featuring Hatsune Miku. Compared to the however, will argue that the participation of
huge number of creative workers hired at, for fans updating and altering Hatsune Miku
example, DC Comics to create new, updated could be regarded as fan labour. Companies
Batman products, Crypton Future Media save like Crypton Future Media enable fans to
some of these expenses by using the Hatsune remix, circulate and consume music videos
Miku fans as creative workers instead. made with the Hatsune Miku vocaloid free of
Because Crypton uses the concerts to attract charge. This entails fans willingly spending
all sorts of audience members, from the most time effectively working for free, something
hardcore Miku fans to those new to the fran- that can be understood as affective labour.
chise, the company becomes tasked with form-
ing a universal Miku: something that anyone
Channeling the affection of fans
can understand as a common ‘identity’ for the
singer (Leavitt, Knight, and Yoshiba 2016, Affective labour is, as defined by Terranova, not
213). In this way, Crypton Future Media have driven by the same mechanisms as work. Work
succeeded in creating a sustainable and profit- is something that is paid for – affective labour is
able business model, channeling the partici- not. Terranova points out: ‘To emphasize how
pation of fans who are animating and labor is not equivalent to employment also
continually updating Hatsune Miku in new means to acknowledge how important free
fan-made songs and videos, so that the pop affective and cultural labor is to the media
star is continually changing to fit the desires industry, old and new’ (2000, 46). Terranova
of the fans. This business model used by Cryp- further writes that affective labour is connected
ton Future Media positions the pop star as an to the ephemeral commodity: a commodity that
aesthetic commodity and an uncertain image never becomes a finite product (48). It could be
in the sense that Hatsune Miku gains value argued that Hatsune Miku is an ephemeral
from both the consumption and the production commodity that never stops developing and
of the vocaloid, promoting Miku as an ever- changing due to the never-ending stream of
changing and continuously re-conceptualized new fan productions. Crypton Future Media
fan product destabilizing former notions of does not have to spend resources on updating
creative statements, ownership and labour. the identity for Hatsune Miku so that it fits
 DIGITAL CREATIVITY 327

the desires of the fans, as these fans automati- Crypton Future Media can steer the Hatsune
cally create and rate versions the company can Miku brand in the direction they see most prof-
choose from. Designer and theorist Marc itable, while at the same time outsourcing the
Gobé writes: laborious work of promoting and updating the
Hatsune Miku brand. This is possible because
In the new marketplace, those companies who
can harness the power of design in order to the channeling transforms the consumers into
make products that are better suited to their fans enlisted in the service of Crypton Future
customers’ unique needs and desires—in Media, happily spending their time and
other words, to customize its offerings so money buying, producing, circulating, promot-
that they won’t be turned down—will, without ing and consuming songs and music videos fea-
exception, outperform their competitors.
turing Hatsune Miku. Hatsune Miku can
(2007, 283)
therefore be understood not only as an aesthetic
By enabling fans to customize and personal- commodity, but also as a channeled fan com-
ize the Hatsune Miku brand to their specific modity living on the channeling of the desires
desires, Crypton Future Media has created a and affective labour of fans.
marketing strategy that can benefit from affec-
tive fan labour in the attention economy. Terra-
nova writes that affective labour is something
Desiring Hatsune Miku
that can be channeled by companies and used Inspired by French economist Frédéric Lor-
to generate profit: don’s book Willing Slaves of Capitalism, the
situation in which companies with commercial
The fruit of collective cultural labor has been
not simply appropriated, but voluntarily chan- interests channel the production of affective
neled and controversially structured within labour to the benefit of the company can be
capitalist business practices. The relation said to create an asymmetrical relationship, in
between culture, the cultural industry, and that the desires of the many (in this case, the
labor in these movements is much more com- fans participating in the attention economy)
plex than the notion of incorporation suggests.
(2000, 39) are capitalized into profit for the few (in the
monetary economy that generates wealth for
The relationship between Crypton Future Crypton Future Media). Lordon’s understand-
Media and the fans of Hatsune Miku is an ing of employment relations is wider than the
example of how affective labour, in this case traditional conception of being employed by
affective fan labour, is channeled by a company an employer. He talks about enlistment, which
with financial interests in promoting their pro- is ‘the more general category, of which employ-
duct to as many people as possible. The com- ment is only one particular case,’ and includes
pany thereby has the possibility of generating in his understanding a more general sense of
profit under the slogan: the more fans, the contracting:
more consumers (as well as producers). Cryp-
(…) the NGO directors appropriating the
ton Future Media also earns profits from the
lion’s share of results of the activities of their
expensive vocaloid concert tickets, not to men- activists; the university mandarins, of their
tion the vocaloid software, as well as profiting juniors; the artists, of their assistants—all
from promotional deals with companies such this outside the capitalist enterprise, and in
as SEGA, Domino’s Pizza, or Toyota. For the pursuit of things that have nothing to do
example, Hatsune Miku was featured on a series with monetary gain. (2014, 3–4)
of posters and multiple TV commercials for Lordon describes how enlisted bodies are
Toyota Corolla in 2011 as a collaboration captured to ‘set themselves in motion in the ser-
between Toyota and Crypton Future Media. vice of the capturer’ through what he calls
328 S. M. H. JØRGENSEN ET AL.

‘mobilizing’ (4). This is initiated by the capturer, Miku can make you famous enough for people
Lordon continues, and he wonders why people to hire you, as happened to the fan Hachioji-
let themselves be mobilized or captured in an P, who now travels the world and performs as
asymmetrical labour-channeling relationship: a paid DJ because of the online recognition he
‘For it is ultimately quite strange that people got through his Hatsune Miku productions
should “accept” the fact that they are occupied (Poladian 2016). Many of Hatsune Miku’s crea-
in the service of a desire that was not originally tor fans would, however, not want to see them-
their own’ (2014). selves as somebody working for anybody; they
With Lordon’s statement in mind one could produce songs or videos featuring Miku because
ask: Why do the networks of Hatsune Miku fans it brings them pleasure, recognition or connec-
willingly engage in what could be considered an tions with like-minded people, and not because
asymmetrical relationship, where Crypton Crypton Future Media wants them to. This
Future Media is channeling their affective point is also stressed by a vocaloid producer
labour and transforming it into modes of distri- expressing how he found his own fan pro-
bution and promotion, from which Crypton ductions tainted by earning money:
Future Media can gain profit? The answer
I actually got [commercially] sponsored many
could be that the fans have been enlisted to con- times. I feel regrets about doing it. Whenever
tribute to the attention economy and are you are sponsored by someone that means
awarded accordingly with entertainment and there is no compromise, and you have to
online recognition, as well as having their fan- make the best-selling songs for them. But
based desires met by an ever-changing, continu- most of the time I want to make my own
music. (Leavitt, Knight, and Yoshiba 2016,
ally updated idol in the form of Hatsune Miku.
226)
In addition, in order to meet the wish of some
fans from the creator category, the most labor- Some fans seem to feel freer when their own
ious of the six categories, to be rewarded finan- commercial interests are left out—when they
cially for their efforts, the Hatsune Miku only have to participate in the attention econ-
commodity actually comes with a promise to omy, or in affective dialogical collaborations
potentially allow these creator fans to partici- with other fans (Jenkins 2006), and not in the
pate in the monetary economy. This is what monetary economy. They do, however, tend to
makes Hatsune Miku such an uncertain image forget that the commercial interests of Crypton
in terms of ownership and labour. Future Media are most likely channeling their
By producing songs featuring the vocaloid productions into profit for the company,
star, the creator fans tap into a global fan com- thereby making their labour a part of the mon-
munity by using Hatsune Miku as their creative etary economy anyway. The creator fans are,
output. Because of the large number of critics, using Lordon’s phraseology, enlisted and mobi-
conversationalists, collectors, joiners and spec- lized to put their bodies into motion to serve the
tators who press the ‘like’ button, upvote videos, capturer, Crypton Future Media, whether the
or simply watch new productions with their fans like it or not. This commercial channeling
Japanese idol, the Miku commodity provides of the networked fan-based creative statements
vocaloid song writers and artists with the transforms the fans from people who are fulfill-
opportunity of getting famous via ‘her’ vast net- ing their own desires and deriving pleasure
work of fans. Subsequently, they may then be from their work into people who are also ‘occu-
able to earn money from making other songs pying themselves in the service of a desire that
or by getting hired by a music production com- was originally not their own’ (Lordon 2014,
pany. You cannot become rich by composing a 4). Hatsune Miku is in this way uncertain in
song featuring Miku, but the brand of Hatsune ‘her’ blurring of the lines between work,
 DIGITAL CREATIVITY 329

ownership and profit; as such Miku embodies The master’s desire can be said to manipulate the
creative statements from fans which are fans into making other fans the targets of their
ambiguously caught somewhere between being affective productions, instead of considering
affectively dialogical and contributing to entre- their fan productions as being contributions to
preneurial campaigning. an ongoing affective dialogue and collaboration
between fans in fan communities.
Hatsune Miku has thus been discussed as an
What does Hatsune Miku desire?
uncertain image which has a new relation to her
According to Mitchell, the desire or ‘wanting’ fans—a relation that lingers between affective
(10) of the image can be found through an participation and corporate exploitation, with
approach where one plays with images as if particular attention being paid to the status
they were musical instruments (and not idols). and motivation of fans, as well as the infrastruc-
This would liberate humans from the power tures affecting the production of Hatsune Miku;
of idols that ‘resides in their silence, their spec- from distributed fan participation to centralized
tacular impassiveness, their dumb insistence on corporate control and channeling. Hatsune
repeating the same message’ (26–27) with ‘a Miku is a fragmented, distributed image, having
capacity for absorbing human desire […] and a value beyond that of consumption, which
projecting it back to us’ (27). It seems as though Jameson suggests is the defining feature of the
Mitchell is in favour of ‘sounding’ the idol, mak- aesthetic commodity. Thus, Hatsune Miku con-
ing the image vital and resonating so as to trans- stitutes a prime example of how the value of
form ‘its hollowness,’ in repeating the same production is just as important as the value of
message over and over again, ‘into an echo consumption in the era of digital infrastructures
chamber for human thought’ (27). and social platforms, where fans produce, con-
In this article, we have argued that Hatsune sume, animate, circulate and desire aesthetic
Miku can be understood as being an uncertain commodities through creative statements
image shaped by the desire and affective invest- online. We have further argued that the creative
ment of fans; an image that in many ways statements made and circulated by Hatsune
resembles the vital ‘sounding’ image that Mitch- Miku fans can be regarded as something
ell describes. However, we argue that the ‘sound- which can be capitalized on through clever digi-
ing’ image of Hatsune Miku does not convert the tal structures, allowing a channeling of affective
image from being an empty vessel into a resonat- fan labour sustained by the attention economy
ing chamber, but rather embodies a fan culture to be turned into monetary gain for companies
animated by the channeling of a ‘master’s desire.’ with commercial interests.
The philosophers and writers Pierre Dardot and The digital pop star’s fans can arguably no
Christian Laval argue that neoliberalism changes longer be considered mere consumers, affectively
the way we relate to ourselves and to others, participating and sharing products of desire, but
because it ‘aligns social relations with the are also producers of the very products they
model of the market; […] it even transforms desire. Crypton Future Media does not have to
the individual, now called on to conceive and update the identity for Hatsune Miku so that it
conduct him—or herself as an enterprise’ fits the desires of the fans, as the fans are doing
(2013, iii). In relation to the phenomenon of this themselves. Hence, we reason that Hatsune
Hatsune Miku, it could be argued that the two Miku, as an uncertain image thriving in the
traits Jenkins describes as defining for fan cul- attention economy, leads networks of fans into
ture, the dialogical and collaborative aspects, a structural economic asymmetry which raises
are in danger of being replaced by a fan culture questions of digital creativity, ownership and
animated by the channeling of a ‘master’s desire.’ labour. In this way, the former constellation of
330 S. M. H. JØRGENSEN ET AL.

ownership, labour and consumption has been Copenhagen, where she is researching the Danish
destabilized and rendered uncertain through public media, specifically the music station P3.
the attention economy. So what Hatsune Miku Here she discuss the music dissemination in connec-
tion to popular culture and new media theories.
seems to ‘want’ is to be kept as an uncertain
image of desire produced and consumed by
fans; an ever-changing cultural product and aes-
thetic commodity, blurring the boundaries
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