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long-arm-stapler · 3 years

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S2 EP1: Miquela Davis

Maira (00:00):

Hello! Uh, welcome to Long Arm Stapler, a podcast about zines, back with season two, after a long hiatus. Today, I am joined by Miquela Davis and I will let you introduce yourself.

Miquela (00:33):

Hi, I'm Miquela Davis and I'm super excited to be on this podcast with you today.

Maira (00:40):

Awesome. I'm really looking forward to starting to record again. Um, like I mentioned, I took a 16 month break from recording just because the world was a lot and uh, yeah, February 2021 back in action. Yeah. So I have with me, um, two of, one of your, your book, pup provisions, a copy of Miq's mix volume two a music themed zine. Do you want to talk about either of those or anything you've been working on lately.

Miquela (01:21):

Um, I actually liked those choices that you already have, um, because those are actually my favorite things that I've done. Um, the, the favorite things that I've published at least, um, which is funny, cause I also make a comic called cool dog that some people may have picked up, at like zine fests, but I really loved the Miq's mix. Uh, I made two of them, but the second one is my favorite because it features a bunch of like music themed comics and illustrations, and just has the loose theme of music. And then put provisions is the most recent thing that I made and that's like an actual book. Um, and it has illustrations of different dog breeds, um, in alphabetical order, along with snacks that start with the same letter as the dog breed, if that makes sense. Yeah. So that one took me. How long did it take me to draw? I think I did like a drawing every day for that. And it started as a drawing, um, exercise for me. And then I decided to compile it into a book because people wanted it. And then, um, I wanted to kind of get back into zine making, but it ended up being more of a like actual published. It's more nice looking.

Maira (02:34):

You have like a hard cover.

Miquela (02:37):

Yeah. I just, I just went on like Shutterfly and got it published that way. Oh, so it's still DIY, but it's it's way nicer quality than my like Xerox stuff.

Maira (02:47):

Yeah. I have not ventured into the world of anything but Xerox, but it's exciting. Yeah. What do you, I remember seeing your daily drawing challenges and I was like, Oh, this is really cool. I love dogs. I love snacks. Um, and then you were like, I'm going to make a book. I was like, all right, I'm going to get a copy. Um, I think my favorite is D for docs and I'm a little biased because I have a dachshund.

Miquela (03:17):

Yes. And your dachshund is adorable.

Maira (03:20):

and she's very much like your dog. Yeah.

Miquela (03:23):

Yeah. I feel like our dogs are such kindred spirits and like they've never met, but I feel like they have a connection it's like weird.

Maira (03:32):

Yeah. They would probably hang out in the dog park. Yeah. So, so far I've only ever interviewed people in the Bay, in my living room. Um, so this is exciting because obviously we're not in the same place right now. Um, you are based in Southern California yes. And pre COVID. Or can you talk about like the zine scene pre COVID?

Miquela (04:00):

Yeah, definitely. I could talk about the zine scene pre zine scene here. Really? How far back do you want me to go? I'm sure. I remember growing up and like I heard about zines through a book from my uncle when I was like 16 and he went to school with Mark Todd, um, who wrote, co-wrote a book called what you mean? What's a zine? Um, so they were like college buds and Mark Todd is I think still based in LA and he's an artist there with his partner, Esther Pearl Watson. And so they're both zine makers. They decided to make this book about how to make scenes. And so, because I heard about it that way, there was like nothing in orange County that was Xen based. As far as I saw at the time I had to go to like LA I saw some zines in like some record stores every so often, but it wasn't really a thing here.

Miquela (04:58):

And I gravitated towards Portland, Oregon because of that, I was like, Oh, I'm going to get out of orange County. I'm going to get out of Southern California and head towards where I saw zines being made at the time. And this was like early two thousands. Um, so then when I came back from living in Portland, that was around 2014, 2015, and I don't know how the orange County zine Fest came to be, but it popped up, I believe in 2014, I wasn't at the very first one and the very first zine Fest. I don't even remember where that was held, but then I found them and I applied to the second one, I believe in 2015. And I've been involved with the OC zine fest ever since. Um, I participated in it that one, uh, and the long beach one. And I sort of just found that there were a bunch of zine Fests popping up and I was able to find them through social media. Uh, social media was like a huge player in me getting involved in it. I don't think I would have been able to find it otherwise.

Maira (06:04):

Yeah. I have a similar experience with social media. I got into zines through tumblr and I really wasn't able to find zine fests nearby until, I mean, obviously I started looking for them and we have a few in the Bay area, but like Instagram and back when I used Facebook were very helpful in like finding zines.

Miquela (06:31):

Yeah. And the Bay area too was like one of those places when I was like a teenager or a young adult, like now I'm 30. So like I'm talking like, you know, 10 years ago, I feel like 10 years ago the Bay area had more, but you probably would know that more than me, but I, I feel like, you know, 10 years ago there was at least that community there.

Maira (06:53):

Yeah. I mean EBABZ, um, the East Bay alternative Book and zine Fest that I helped organize. This was our 11th year. And so, and I didn't even start getting involved in that until 2014, I believe. Um, that was the first time I ever tabled. Was at EBABZ 201- It doesn't sound, it doesn't sound right. But I think it's true. Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm learning more about the Bay areas and seeing more and more like every, not every day, but every time I go looking for stuff and it's really cool that there are so many zine fests everywhere. Um, and a lot of them have been able to pivot to online, which I think is really cool over the last year.

Miquela (07:42):

Yeah. That's been really cool to see and you're right about like these zine scenes that have been around, but then you just find out more about them. Like I found that too. It's like, Oh, you really stayed underground. Like, I'm only hearing about like these scenes that have been in existence for a long period of time, but it's like, we're only really hearing about them through like the internet and then word of mouth. Once you get involved, you're like, Oh, there's been like a zine Fest in the inland empire for years. I had no idea. It's cool. I like it.

Maira (08:15):

Yeah. zines, I think has always been very word of mouth for me. Um, and I liked that about them. Just, they're not super commercial. I mean, I, I feel like nobody's really in zines to make money.

Miquela (08:31):

No, it's for the love of them for sure.

Maira (08:33):

Yeah. And so I like the they're still predominantly, I don't know if they're still predominantly underground events because you know, they do get publicity, but I like, I love actually just how DIY things have stayed.

Maira (08:54):

Yeah. Even in the internet age with social media and then also like even programs where you can make, zines more digital. I love seeing artists make zines, still this kind of like old school Xerox machine, um, the risograph, like that's become super popular. I've seen with zines and that's kind of like an older art form, but it's become new again.

Maira (09:20):

Yeah. There's a lot of, um, riso like presses in the Bay area and it all looks so cool. I don't make art zines, so I guess, or at least make zines aren't predominantly like featuring art. And so I haven't kind of dipped my toes into that yet, but it seems like a really cool process. Just you have to like separate the images by color, I guess.

Miquela (09:50):

I'm not that familiar with it either. So I think you're right. Yeah. You have to separate it and you have to have them like, it's, it's kind of like, screen printing from my understanding and I, I don't even understand screen printing. I'm like very basic.

Maira (10:04):

Yeah, same. I don't, I feel like I don't put enough thought, like, I don't think ahead enough when I'm drawing to separate things by color. It's just like

Miquela (10:15):

Same.

Maira (10:17):

Let me take a Sharpie to a piece of paper. Yeah.

Miquela (10:20):

Yeah. I'm like, I just got a pen and a paper and that's usually how I make all of my zines. I just like sit down and I, I just draw and then I will compile it together later on. Um, you know, maybe I'll cut out like a page or two, if I'm like, nah, this doesn't really work, but it's just like pen paper. Don't really put much thought into it. And then bam just release it.

Maira (10:41):

Yeah. Sometimes it's best to like, not put that much thought into it in my own experience.

Miquela (10:47):

It's raw!

Maira (10:47):

Yeah. It's, I mean, I've definitely made zines where it's very, like, I don't know. I made a zine once that was writing. I did for a creative writing class. And so that was more polished, I guess, than anything else I've done. But it's usually just me kind of sitting at my computer, treating it like a live journal entry and just printing it out, stapling it together and letting people read it.

Miquela (11:17):

That's so cool too. Like just letting it be this like free flowing thought process. And like, I've always admired like the way that you make your zines because like, they're just so personal too.

Maira (11:31):

Yeah. I, I got started with perzines and I didn't really venture into like fanzines or anything with like drawings of my own until the last few years. But perzines are really like where I got my start, I guess.

Miquela (11:49):

Yeah. And I think that's how we met too, was like, I was drawn to your more personal zines and I was like, that's really cool. That's cool of you to like put yourself out there, like that.

Maira (12:00):

Yeah, I love to overshare on the internet, so why not do it with paper and some staples?

Miquela (12:06):

Exactly.

Maira (12:07):

Yeah. Because we met at a zine Fest. I think. I don't remember which one

Miquela (12:12):

I don't remember either. I was like sitting here and trying to think I'm like, I know it was at a zine fest. Like that's how we know each other. That's how we ended up here. But it's been, it's been a while and it's like one of those things where like, I've seen you now at so many, I feel where I can't remember like the first one either.

Maira (12:29):

And I remember the last long beach zine Fest that was held in person. We, it was like a power block of my table, my friend Andi and then you. And that was fun.

Miquela (12:42):

That was so much fun.

Maira (12:45):

And then my car broke down. So it was like fun up until heading home. Um, it was a disaster and I was like, wow, I wish I could just stay in Long Beach Zine Fest for a little while longer and not be living a nightmare. But

Miquela (13:00):

Yeah, I remember that too. I remember like seeing your Instagram posts and I was like, no, we were having so much fun.

Maira (13:10):

Yeah. Um, but you know, shit happens. Um, my car works again, so it's all good. Yeah. What else you've got, you've got an art show coming up that you're curating.

Miquela (13:24):

I Do. Yeah. Speaking of like zine fests and stuff. Like I miss them so much, but yeah. I curate an art show every year now since 2018. Um, I used to have a space that I could do it out of that my friend ran called riff mountain. And, um, I would curate art shows there every so often, but this crushes one is the one that I've done every Valentine's day for the past, like four years now. And the one coming up is the first virtual one, just because I was like, you know what? I've been wanting to get an art show together somehow during this whole COVID time period. But this one is special just because I was like, I can't not have crushes happen just because like, it means so much to me personally, the first year I did it, I co curated with a fellow artist. Uh, Meg Gonzalez, who is a local, you know, Southern California artists. And I think they've reached, you know, further than just Southern California. Like they're, I don't know. Like they just seem like a really, uh, poppin' artist, like more and more people are finding them. And I, I love that for them.

Maira (14:34):

Bug Club Supreme. Yes.

Miquela (14:37):

Yeah. They're, they're super cool. And so we co curated the first crushes show together. And then the second one I did myself last year I did with another artist, uh, Chantal Elise, who's just under like Chantal Elise art on, uh, Instagram. And then this year I'm just doing it myself and I'm doing it virtually. So like, it's going to be interesting. I'm super excited to see what happens, but we're basically going to do kind of like a live stream. I asked other artists to make like short videos of themselves and talk about themselves in their work. I only got one so far, so I might not be like super prevalent throughout the show, but my whole idea is that because we're going virtual, I would like to showcase artists more than you can do at a traditional art show. Like usually you're there and you're looking at their work, but you don't really get to know the artists behind it and like the story behind the work or the deeper meaning of it, like, you're just getting your own interpretation. So I was like, what can we do differently? Because it's going digital this time. And that's why I tried to include that in the like submission form.

Maira (15:50):

Yeah. It seems like it's going to be really cool. Um, what are you like hosting it on a specific platform or

Miquela (15:59):

I think we're going with youtube. I say we, because my roommate is helping me out with it. Um, we've been testing out different forms of software and I think YouTube might be where we end up. I initially was thinking like just a zoom call and I would like put together some sort of like, um, a slideshow or something, but that's, I don't know if that's really gonna work out. Um, so I actually don't know yet. We're still working out like, which one's going to be the best one for the whole show and for people to participate in, but also kind of be like an audience because the whole idea is like, we want it to be participatory, but also like where you're kind of watching a show happen, but have it partially recorded and partially in real time.

Maira (16:49):

Okay, that kind of Makes sense To me.

Miquela (16:51):

Yeah. I'm like, it's, it's a lot, like, it makes sense in my mind, like the recorded part would be, we have images of people's artwork and we would be, you know, showing that for like a few minutes at a time. And then maybe between each piece, like visual piece, we would have a recording of an artist talking about themselves and their work, kind of like an introduction to their work before we show it. Um, I know we have a couple live readers of poetry. We don't have a confirmed DJ set yet, but we have some recorded music that we can play. And if anybody during the show would like to, you know, maybe do any sort of live reading or live music or something, we're open to that as well. So that's the mix between like the recorded and then the live stuff.

Maira (17:38):

Oh, cool. Um, and so that's gonna be on Valentine's day, correct?

Miquela (17:42):

Yes. On Valentine's day still don't have a time sorted either. Like a lot of this happened now looking back and like, Oh, I kind of did this last minute. I wasn't really thinking of like a lot of the work that's going to go into making it digital because I'm so used to like doing it in person and kind of like winging it, you know, like day of it's like, all right, well, I know that I have all these artists signed up and I've done it for a few years now and everything's kind of just worked out, but now with the digital aspect to it, like I'm not super technologically, like I'm proficient, but I feel like a lot of these programs that I'm looking at, I'm like, I don't understand like this whole like live feed and putting in microphones and all this stuff like having, um, you know, the screen switch between one from another, like, it's, it's a lot, it's pretty daunting. So we also have a lot of artists tuning in, or like submitting stuff from other parts of the world.

Maira (18:39):

Oh wow.

Miquela (18:39):

Like that part has been really interesting to me this year. I think, because it's been opened up to being like, Oh, this is online. I don't have to like ship anything. I just have to send an email with some photos of my work. If I want to, I've gotten people from like the Netherlands. I've gotten people from the UK submitting work. So that's been really, really cool. And I want to make sure that they're included too, as part of like the little live stream that we do. So I'm trying to figure out like a good time for that and see if we can like record something for people to view later on if they can't make it

Maira (19:14):

Cool. And people still have time to submit, um, To that, correct?

Miquela (19:21):

Yeah. As of recording this right now? Um, yes. So the deadline is February 10th.

Maira (19:28):

Okay. Yeah, I can include, um, cause it was like a Google submission form. Yeah?

Miquela (19:35):

Pretty much. So the way that the submission process is working right now, like that's basically how I get people's names and then information. And I make like a spreadsheet of what they tell me that they're going to submit. So then that way I can keep track of it. But then to actually submit after that, they still have to send me like photo either photos of their visual work, or if they want to take a video, maybe you made a sculpture or something and you want to show it off. Like you can just take your phone out and like walk around the sculpture and get all these cool angles on it. And just like send me a video clip. Um, I'm really open to like any medium. Cause it seems like any one is possible. So yeah, people can just still submit that then to my email. And then my email, I don't mind giving it out. It's just MIQ U I D e [email protected].

Maira (20:24):

Cool. And yeah, I will post that in the show notes as well. Um, so if people are interested in submitting, they can, I am excited about it because I have, I've made a sculpture sort of thing, which I haven't really done before. Um, but I submitted it and it's really cute and I'm excited for other people to see it.

Miquela (20:48):

Yeah. I'm very excited for it too.

Maira (20:52):

Yeah. I just haven't like made, I haven't really done any art stuff in the last year, so I've, that's, I mean, that's not true, but it feels true. Like, I haven't, I don't feel like I have much art to show for the last year, but it was really cool, like working with my hands again and just gluing all of those tiny hearts. I was going to sew them, but I was like, that's so much work.

Miquela (21:20):

That's so much more work. Wow. Yeah.

Maira (21:23):

And I have a crush on hot glue. So I was like, okay,

Miquela (21:27):

There you go. It's perfect.

Maira (21:29):

Yeah. It's a good tie in, um, for those of you wondering, I made a Crunchwrap Supreme filled with hearts.

Miquela (21:35):

It's incredible.

Maira (21:37):

Yeah. I'm really excited. I submitted something to the show last year too. And it was one of the first times I've ever like submitted my art anywhere.

Miquela (21:48):

Really? I didn't even know that. Yeah. You've submitted last year and I was like super excited about it. Cause you like mailed me your work.

Maira (21:54):

Yeah, that was, I think aside from the long arm stapler show that we did in September of 2019, that was like maybe the second or third time I'd ever shown my work in like a show setting. And so that was really exciting. And I remember you posted like videos of the show in person and photos. And I was just like, I think it was, it was on Valentine's day again. And I was just on my phone, like kind of ignoring my boyfriend. And I was like, look at my work, look at my work. I was really excited about it.

Miquela (22:31):

I love that! Oh my God. That is so cool. Yeah. I was super happy to have you participate, but I had no idea. And I had also seen that show that you did up there. Um, the long-arm stapler one that looked super cool too.

Maira (22:45):

Yeah, that was my first, uh, time running a show and also being in a show, I guess, we recorded, the last time we recorded this podcast actually was like at the close of that show. So it's been an interesting time to like think back on it and really reflect on how cool it was. And like we had, it was mostly people from the Bay. Um, we had someone from, I can't remember where they live, but they're on the East coast. They submitted work two people from Southern California submitted work. And one of them was actually came up with their kids to see the show opening night. So that was really exciting too.

Miquela (23:30):

That's so cool.

Maira (23:31):

Yeah. And like I had just recently started at my current job and some of my coworkers came out and my like family came and it was, it was really cool.

Miquela (23:42):

That's awesome.

Maira (23:44):

I can't wait to be able do that again.

Miquela (23:47):

Yeah. That's been a major thing and like, yeah, once you do that, like, cause you said that it was your first time, like being in a show and then making a show, like putting on a show. That's why we started even doing crushes like that. I think that was my first time to like showing my work in a sort of like not gallery setting. Cause like I wouldn't call it necessarily gallery. It's like a DIY space, but having like an art show sort of feel where it's like, all right, I'm putting a bunch of things on the wall and showing off people's work and it's hard to get into like galleries or I don't know, just like art shows in general. I feel like don't really happen much. How is it up there? Like, are there more art shows that happen kind of similar to the one that you put on?

Maira (24:32):

Honestly, I don't know. Just cause I'm not like super tuned into the art world, I guess. Um, just cause I mostly like my, my medium is predominantly zines. Um, so that was another cool thing about the show was it was all zine themed. Um, but my friends are opening a gallery in Oakland actually, um, called crisis club and they're going to do shows there once it's safe. And I'm really excited about that because I feel like in the last few years, the amount of DIY spaces in the Bay has kind of dwindled. Um, it's exciting to like see that revival happening, even if it's slow going. And even if we can't have access to these spaces for awhile.

Miquela (25:30):

Yeah. Like I'm hoping after this is all over, we see kind of like a Renaissance in a way of like artistic expression, you know, having these sort of DIY spaces and um, cause yeah, there's at least down here they're really non-existent. Um, but I know like in the Bay area, like I would hear about them either growing up or like even recently, like I saw your friend's space, um, just through your Instagram and I was like, Oh, that looks cool. So yeah. I'm just hoping that we see more once this is all over.

Maira (26:06):

Yeah. And I think especially because people would just been sitting at home making art or at least I hope they've been sitting at home making art.

Miquela (26:14):

Yeah. The sitting at home, especially.

Maira (26:16):

Yeah. If you're making art good for you, but like please sit at home. Um, but yeah, I'm really excited to kind of see what art, like physical art spaces are like in a post COVID society.

Miquela (26:33):

And I think too, we're going to be starved for socialization. So it would be interesting to see like art shows become more of an inclusive thing.

Maira (26:42):

I agree. What else? Uh, are you working on anything else right now?

Miquela (26:47):

I have a lot of ideas floating right now. I know that's like, that could mean anything. Um, I do want to make more cool dog, but I'm just kind of like, he's an interesting character for me. I sometimes will get ideas for cool dog and then sometimes there'll be like, I want nothing to do with cool dog. I want to like work on other stuff, but I know that he's what the people want. Um, but I find it hard, harder and harder now just because I'm like, what is cool? Like, he's kind of like a weird problematic character because like a lot of times like his coolness is, is like something that I don't necessarily agree with. Um, like he, I dunno like the fact that he like smokes cigarettes and like seemingly doesn't like care about other people. Like he just cares about the sake of being cool. Like that's not actually cool. So there's like lots of questions like surrounding it. Like it's very like philosophical for me now. Whereas like it just started as like, this is a stupid comic thing that I'm just going to do for the hell of it. And then it like turned into like this character that I have to actually think about. And that's what makes me be like, I don't even want to think about it. I don't even want to make it, but I can't let him go either. So that's a long way of me just saying like, yeah, there may be more cool dog in the future. I definitely want to work more on zines but yeah, quarantine, you know, I'm just kind of taking a break, especially after making pup provisions that took a lot of energy, but I also would really like to make a memoir like graphic novel about the early two thousands and like my first year of high school. So that's been something that I've been working on slowly.

Maira (28:31):

Oh cool. We're the same age. So that was probably what like 20, 2004.

Miquela (28:35):

Yes, exactly. It was. So I'm thinking like, yeah, like 2000. Yeah, actually it would take place in 2004 because I was going to say the end of eighth grade, beginning of high school. So yeah, 2004.

Maira (28:49):

What a time to be alive.

Miquela (28:49):

Yes. And especially now, like I think like I've revisited that time period a lot and I'm like, man, what a great time. And I'm thinking of actually ending it when I discover zines, which was when I was like 16, like 15, 16. So I think it would be cool to make like a zine about my life, like discovering zines.

Maira (29:10):

Oh yeah. That sounds really cool.

Miquela (29:13):

Yeah. Like I would want it to eventually be compiled in a graphic novel, but I'm thinking, yeah. I might just start out doing like short snippets of stories in zine form, but then they could be, uh, combined together into like, I don't know what it's called. Just like a graphic- Yeah. Yeah. Like an anthology of like all these collected stories that take place during that period of time.

Maira (29:36):

Awesome. Uh, you have a Patreon.

Miquela (29:39):

Yes.

Maira (29:40):

You do like monthly stuff with.

Miquela (29:43):

I do. Yeah. So that's another thing that I've been consistently working on. I started it, I want to say in the beginning of 2020, I can't even remember now. Um, but then it's kind of evolved into now. I've gotten into a groove of like I send out monthly, um, things through the mail depending on like what tier people are on. Um, so I send out like pictures of my dog. Um, all the tiers are like named after her. Uh, so she's got like pegs pen pals. I send out clay pins that I make, I have yet to send out any zines, but that's just because I'm like, uh, what kind of zine should I make and send out? I don't know. I find that I like hold myself back from like making zines a lot because I'm a little bit of a, like a perfectionist when it comes to them, but I just need to do it. I just need to like make a little like one page zine or one piece of paper. So it'd be like six pages and like mail it out. But yeah, people get stuff in the mail if they want or they get access to like exclusive sketches and drawings and like random things that I'm doing. Kind of like, uh, a little bit of a journal. And then now I have a podcast where I talk about music and that's like exclusive to my Patreon for now.

Maira (30:54):

That's exciting.

Miquela (30:56):

Yeah. Thanks.

Maira (30:57):

I started a Patreon. Apparently I tried to make one in June of last year, but did nothing with it. Um, so in preparation for, cause I, I really want to just dive back into this podcast and kind of do more with it than I was before. Cause I think it was like one, every couple of months when I felt like it, I would just have people come over to my apartment and shoot the shit Essentially. I started listening to old episodes and transcribing them cause I wanted to make them more accessible and.

Miquela (31:34):

Oh that's cool.

Maira (31:34):

That was a very time-consuming process. Um, but I am still working on, uh, months later. Yeah. I remembered just really enjoying like the, the word that's coming up for me is prescribed hanging out time.

Miquela (31:51):

Oh yeah.

Maira (31:53):

Like it's a good way to like ease back into socializing because the only person I've really seen in the last however many months is my boyfriend. Um, because we live together and so it's like talking to people is hard?

Miquela (32:09):

Yeah. Talking, talking to people is hard. And I think too, like podcasting it's like, you kind of have a theme, like you have something to already talk about, so you're not sitting there like, well, how's it going with you? It's like, I don't know. I've been stuck in my house for 10 months. How's it going?

Maira (32:25):

To be fair I've done that also this episode.

Miquela (32:27):

Yeah.

Maira (32:30):

But it's fun. And I forgot how fun it was. And so I made a Patreon. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. Cause I've already, you know, I've got an Etsy where I sell my zines and stuff and I've got like a Ko-Fi, um, that I.

Miquela (32:44):

I haven't heard of that one. What is that one?

Maira (32:47):

It's just like a, it's a cute little site where you can buy someone a coffee, um, and just send them like three bucks and.

Miquela (32:56):

That's cool.

Maira (32:56):

Yeah, it's, it's cute. I was using it a lot at the beginning of last year because I was, I kind of realized that like I was putting in a lot of time to like zine stuff and it was kind of becoming a full time job, just, you know, organizing fests and organizing the art show and doing the podcast. I was already working a full-time job. And so it was just kind of draining and I was like, you know, it'd be really cool if people wanted to buy me a coffee for this. And so I found this website and it was cool. It's a nice way to like, I think it's kind of like Patreon and you can connect with other creators and uh, do like tiered stuff. It's I think it's basically the same. Yeah. You can do like one-off payments instead of like monthly.

Miquela (33:52):

That's cool. Yeah. That's like the one thing about Patreon where I'm Like I don't, I don't know, like I don't expect people to like want a monthly subscription unless it's for like, you know, the monthly mail outs. Like that's really the only one where I'm like, yeah, if you want something mailed to you every month, that's cool. But it would be cool if Patreon could also have like a one-time payment, which I guess you can do it just feels weird, you know?

Maira (34:19):

Yeah. I, at this time don't feel like I do anything monthly enough to warrant a Patreon, but that's also me kind of trying to kick my own ass into doing something monthly, I guess. I don't even know.

Miquela (34:38):

It's a lot.

Maira (34:38):

Yeah. I, I mean, cause you make all these things out of clay and take photos of peg and send them out.

Miquela (34:46):

Yeah. And I make, uh, usually I've been making, um, what is it called? Oh my God. I'm totally blanking on it. Block printing.

Maira (34:54):

Oh cool.

Miquela (34:55):

So I usually do like a, uh, at least original piece of art included too. And then if I include zines in the future, like yeah. Like I try to have like a few pieces of art within each package and it takes like days for me to do, like, it does become like a job. So I get totally get what you're saying. Whereas like, if you're doing these things, just for the love of it at the same time, you're like, Oh, I'm using my time to devote to this thing where like, it's hard because we live under capitalism and we're like, how can I pursue this? And still feel like I'm not, I don't know, like accomplishing something is the wrong word, but like it's hard. It's hard when like it becomes like it when it feels like a job.

Maira (35:36):

Yeah. And unfortunately It's also, like I feel as artists, we feel under capitalism, we feel inclined to like monetize our hobbies in order to get by.

Miquela (35:51):

Oh totally.

Maira (35:52):

It sucks. We want to just make art for fun, but it feels like all my time has to go into like hustling.

Miquela (36:02):

Oh totally. Like that was my whole thing with like even getting into zine making and getting into all of this is I was like, Oh, I already make comics. And this is just a fun way for me to distribute them, to like my friends and like get my work out there and just make people laugh. But then it turned into something as I got older where I was like, but this is all that I love to do and all that I know how to do. And like, guess, I've got to make money off of that somehow. So yeah. It definitely sucks.

Maira (36:32):

Yeah. At this point I'm just trying to pay for paper and ink.

Miquela (36:37):

that's the whole thing is like materials too. It's like, yeah, it would be cool to have like one of those fancy like risographed zines, but it costs money for materials.

Maira (36:46):

Yeah.

Miquela (36:47):

I could totally see you doing like a, I mean you could do like stickers monthly or something like included with like a mini zine that could even be just like a monthly thing for Patreon.

Maira (36:58):

Oh yeah. I love making those one sheet zines. Um, I was looking at- so something I've been doing lately for the past month or so is I've been looking at photos from that specific day in my phone. So from like years prior.

Miquela (37:16):

Oh, that's cool.

Maira (37:16):

And the other day, a few years ago, um, there was a zine library opening at the Oakland LGBTQ community center. And apparently I made a zine of just drawings of animals in cowboy hats, which.

Miquela (37:33):

That's amazing,

Maira (37:35):

Yeah it was super cute. I took pictures of some of them. And I think that zine, I didn't make any copies. So it only lives in that library. Um, if it's even still there, but I love making one-offs and I actually made one during EBABZ. Um, I was feeling really discouraged about selling my art and making art. And so I made one that was like, even if no one buys your art, you're still an artist. Um, and it was, it was nice. It felt good to just get things out onto a little sheet of paper. And I just bought a scanner and color printer for cheap, but now I have my own next to my desk. So.

Miquela (38:19):

that's a life changer.

Maira (38:21):

Yeah. There was a time period where I was like, okay, I can't make anything because I cannot copy it. Um, but now I can.

Maira (38:31):

That's so cool. Yeah. Like, and that alone, I mean, I know we were talking about how like it's hard right now to like create stuff, but like you're at least building up to like having a bunch of things where you're like, all right, well, I'm prepared to create now. Just got to feel like creating and not be crushed by like having to monetize it. And I think like returning to just like creating for the sake of creating is like so hard.

Maira (39:00):

Yeah. I bought a bunch of colored paper. Um, that I'm determined to do something with, but I also don't want to force it because like, like we've been saying it sucks to feel forced into creating art for money.

Maira (39:15):

Yeah, artist problems.

Maira (39:19):

Artist problems, truly, I am taking a block printing class on zoom tomorrow though. Um, which I'm pretty excited about because it's not really something, well, that's not true. My friend Kristen taught me how to carve stamps, um, with like easy cut rubber a few years ago. And I made like a taco bell stamp, which is pretty on brand for me, but I'm taking a class tomorrow and I'm excited to like, have someone show me how to do it. And I got a bunch of speedball ink and yeah, I'm excited to have that space to like make stuff that doesn't feel, it's kind of forced because I signed up for it. But,

Miquela (40:06):

But sometimes like, Oh, sorry,

Maira (40:10):

No go ahead.

Miquela (40:10):

I was going to say like, sometimes like, you know, that sort of force where like it, but it's more community built. It's like, okay, I'm kind of forced to do that just because I signed up for it. But like for some reason, taking a class like feels different than just like, alright, I feel forced to do this because like I have to do it for monetary gain or like, I need to feel like I'm being productive. And it's more of like a societal pressure versus like in a class there's like that community sense of it where you're like, Oh, that's so cool. I get to be like taught this by somebody who knows a lot about it. And that's been one of the like greatest things about this period of time, like during COVID and all the lockdowns and stuff is like being able to take classes online still is, has been like a godsend.

Maira (40:58):

Yeah. Are you still teaching the zine making class?

Miquela (41:02):

Um, I'm teaching, Well, I had a couple of workshops, um, where it was zine making. And then right now it kind of transferred into I'm teaching. I am still teaching, but it's like an afterschool program where we're making these like little animal field guides. So they already had like a pre-made book. Um, and then they fill it out with like animal drawings that we do each week and it's been so much fun. And then I'm taking a class through my work, um, with a different artist who's doing just kind of drawing essentials and just having that like set aside time each week to devote to art is like major

Maira (41:40):

The animal guide sounds cute as hell.

Miquela (41:43):

It's so cute. Yeah. But my students are like a huge thing that's been like keeping me creative. Um, cause we also do, I do a weekly thing called doodle hour and that's actually, uh, open to anyone and it's free. Um, it's all ages, but for the most part I have like kids in the class and I think that like deters adults, like I've had some adults pop in, but like I try to really make it for everyone. And it's just a fun time to be like goofy and imaginative. And I try to come up with like silly prompts and stuff. Like, you can just draw on your sketchbook, um, and be around like a bunch of fun kids that come up with like really silly things. And so like, that's been major too, for me. It was just like, I feed off of their like innate creativity sometimes. Cause I'm like, you haven't been ruined by capitalism yet.

Maira (42:34):

Stay that way, please.

Miquela (42:35):

Yeah. Yeah. That's like one of the hardest things being an art teacher is like seeing these kids and just kind of like realizing like as an adult so much is beaten out of us. Like not to get like super depressing, like as an artist, like looking at them as artists and like remembering back to like when I was their age and I felt like there were so many more possibilities and like I would just make for the sake of making, um, which is something that we've already like kind of talked about, like we're struggling with, but then like these kids, it's like, you give them like one tiny crumb of something and then they just like run with it. And I'm like, how do you do that? Like please, how do I tap into that resource again?

Maira (43:21):

It feels like something that needs to be like relearned.

Miquela (43:25):

Yeah. So like taking a class, that's all going back to like you taking a class. Like I was kind of saying like, that's so cool that you're doing that because like giving yourself that time, like hopefully that will get you into more of that mindset, a little, or like kind of retrain your brain to be in that creative mode

Maira (43:42):

In the same vein. I took like an art 101 class at my local community college last semester. And that was, it was the same thing where it like put me in a mindset of like, yes, it was for a grade, but it felt very like, because it's not, I'm not working towards a degree right now. I'm just kind of taking it for fun. And so it was really cool to just kind of get loose and like make stuff. And so I'm taking another art class through the same community college this semester and it's a site-specific installation,

Miquela (44:17):

Woah

Maira (44:19):

But we don't really have any sites. Uh, cause.

Miquela (44:22):

that's fascinating.

Maira (44:24):

Yeah. I'm really excited to see how it's gonna play out. And like I'm really excited to make Stuff.

Miquela (44:30):

Sounds like that's cool. Like that's totally something you can use too for putting on shows.

Maira (44:35):

Yeah. That's I think what I'm most using it for gain down the road, but definitely just like farming ideas at this point, which I'm really excited about.

Miquela (44:46):

That sounds awesome. And that's just through the local community college there.

Maira (44:50):

Yeah. Uh, shout out to Ohlone College, uh, their art department.

Miquela (44:56):

That's rad.

Maira (44:56):

Yeah. I'm excited. Uh, do you have anything else that you want to plug or talk about?

Miquela (45:05):

Um, no, that's pretty much it. I feel like, yeah. Talked about the art show. I mentioned like the class I'm teaching, but I didn't even mention like where it is, but I guess you can put that in like the description.

Maira (45:17):

Yeah. Thanks so much for doing this. I know it was like really short notice. Um, and technology is weird and kind of hard, but it's been fun.

Miquela (45:29):

No, this was awesome. I loved, uh, you know, catching up with you a little bit and like yeah. Hearing about the things that you're working on too. Like it's nice to just sit and talk like with a fellow artist who just gets it. Like, I I've been very isolated away from like any sense of like an art community. So like this was really cool and I, yeah, I really loved talking with you.

Maira (45:52):

Yeah. And it's, it's also just a very different vibe from like seeing something on Instagram and being like, all right, I like this, but it's cool to like interact on a different plane, I guess.

Miquela (46:05):

Totally.

Maira (46:06):

Yeah. Well again, thank you. Um, this was great and yeah, stay tuned for more long-arm stapler, uh, more often this year and that's all for me.

#podcast #podcast transcript #miquela davis #long arm stapler #zines #zine

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cooldogcomics-blog · 7 years

Photo

Cool Dog comics est. 2013

#cool #dog #cool dog #cool dog comics #miquela davis #comics #web comic #web comics #cartoon #internet comics #internet cartoons #cartoon dog

2 notes · View notes

vsangelssparkle · 6 years

Text

Casting (Callbacks):

1. Abby Champion (Callbacks)

2. Adrianna Bach

3. Aiden Curtiss (Callbacks)

4. Alana Felisberto (Callbacks)

5. Alana Henry

6. Alanna Arrington (Callbacks)

7. Alannah Walton (Callbacks)

8. Alecia Morais (Callbacks)

9. Alessia Mertz

10. Alexandra Bonnesen

11. Alexina Graham (Gerücht: ohne Casting dabei)

12. Aleyna Fitzgerald (Callbacks)

13. Alicia Burke

14. Alicia Burke (Callbacks)

15. Alicia Herbeth

16. Alina Bobyleva

17. Alyssa Riley (Callbacks)

18. Ambra Battilana Gutierrez

19. Amilna Estevao (Callbacks)

20. Amira Pinheiro

21. Amy Black

22. Anabela Belikava

23. Anamarija Crnoja

24. Anastasia Panasenko

25. Angelica Erthal

26. Ange-Marie Moutambou

27. Anne de Paula

28. Antonina Petkovic (Callbacks)

29. Aqua Parios (Callbacks)

30. Ariela Soares

31. Ashika Pratt

32. Ashley Karah

33. Aube Jolicoeur

34. Azlin Nicolette

35. Barbara Fialho (Gerücht: ohne Casting dabei)

36. Barbara Palvin (Callbacks)

37. Barbara Valente

38. Barbra Lee Grant

39. Blanca Padilla (Callbacks)

40. Bojana Krsmanovic

41. Brittany Noon (Callbacks)

42. Brittni Tucker (Callbacks)

43. Brooke Lynn Buchanan

44. Brooke Perry (Callbacks)

45. Bruna Lirio (Callbacks)

46. Camille Opp

47. Candice Blackburn

48. Carmen Bruendler

49. Carola Remer

50. Carolina Sanchez

51. Catherine Laylin

52. Cayley King

53. Chantal Monaghan

54. Charlee Fraser

55. Charlotte D’Alessio

56. Charlotte Rose Hansen

57. Chase Carter (Callbacks)

58. Chelsey Weimar

59. Chen Estelle (Callbacks)

60. Cheyenne Maya Carty (Callbacks)

61. Chiharu Okunugi (Callbacks)

62. Chloe Braaten

63. Chuyan He (Callbacks)

64. Cindy Bruna (Gerücht: ohne Casting dabei)

65. Cindy Mello

66. Dahlia Savic

67. Daiane Sodre

68. Daniela Braga (Callbacks)

69. Danielle Herrington (Callbacks)

70. Danielle Knudson (Callbacks)

71. Dasha Malentina (Callbacks)

72. Destene Marie

73. Devon Windsor (Callbacks)

74. Dilan Cicek Deniz

75. Dilone (Callbacks)

76. Domonique Babineaux

77. Duckie Thot (Callbacks)

78. Ebonee Davis (Callbacks)

79. Effy Harvard

80. Elena Matei

81. Elizabeth Turner

82. Ella Rattigan

83. Ellen Rosa (Callbacks)

84. Elsa Baldaia

85. Emma Bartlett

86. Emma Brandstrup

87. Eniko Mihalik (Callbacks)

88. Eniola Abioro (Callbacks)

89. Erin Eliopulos

90. Eva Adams (Callbacks)

91. Eva Berzina (Callbacks)

92. Faith Lynch

93. Fernanda Ly (Callbacks)

94. Fernanda Oliveira (Callbacks)

95. Fiona Briseno

96. Flavia Lucini (Callbacks)

97. Frida Aasen (Callbacks)

98. Gabrielle Caunesil (Callbacks)

99. Georgia Fowler (Callbacks)

100. Georgia Gibbs

101. Gizele Oliveira (Callbacks)

102. Grace Bol (Callbacks)

103. Grace Elizabeth (ohne Casting dabei)

104. Greta Varlese (Callbacks)

105. Gwen van Meir

106. Hailey Clauson (Callbacks)

107. Hannah Donker

108. Hannah Ferguson (Callbacks)

109. He Cong (Callbacks)

110. Herieth Paul (Callbacks)

111. I-Hua

112. Iana Godnia

113. Iesha Hodges (Callbacks)

114. Imade Ogbewi

115. India Makailah Graham

116. Isabel Scholten (Callbacks)

117. Isilda Moreira (Callbacks)

118. Iwanna Bella

119. Jamea Byrd

120. Jasmine Daniels

121. Jasmine Sanders (Callbacks)

122. Jessica Clements (Callbacks)

123. Jessica Strother

124. Jessica Whitlow

125. Jessie Li

126. Joanna Bella

127. Johanna Szikszai

128. Jordan Rand (Callbacks)

129. Josephine Le Tutour (Callbacks)

130. Josie Canseco (Callbacks)

131. Jourdana Elizabeth (Callbacks)

132. Joy van der Eecken

133. Juana Burga

134. Julia Banas

135. Julia Belyakova (Callbacks)

136. Kamila Hansen

137. Kate Bock (Callbacks)

138. Kate Grigorieva (Callbacks)

139. Kate Li (Callbacks)

140. Keke Lindgard

141. Keliani Asmus

142. Kelly Gale (Callbacks)

143. Kelsey Merritt (Callbacks)

144. Kennidy Hunter

145. Kiko Arai

146. Kirstin Liljegren

147. Kristina Perie

148. Kristina Romanova (Callbacks)

149. Lais Oliveira (Callbacks)

150. Lameka Fox (Callbacks)

151. Lara Ghraoui (Callbacks)

152. Lara Helmer

153. Lauren de Graaf (Callbacks)

154. Lauren Layne

155. Leila Nda (Callbacks)

156. Leomie Anderson (Callbacks)

157. Lexi Hipchen

158. Lieke van Houten

159. Lilly-Marie Liegau

160. Lily Fofana

161. Linda Helena

162. Lini Kennedy

163. Lola Hendrickx Lomijoh

164. Lorena Rae (Callbacks)

165. Lotta Kaijarvi (Callbacks)

166. Lotta Maybelake (Callbacks)

167. Lucia Lopez (Callbacks)

168. Luma Grothe (Callbacks)

169. Luna Castilho

170. Maartje Verhoef (Callbacks)

171. Mackinley Hill

172. Madisin Rian

173. Madison Headrick

174. Madison Kirkbride

175. Maeva Marshall

176. Maggie Laine (ohne Casting dabei)

177. Maia Cotton (Callbacks)

178. Malaika Firth

179. Mame Camara (Callbacks)

180. Margaret Elson

181. Maria Borges (Callbacks)

182. Mariah Strongin

183. Mariama Diallo

184. Marianne Forseca

185. Martine Fox

186. Maya Stepper

187. Mayowa Nicholas (Callbacks)

188. McKenna Hellam

189. Megan Irminger

190. Megan Puleri

191. Megan Williams (Callbacks)

192. Melie Tiacoh (Callbacks)

193. Melissa Cuc

194. Melodie Vroom

195. Melodie Vaxelaire (Callbacks)

196. Meri Gulin

197. Mia Jokic

198. Mia Speicher

199. Michelle Dantas

200. Michelle van Bijnen

201. Michelle Xavier

202. Michi Delane

203. Mileshka Cortes (Callbacks)

204. Mili Boskovic

205. Ming Xi (Gerücht: ohne Casting dabei)

206. Miquela Vos (Callbacks)

207. Moa Aberg

208. Monica Cima (Callbacks)

209. Myla Dalbesio (Callbacks)

210. Myrthe Bolt (Callbacks)

211. Nadine Leopold (Callbacks)

212. Naki Depass

213. Natalia Sirotina

214. Neelam Gill

215. Nibar Madar

216. Nicole Potur

217. Noel Capri Berry

218. Olivia Edit Aarnio

219. One Wy (Callbacks)

220. Ophelie Guillermand (Callbacks)

221. Oumie Jammeh (Callbacks)

222. Paige Reifler

223. Pamela Ramos

224. Paulina Frankowska

225. Pauline Hoarau (Callbacks)

226. Peyton Olivia Knight

227. Pooja Mor

228. Raven Lyn

229. Raylane Raysa

230. Regan Kemper (Callbacks)

231. Regitze Christensen

232. Riane Herzik (Callbacks)

233. Riley Montana (Callbacks)

234. Robin Marjolein Holzken (Callbacks)

235. Rocio Crusset

236. Roos Abels (Callbacks)

237. Roosmarijn de Kok (Callbacks)

238. Rosmary Altuve Gomez

239. Rubina Dyan

240. Sadie Newman (Callbacks)

241. Samantha Archibald

242. Samile Bermannelli (Callbacks)

243. Sandra Martens

244. Sanne Vloet (Callbacks)

245. Sara Dijkink

246. Sarah Fraser

247. Sara Witt (Callbacks)

248. Sasha Kichinga (Callbacks)

249. Shanelle Nyasiase (Callbacks)

250. Shani Zigron (Callbacks)

251. Shanina Shaik (Callbacks)

252. Sharina Gutierrez

253. �� Shayna Terese Taylor (Callbacks)

254. Soa Denise

255. Sofia Jamora

256. Sofia Resing (Callbacks)

257. Sofie Grace Rovenstine (Callbacks)

258. Solange van Doorn (Callbacks)

259. Stamatina Vlami

260. Stefanie Giesinger

261. Stephanie Jackson

262. Stephanie Lyne

263. Subah Koj

264. Sui He (Callbacks)

265. Susanne Knipper

266. Symone Challenger

267. Taerlo Thein

268. Tako Nats

269. Tami Williams

270. Tanya Kizko (Callbacks)

271. Tarah Rodgers (Callbacks)

272. Tatiana Ringsby (Callbacks)

273. Toni Garrn (Callbacks)

274. Valentina Sampaio

275. Valery Kaufman (Callbacks)

276. Vanessa Moody (Callbacks)

277. Varsha Thapa

278. Victoria Lee (Callbacks)

279. Victoria Seng

280. Vika Ihnatenko

281. Wallette Watson

282. Wanesa Milhomem

283. Willow Hand (Callbacks)

284. Winnie Harlow (Callbacks)

285. Xiao Wen Ju (Callbacks)

286. Xin Xie (Callbacks)

287. Yada Villaret (Callbacks)

288. Yana Trufano

289. Yasmin Wijnaldum (Callbacks)

290. Yovanna Ventura

291. Ysaunny Brito

292. Zahara Davis (Callbacks)

293. Zoi Ageliki Mantzakanis

294. Zorana Kuzmanovic

295. Zuri Tibby (ohne Casting dabei)

#vsfs 2018

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marlaluster · 6 years

Text

The devil made that digital model Lil Miquela look not as real, i was told in my mind. It made her have a tattoo. It seems it was messing w her eye color somehow. It was putting pictures of traditional models on posts on her page. https://www.instagram.com/p/BjY7mhWlD2s/ ---- 85,518 likes lilmiquelaSO clean! Thank you @_dr_woo_ 🖤 Load more comments gaby.juarez12@ragemethod fr elise.is_goneI don’t see the crease of her arms like everyone else had rainbowbarfer21If you were a robot your skin wouldn't have turned red around the tatoo karima.lazar17The m in Arabic means 666 I knew there was something wrong about her 🤔🤔 karima.lazar17@emunksworlde yes [email protected] thank you glad im not the only one that peeped that kylier_bitchShe a doll.... Right? ohmygoshdolanzI see a problem with this. Where's the crease in the arm? Where it bends? noonoolies@madjsyn that's 666 madjsyn@noonoolies and noonoolies@madjsyn just saying don't get smart please glarequizilluminati conform let me explain the devil rules the Illuminati and the devil has 2 horns and she has 2 all around the m in a Diamond shape and a diamond shape kind of looks like a triangle so that means Illuminati conform. I believe that this human/robot is in the Illuminati. mahdi.haghverdi_U god damn robot got tattoos,unbelievable [email protected] how? patricia.munozz@rocketisaac karima.lazar17@notanotherspawndress the m in Arabic is translated to 666 [email protected] what about all the number 2 what dontheybmean karima.lazar17@notanotherspawndress no the 2s might mean something but idk wyt [email protected] thanks for the imput [email protected] sure amin.rhi555555 kevandralarasati@fmahdi_ finesse_the_rich23Was that a copy and paste 😂 jess._.davies@finesse_the_rich23 ooooof MAY 30 Instagram Log in|Sign up ABOUT USSUPPORTPRESSAPIJOBSPRIVACYTERMSDIRECTORYPROFILES

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thatsacult · 4 years

Audio

The social media influencer industry has exploded so much, we can't scroll through our timelines without bumping into them. We've gone from seeing them as a relatively harmless novelty, to criticising and regulating them, in just a few years.

Are they misunderstood artists and curators, or too busy flogging their diet products to care about anything other than the numbers?

#spon #ad

Contributors: Eadaoin Fitzmaurice - instagram.com/bandeadd Cameron Phillips - instagram.com/cameronphillips Michelle Elman - instagram.com/scarrednotscared Emily van der Nagel - twitter.com/emvdn

Written and edited by: Helen McCarthy twitter.com/helenlmccarthy  Music by: Antti Luode www.anttismusic.blogspot.co.uk

Episode sources:

CONTRIBUTORS Éadaoin Fitzmaurice https://www.instagram.com/bandeadd/ A journalist, videographer, Youtuber, presenter, and social media specialist based in Dublin.

Cameron Phillips https://www.instagram.com/cameronphillips/  Travel photographer and blogger.

Michelle Elman https://www.instagram.com/scarrednotscared/ Creator of @scarrednotscared. Writer, podcaster, body confidence coach, and TEDX speaker.

Emily van der Nagel https://twitter.com/emvdn "Lecturer in social media at Monash University; researches, writes, teaches & speaks about social media identities & culture".

INFLUENCER GOSSIP SITES GOMIBLOG https://gomiblog.com/ " GOMIBLOG is a news website and forum community covering the internet famous (and those who want to be)."

Guru Gossip https://gurugossiper.com/ Influencer/blogger/vlogger gossip forum.

Tattle.life https://tattle.life/ "Gossip and more".

Bloggers Unveiled https://www.instagram.com/bloggersunveiled/ Irish influencer gossip account on Instagram. Now inactive.

TWEETS @BekkyLonsdale https://twitter.com/BekkyLonsdale/status/1101057997533519872  "Shame on you @thetimes - you mislead myself and others into talking to you and posing for an article totally different to what you said."

@Ceilidhann https://twitter.com/Ceilidhann/status/1075852265674719232 "That Instagram influencer I occasionally check in on because she's The Worst is now charging $165 for a 4 hour "seminar" on how to be yourself."

ADVERTISING REGULATIONS Advertising watchdog to get tough on online influencers Lynn Kelleher, Irish Examiner. 17 Sept 2018. https://twitter.com/BekkyLonsdale/status/1101057997533519872

CMA probe to ‘name and shame’ celebrities in breach of influencer guidelines Mark Jones, Marketing Tech. 17 Aug 2018. https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2018/aug/17/cma-probe-name-and-shame-celebrities-breach-influencer-guidelines/

Forcing social-media influencers to be clear about #ads? Good luck with that Amelia Tait, The Guardian. 25 Jan 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/25/social-media-influencers-clear-ads-celebrities-authorities

Celebrity social media influencers pledge to change way they post Julia Kollewe, The Guardian. 23 Jan 2019. http://www.execreview.com/2019/01/celebrity-social-media-influencers-pledge-to-change-way-they-post/

Social media ‘influencers’ are being reined in under new UAE laws - will other Gulf nations follow lead? Jennifer Bell, Arab News. 17 July 2018. http://www.arabnews.com/node/1338881/media

Boy, 13, encouraged to 'gamble' by YouTuber Catrin Nye, BBC. 11 Feb 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/c8b3c39d-84df-4424-b42f-c04f26c8560f

People are getting sick of 'repetitive' influencer posts and 49% want stricter rules on ads Rebecca Stewart, The Drum. 2 Aug 2018. https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/08/02/people-are-getting-sick-repetitive-influencer-posts-and-49-want-stricter-rules-ads

Social media endorsements: being transparent with your followers Competition & Markets Authority, 23 Jan 2019 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-media-endorsements-guide-for-influencers/social-media-endorsements-being-transparent-with-your-followers

FYRE FESTIVAL The Fyre Festival films are a gloriously awful gulp of Schadenfreude Josh Baines, mixmag. 21 Jan 2019. https://mixmag.net/feature/fyre-festival-documentary-hulu-netflix-review

Blame the Fyre Festival fiasco on the plague of celebrity influencers Davis Richardson, WIRED. 4 May 2017. https://www.wired.com/2017/05/blame-fyre-festival-fiasco-plague-celebrity-influencers/

Has Fyre Festival burned influencers? Zoe Kleinman, BBC News. 22 Jan 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/46945662

'The influencers became the influenced' - an industry on Fyre Arvind Hickman, PR Week. 25 Jan 2019. https://www.prweek.com/article/1523874/the-influencers-became-influenced-industry-fyre

Shanina Shaik Is the First Fyre Festival Influencer to Speak Out About the Documentaries Andrea Park, W. 7 Feb 2019. https://www.wmagazine.com/story/shanina-shaik-fyre-festival-documentaries

It’s not just the Fyre festival – this is the golden age of the social media con Emma Brockes, The Guardian. 17 Jan 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/17/fyre-festival-social-media-con-documentaries

Fyre Festival: You Don’t Need Millions To Go Viral Geoff Desreumaux, wersm. 6 Feb 2019. https://wersm.com/fyre-festival-you-dont-need-millions-to-go-viral/

INFLUENCER INDUSTRY Top social media influencers of 2018 CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/social-media-influencers-influential-2018/

The Psychology Of Influencer Marketing Jemma Roback, blog.influencer.uk. 12 Nov 2018. https://blog.influencer.uk/the-psychology-of-influencer-marketing-665ce68124f2?gi=970134143ce2

Meet The Woman Who Helps Fashion Influencers Get Rich Quick Lela London, Forbes. 21 Jan 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lelalondon/2019/01/21/meet-the-woman-who-helps-fashion-influencers-get-rich-quick/#2f0e0b365ec8

10 Dublin Influencers Who Are Proper Sound In Real Life Eadaoin Fitzmaurice, Lovin' Dublin. 30 Nov 2018. https://lovindublin.com/opinion/dublin-influencers-sound

9 female Instagram change-makers to follow for serious inspiration Sagal Mohammed, Glamour. 7 March 2018. https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/inspiring-women-to-follow-on-instagram?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1552037100

Millennial ‘influencers’ who are the new stars of web advertising Karen Kay, The Guardian. 28 May 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/may/27/millenial-influencers-new-stars-web-advertising-marketing-luxury-brands

Rising Instagram Stars Are Posting Fake Sponsored Content Taylor Lorenz, The Atlantic. 18 Dec 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/influencers-are-faking-brand-deals/578401/

The Good The Bad The Ugly Of Social Media Influencers [Infographic] Irfan Ahmad, Social Media Today. 30 April 2018. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-of-social-media-influencers-infographic/522439/

Yelp Elite Are Becoming Obsolete Whitney Filloon, Eater. 7 Feb 2019. https://www.eater.com/2019/2/7/18214520/instagram-influencers-yelp-elite-online-restaurant-reviews

Instagrammers Are Getting Scammed by a Mysterious 'Con Queen' Nat Kassel, Vice. 11 Feb 2019. https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/j575vg/instagrammers-are-getting-scammed-by-a-mysterious-con-queen?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

BLOGGERS UNVEILED Bloggers Unveiled? I don't run this Instagram account, says frightened Tullamore beautician Ramona Tracey John Mooney, The Times. 29 July 2018. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bloggers-unveiled-i-don-t-run-this-instagram-account-says-frightened-tullamore-beautician-ramona-tracey-kdvjfjjgc

Death threats sent to Irish woman wrongly accused of running anonymous social media account Freya Drohan, Irish Central. 29 July 2018. https://www.irishcentral.com/news/bloggers-unveiled-death-threats

Bloggers Unveiled account closed down: What happened and why? Taragh Loughrey-Grant, RTE. 2 Aug 2018. https://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/living/2018/0802/982583-bloggers-unveiled-account-closed-down-what-happened-and-why/

16 reactions to Bloggers Unveiled that prove it should be on Reeling in the Years Claire Woods, The Daily Edge. 1 Aug 2018. https://www.dailyedge.ie/bloggers-unveiled-is-over-4158165-Aug2018/

I Was The Target Of Bloggers Unveiled For 24 Hours – Here’s What It’s REALLY Like Megan Cassidy, 5 July 2018. https://lovindublin.com/feature/i-was-the-target-of-bloggers-unveiled-for-24-hours-heres-what-its-really-like

FUTURE OF INFLUENCERS Are we living in ‘Westworld’? The rise of virtual influencers Ted Dhanik, Venture Beat. 14 July 2018. https://venturebeat.com/2018/07/14/are-we-living-in-westworld-the-rise-of-virtual-influencers/

What we can learn about the cult of insta-influencers from lil miquela Felix Petty, i-D. 26 April 2018. https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/vbxkna/lil-miquela-instagram-influencer

The wild west of influencer-dom: Will social media stars continue to rise? Oliver Bennett, The Independent. 6 July 2018. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/social-media-influencer-youtube-instagram-kendall-jenner-advertising-a8431521.html

How has the referendum changed the public's interpretation of 'The Influencer?' Fionnuala Jones, The Daily Edge. 21 May 2018. https://www.dailyedge.ie/influencers-and-repeal-the-eighth-4019009-May2018/

What does the future hold for Instagram influencers? Amelia Heathman, London Evening Standard. 26 Jan 2019. https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/vidcon-lucy-loveridge-gleam-futures-influencers-a4047966.html

BODY POSITIVITY Charli Howard shares 10 Instagrammers who'll make you feel damn good about yourself Charli Howard, Glamour. 7 Nov 2018. https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/charli-howard-inspirational-instagrammers-to-follow

I Unfollowed Health Influencers and Wound Up Feeling So Much Healthier Rebecca Muller, Thrive Global. 15 June 2018. https://thriveglobal.com/stories/i-unfollowed-health-influencers/

INDUSTRY CRITICISM Why Instagram Is the Worst Social Media for Mental Health Amanda Macmillan, TIME. 25 May 2017. http://time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mental-health/

Instagram ranked worst for young people’s mental health Royal Society for Public Health. 19 May 2017. https://www.rsph.org.uk/about-us/news/instagram-ranked-worst-for-young-people-s-mental-health.html

British YouTube vlogger accuses Dublin hotel of bullying her after it refused her request to stay there for free... Khaleda Rahman, Daily Mail. 18 Jan 2018. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5283551/YouTube-vlogger-accuses-Dublin-hotel-bullying-her.html

Beauty influencer meltdowns: How scandals and gossip are damaging the careers of Laura Lee, Manny MUA and other makeup gurus Yvette Thomas, Culture Mix. 28 Aug 2018. https://culturemixonline.com/beauty-influencer-meltdowns-scandals-gossip-damaging-careers-laura-lee-manny-mua-makeup-gurus/

Inside the Internet's Craziest Destination for Blogger Hate Chavie Lieber, Racked. 30 July 2014. https://www.racked.com/2014/7/30/7584149/gomi-get-off-my-internets-fashion-bloggers-style-blogs-mom-blogs

Luxury Dublin hotel bans all social media influencers Chelsea Ritscheli, The Independent. 18 Jan 2018. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/hotel-bans-influencers-instagram-social-media-stars-elle-darby-the-white-moose-cafe-a8166926.html

Why luxury resorts are fed up with 'freeloading' social media 'influencers' Annabel Fenwick Elliott, The Telegraph. 19 June 2018. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/why-luxury-hotels-have-had-enough-of-social-media-influencers/

I Was Scammed by a Celebrity Influencer Anonymous, Medium. 11 Dec 2018. https://medium.com/@wannabe.influencer1/i-was-scammed-by-a-celebrity-influencer-6612d61e1a9e

'Bikini Hiker' who posed on top of mountains in swimwear freezes to death following fall Ewan Palmer, Newsweek. 21 Jan 2019. https://www.newsweek.com/bikini-hiker-mountain-swimwear-freezes-death-fall-1299103?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_source=Twitter

The Instagram influencers who post fake adverts Stuart McGurk, GQ. 21 Jan 2019. https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/the-instagram-influencers-who-post-fake-adverts

Dear influencers, please stop lying to your audience Katy Gillett, The National. 27 Jan 2019. https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/comment/dear-influencers-please-stop-lying-to-your-audience-1.818535

Everything You Need To Know About Influencer Caroline Calloway & Her Disastrous $165 Mason Jar Meet-Up Kathryn Lindsay, Refinery29. 16 Jan 2019. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/01/221909/caroline-calloway-instagram-influencer-disaster-tour-explained

Why I unfollowed influencers in favor of relaxing slime content Morgan Sung, Mashable. 2 July 2018. https://mashable.com/article/unfollowing-influencers-instagram/?europe=true#H_0_qHSO3OqJ

Please stop 'influencing' on our doorsteps, Notting Hill residents tell 'unapologetic' Instagrammers Adebola Lamuye & Barney Davis, London Evening Standard. 28 Feb 2019. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/please-stop-influencing-on-our-doorsteps-notting-hill-residents-tell-unapologetic-social-media-a4078806.html

VIDEO & AUDIO Panorama: Million Pound Selfie Sell-Off BBC (2019) https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0c3gmcv/panorama-million-pound-selfie-sell-off "Catrin Nye investigates the use of digital influencers in the advertising industry and the impact this new form of advertising is having on consumers."

the TRUTH about Travel Influencers (it's mostly fake) Cameron Phillips | YouTube (2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0piK-_C9ww

The Sad Truth About Being An Influencer Evelina | YouTube (2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7mkW7XJlHw

I Learned How To Be An Influencer That Makes Over $300k | Lucie For Hire Refinery29 | YouTube (2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csy2RxzkbaM

THE TRUTH ABOUT INFLUENCERS: Money, The Industry, Ugly Bits, Gossip Sites + More Grace Fit UK | YouTube (2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F337WLBGnYI

I’m Scarred, Not Scared | SHAKE MY BEAUTY | YouTube (2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Xij1PCfo0

Andy Jordan: ‘I used to lie to sell on social media’ - BBC News | YouTube (2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkV-_K7wB40

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

Text

More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela

Brud, the company behind the virtual celebrity Lil Miquela, is now worth at least $125 million thanks to a new round of financing the company is currently closing. Meanwhile, new venture-backed companies like the superstealthy Shadows, SuperPlastic and Toonstar are all developing virtual characters that will launch via social media channels like Snap and Instagram, or on their own platforms.

It’s all an effort to test whether audiences are ready to embrace even more virtual avatars — including ones that don’t try to straddle the uncanny valley quite as blatantly as Miquela and her crew.

The investors backing these companies say it’s the rise of a new kind of studio system — one that’s independent of the personalities and scandals that have defined a generation of Vine, YouTube and Instagram stars — and it’s attracting serious venture dollars.

“The way I look at it… a lot of it is going to be like any kind of content studio,” says Peter Rojas, a partner at the New York investment firm Betaworks Ventures. “In 2019 and 2020 we’re going to see a lot of these… we’re going to see a lot of people putting out a lot of stuff.”

Los Angeles-based Brud is by far the most established of this new breed in the U.S. (at least in terms of the amount of money it has raised). Last year the company scored at least $6 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital, BoxGroup and other, undisclosed, investors.

The makers of the virtual influencer, Lil Miquela, snag real money from Silicon Valley

And the company has done it again, and is in the process of closing on somewhere between $20 million and $30 million at a pre-money valuation of at least $125 million led by Spark Capital, according to people with knowledge of the round. Miquela “herself” teased that “she” had something to “share” with her roughly 1.5 million followers. Brud declined to comment.

If Miquela is arguably the most successful U.S. version of this new breed of entertainer, the collective behind the account is far from the only one.

Experiments in avastardom have been percolating in popular culture since at least the rise of the Gorillaz — the Damon Albarn assembled musical supergroup that released their first EP “Tomorrow Comes Today” in late 2000. Or, depending on your definition, perhaps as early as Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the mid-1990s Cartoon Network series featuring an animated superhero interviewing real celebrities.

youtube

And that success spawned imitators like Hatsune Miku, who’ve capture the imagination and hearts of audiences globally. In November, a Japanese fan named Akihiko Kondo spent $18,000 to wed the avatar. And he’s not alone. Gatebox, the company that manufactures hardware to display holograms of various anime characters in homes, has issued at least 3,700 marriage licenses to fans like Kondo.

At Betaworks, the firm is exploring the popularity of these virtual characters — and the role that artificial intelligence and new content creation technologies will play in reshaping entertainment and social media platforms. The company’s Synthetic Camp, which launches in mid-February, is around what Rojas calls “synthetic reality,” including the rise of avatar-driven media like Miquela.

“We’re looking more broadly at the issues around manipulated or faked content and how do you address that,” says Rojas. “Algorithmically generated content and how things like generative adversarial networks are being used to create and synthesize new photo and video content.”

For Rojas, the development of powerful new tools that enable the creation of new characters in minutes that, in the past, would have taken humans hundreds of thousands of hours, can unlock all sorts of possibilities for entertainment.

“The celebrity part comes into play where we’re now at a point where you can create these photorealistic avatars and put them into videos and have them wearing clothes without having to spend millions of dollars on CGI,” he says.

Betaworks is betting on the content studio aspect through companies like SuperPlastic, a new startup launched by Paul Budnitz, the founder of the alternative social network ello and Budnitz Bicycles. Budnitz is perhaps best known for Kidrobot, a manufacturer of branded collectibles and toys for adults and kids everywhere. But the company also believes there are opportunities in backing the content creation toolkits that can power this new kind of media star, like its investment in the media creation tool, Facemoji.

“There’s no reason why you won’t see it across the board. Our appetite for fresh content and this stuff is kind of limitless,” says Rojas. “And I don’t see it as zero sum. YouTube didn’t kill television, it just became Netflix… Things can move in two different directions at the same time. More high brow and more complex and higher level and also more democratized and lowbrow and dumb. There’ll be avatar tools and apps and games and then we’ll see stuff that’s top of the pyramid stuff like Lil Miquela and Shudu.”

At Toonstar, co-founders John Attanasio and Luisa Huang went from developing a platform to developing a studio. The two met at the Digital Media Group within Warner Brothers and were tasked with trying to experiment with technologies at the intersection of media generation and distribution.

“Daily, snackable and interactive are the three things that you need to be successful in the world,” says Attanasio. “We saw the impact that the rise of mobile was having on linear. We sat through a lot of meetings where you looked at audience trends and you saw that going in the wrong direction in the wrong color.”

So the two founders began contemplating what a new, low-cost, high-touch media network might look like. “We looked at mobile and we saw the massive animation gap. Animation takes a long time and it’s expensive, the average season can cost $3 million to $5 million and bringing a new series to life can take three to four years.”

For Attanasio and Huang, those timelines were too slow to take advantage of the mobile content revolution. So the two built a platform that initially focused on letting user-generated content flourish — a kind of YouTube for animated, avatar-driven storytelling that could be distributed on any social media platform or on Toonstar’s own site and app.

Toonstar lets you bring cartoon characters to life thanks to facial recognition

Since that launch, the company has refined its business model to become more of a traditional animation studio. “We do daily pop culture cartoons… and partner with creators and influencers,” says Attanasio. “Our whole thing is driven by proprietary tech that allows us to do things really fast and at low cost… 50 times faster and 90 percent cheaper than typical animation.”

Attanasio also realized the importance of creative talent. “We had no shortage of content, but it was shitty content,” Attanasio says. “That’s when you realize… what we’re doing… there’s three ingredients… One is tech, one is process and the third is creative… if you have tech and process and you take away creative what you have is an ocean of shit.”

Now, they’re also experimenting with creating their own animated influencer. Leveraging the popularity of the Musical.ly app (now rebranded under its new owner, TikTok), Toonstar launched Poppy.tv.

“We launched a channel called Poppy.tv. It was a blue chicken [and] she became musically famous,” Attanasio said. “Within three months Poppy had 300,000 followers and had an avid fan base for Poppy and her cast of characters.”

The content was episodic and ranged from 15 seconds to 30 seconds — and it was based on cartoon music videos. “That validated the thesis of can you create a cartoon influencer and can you have a broad audience be super engaged?… and the answer was ‘Yes,'” said Attanasio.

Then, taking a page from the early Cartoon Network playbook, Attanasio and Huang made the show interactive in a callback to the “Space Ghost” phenomenon. “We started doing cartoon live streams and the founders of Musical.ly asked us to do a weekly show that they would feature,” Attanasio says. “It was Poppy the Blue Chicken and we would broadcast for an hour every week. Famous musers on Musical.ly come in with a FaceTime… And there were games and all of it was live, in real time.”

It’s hard to overstate the importance of working with virtual characters, according to Attanasio. “We understand how much money you can make from the IP. When we’re working with creators or influencers they understand that you have this shelf life as an influencer, but as IP, that can go on in perpetuity. There is something to be said about building a character. We’re all children of Saturday morning cartoons.”

And Toonstar is building an audience. Its show, the Danogs, has 4.5 million weekly viewers, and the company recently launched Black Santa — a show developed in partnership with the former NBA All-Star and tech investor Baron Davis. The NBA star and studio analyst also committed capital to Toonstar’s recent seed funding, a round led by Founders Fund partner Cyan Banister. In all, Toonstar said it has about 45 million weekly viewers for all of its shows.

Lil Miquela and fellow brud avatar Blawko22

Those kinds of numbers are music to the ears, of Dylan Flinn, a former agent at the Los Angeles powerhouse Creative Artists Agency, who left to start his own company.

Flinn has partnered with the producers of BoJack Horseman on a new venture called Shadows, which has already launched two virtual avatars into the wild.

Flinn got exposure to the virtual media world while at Rothenberg Ventures, the now defunct fund that invested in virtual reality and augmented reality. “I still had that lens of looking at innovation and virtual worlds and I’ve always been fascinated by what social media is doing.”

For Flinn, the virtual element of what’s being created is vitally important to the success of these ventures. “We’re not trying to create humans,” he says. “We look up to the Mickey Mouses and Looney Tunes and the Bugs Bunnies of the world. When I look at these 3D, [computer generated] human-based characters, it’s so close to the uncanny valley. We want to develop characters and we want to tell fictional stories rooted in reality.”

Like Attanasio at Toonstar, Flinn sees the speed at which digital content can be created and brought to market as a critical component of its success. “When I was at CAA you see how much money is wasted on development every year. This was an approach which was like, ‘What if you can develop in public and the best content can win?'” Flinn says.

Shadows already has two virtual avatars out in the wild, but he declined to identify which ones they were. Ultimately, he said, the goal is to have 20 characters a year, because once a couple of characters come to market and get traction with an audience, new characters can be introduced to old ones and the universe becomes a discovery engine of its own. That’s a strategy that Miquela and her crew are also employing, with varying degrees of success.

Ultimately, these types of entertainments aren’t going to go away — at least according to the investors and entrepreneurs who are creating the companies that are building them.

“People are totally fine with things that are artificial,” says Rojas. “People totally connect with Mario from Super Mario Bros. We always tell stories and have characters in whatever medium are available to us [like] Instagram and Snapchat and YouTube and Twitter. Thirty to 40 years ago it was television and radio and movies. People are going to express themselves and avatars end up being a form expression.”

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://tcrn.ch/2QM2vV1 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

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technicalsolutions88 · 5 years

Link

The makers of the virtual influencer, Lil Miquela, snag real money from Silicon Valley

If Miquela is arguably the most successful U.S. version of this new breed of entertainer, the collective behind the account is far from the only one.

Toonstar lets you bring cartoon characters to life thanks to facial recognition

Now, they’re also experimenting with creating their own animated influencer. Leveraging the popularity of the Musical.ly app (now rebranded under its new owner, TikTok), Toonstar launched Poppy.tv.

Lil Miquela and fellow brud avatar Blawko22

Those kinds of numbers are music to the ears, of Dylan Flinn, a former agent at the Los Angeles powerhouse Creative Artists Agency, who left to start his own company.

Flinn has partnered with the producers of BoJack Horseman on a new venture called Shadows, which has already launched two virtual avatars into the wild.

Ultimately, these types of entertainments aren’t going to go away — at least according to the investors and entrepreneurs who are creating the companies that are building them.

from Social – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2QM2vV1 Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes

toomanysinks · 5 years

Text

More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela

Brud, the company behind the virtual celebrity Lil Miquela, is now worth at least $125 million thanks to a new round of financing the company is currently closing. Meanwhile, new venture-backed companies like the superstealthy Shadows, SuperPlastic, and Toonstar are all developing virtual characters that will launch via social media channels like Snap and Instagram, or on their own platforms.

The investors backing these companies say it’s the rise of a new kind of studio system — one that’s independent of the personalities and scandals which have defined a generation of Vine, YouTube, and Instagram stars and it’s attracting serious venture dollars.

“The way I look at it… a lot of it is going to be like any kind of content studio,” says Peter Rojas, a partner at the New York investment firm, Betaworks Ventures. “In 2019 and 2020 we’re going to see a lot of these… we’re going to see a lot of people putting out a lot of stuff.”

Los Angeles-based Brud is by far the most established of this new breed in the U.S. (at least in terms of the amount of money it has raised). Last year the company scored at least $6 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, BoxGroup, and other, undisclosed, investors.

The makers of the virtual influencer, Lil Miquela, snag real money from Silicon Valley

And the company has done it again, and is in the process of closing on somewhere between $20 million and $30 million at a pre-money valuation of at least $125 million (pre-money) led by Spark Capital, according to people with knowledge of the round. Miquela “herself” teased that the “she” had something to “share” with her roughly 1.5 million followers. Brud declined to comment.

If Miquela is arguably the most successful U.S. version of this new breed of entertainer, the collective behind the account is far from the only one.

Experiments in avastardom have been percolating in popular culture since at least the rise of the Gorillaz — the Damon Albarn assembled musical supergroup that released their first EP “Tomorrow Comes Today” in late 2000. Or, depending on your definition, perhaps as early as Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the mid-90s Cartoon Network series featuring an animated superhero interviewing real celebrities.

youtube

And that success spawned imitators like Hatsune Miku who’ve capture the imagination and hearts of audiences globally. In November, a Japanese fan named Akihiko Kondo spent $18,000 to wed the avatar. And he’s not alone. Gatebox, the company that manufactures hardware to display holograms of various anime characters in homes, has issued at least 3,700 marriage licenses to fans like Kondo.

At Betaworks, the firm is exploring the popularity of these virtual characters — and the role that artificial intelligence and new content creation technologies will play in reshaping entertainment and social media platforms. The company’s Synthetic Camp, which launches in mid-February, is around what Rojas calls “synthetic reality” including the rise of avatar-driven media like Miquela.

For Rojas, the development of powerful new tools which enable the creation of new characters in minutes that, in the past, would have taken humans hundreds of thousands of hours, can unlock all sorts of possibilities for entertainment.

Betaworks is betting on the content studio aspect through companies like SuperPlastic, a new startup launched by Paul Budnitz the founder of the alternative social network, ello and Budnitz Bicycles. But the company also believes there are opportunities in backing the content creation toolkits that can power this new kind of media star, like its investment in the media creation tool, Facemoji.

For Attanasio and Huang, those timelines were too slow to take advantage of the mobile content revolution. So the two built a platform which initially focused on letting user generated content flourish — a kind of YouTube for animated, avatar-driven storytelling that could be distributed on any social media platform or on Toonstar’s own site and app.

Toonstar lets you bring cartoon characters to life thanks to facial recognition

Since that launch, the company has refined its business model to become more of a traditional animation studio. “We do daily pop culture cartoons.. and partner with creators and influencers,” says Attanasio. “Our whole thing is driven by proprietary tech that allows us to do things really fast and at low cost… 50 times faster and 90% cheaper than typical animation.”

Attanasio also realized the importance of creative talent. “We had no shortage of content but it was shitty content,” Attanasio says. “That’s when you realize… what we’re doing… there’s three ingredients.. One is tech, one is process and the third is creative… if you have tech and process and you take away creative what you have is an ocean of shit.”

Now, they’re also experimenting with creating their own animated influencer. Leveraging the popularity of the Musical.ly app (now rebranded under its new owner, TikTok), Toonstar launched Poppy.tv.

“We launched a channel called poppy tv.. It was a blue chicken [and] she became musically famous,” Attanasio said. “Within three months Poppy had 300,000 followers and had an avid fanbase for Poppy and her cast of characters.”

Then, taking a page from the early Cartoon Network playbook, Attanasio and Huang made the show interactive in a callback to the “Space Ghost” phenomenon. “We started doing cartoon livestreams and the founders of Musical.ly asked us to do a weekly show that they would feature,” Attanasio says. “It was Poppy the Blue Chicken and we would broadcast for an hour every week. Famous musers on musically come in with a facetime … And there were games and all of it was live, in real time.”

And Toonstar is building an audience. Its show, the Danogs, has 4.5 million weekly viewers, and the company recently launched Black Santa — a show developed in partnership with the former NBA All-Star and tech investor, Baron Davis. The NBA star and studio analyst also committed capital to Toonstar’s recent seed funding; a round led by Founders Fund partner, Cyan Banister. In all, Toonstar said it has about 45 million weekly viewers for all of its shows.

Lil Miquela and fellow brud avatar Blawko22

Those kinds of numbers are music to the ears, fo Dylan Flinn, a former agent at the Los Angeles powerhouse Creative Artists Agency, who left to start his own company.

Flinn has partnered with the producers of BoJack Horseman on a new venture called Shadows, which has already launched two virtual avatars into the wild.

For Flinn, the virtual element of what’s being created is vitally important to the success of these ventures. “We’re not trying to create humans,” he says. “We look up to the Mickey Mouse’s and Looney Tunes and the Bugs Bunnies of the world. When I look at these 3D, [computer generated] human-based characters it’s so close the uncanny valley. We want to develop characters and we want to tell fictional stories rooted in reality.”

Ultimately, these types of entertainments aren’t going to go away — at least according to the investors and entrepreneurs who are creating the companies that are building them.

“People are totally fine with things that are artificial,” says Rojas. “People totally connect with Mario from Super Mario Bros. We always tell stories and have characters in whatever medium are available to us [like] Instagram and Snapchat and YouTube and Twitter. Thirty to forty years ago it was television and radio and movies. People are going to express themselves and avatars end up being a form expression.”

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/14/more-investors-are-betting-on-virtual-influencers-like-lil-miquela/

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fmservers · 5 years

Text

More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela

Brud, the company behind the virtual celebrity Lil Miquela, is now worth at least $125 million thanks to a new round of financing. Meanwhile, new venture-backed companies like the superstealthy Shadows, SuperPlastic, and Toonstar are all developing virtual characters that will launch via social media channels like Snap and Instagram, or on their own platforms.

Los Angeles-based Brud is by far the most established of this new breed in the U.S. (at least in terms of the amount of money it has raised). Last year the company scored at least $6 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, BoxGroup, and other, undisclosed, investors.

The makers of the virtual influencer, Lil Miquela, snag real money from Silicon Valley

If Miquela is arguably the most successful U.S. version of this new breed of entertainer, the collective behind the account is far from the only one.

Experiments in avastardom have been percolating in popular culture since at least the rise of the Gorillaz — the Damon Albarn assembled musical supergroup that released their first EP “Tomorrow Comes Today” in late 2000. Or, depending on your definition, perhaps as early as Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the mid-90s Cartoon Network series featuring an animated superhero interviewing real celebrities.

youtube

At Betaworks, the firm is exploring the popularity of these virtual characters — and the role that artificial intelligence and new content creation technologies will play in reshaping entertainment and social media platforms. The company’s Synthetic Camp, which launches in mid-February, is around what Rojas calls “synthetic reality” including the rise of avatar-driven media like Miquela.

Toonstar lets you bring cartoon characters to life thanks to facial recognition

Now, they’re also experimenting with creating their own animated influencer. Leveraging the popularity of the Musical.ly app (now rebranded under its new owner, TikTok), Toonstar launched Poppy.tv.

Then, taking a page from the early Cartoon Network playbook, Attanasio and Huang made the show interactive in a callback to the “Space Ghost” phenomenon. “We started doing cartoon livestreams and the founders of Musical.ly asked us to do a weekly show that they would feature,” Attanasio says. “It was Poppy the Blue Chicken and we would broadcast for an hour every week. Famous musers on musically come in with a facetime … And there were games and all of it was live, in real time.”

And Toonstar is building an audience. Its show, the Danogs, has 4.5 million weekly viewers, and the company recently launched Black Santa — a show developed in partnership with the former NBA All-Star and tech investor, Baron Davis. The NBA star and studio analyst also committed capital to Toonstar’s recent seed funding; a round led by Founders Fund partner, Cyan Banister. In all, Toonstar said it has about 45 million weekly viewers for all of its shows.

Lil Miquela and fellow brud avatar Blawko22

Those kinds of numbers are music to the ears, fo Dylan Flinn, a former agent at the Los Angeles powerhouse Creative Artists Agency, who left to start his own company.

Flinn has partnered with the producers of BoJack Horseman on a new venture called Shadows, which has already launched two virtual avatars into the wild.

For Flinn, the virtual element of what’s being created is vitally important to the success of these ventures. “We’re not trying to create humans,” he says. “We look up to the Mickey Mouse’s and Looney Tunes and the Bugs Bunnies of the world. When I look at these 3D, [computer generated] human-based characters it’s so close the uncanny valley. We want to develop characters and we want to tell fictional stories rooted in reality.”

Ultimately, these types of entertainments aren’t going to go away — at least according to the investors and entrepreneurs who are creating the companies that are building them.

“People are totally fine with things that are artificial,” says Rojas. “People totally connect with Mario from Super Mario Bros. We always tell stories and have characters in whatever medium are available to us [like] Instagram and Snapchat and YouTube and Twitter. Thirty to forty years ago it was television and radio and movies. People are going to express themselves and avatars end up being a form expression.”

Via Jonathan Shieber https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

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oleandrsstudio · 11 months

Text

#IZM2023 prompt for July 2: Zine rewind! Re-read your favorite zines and share why you love them.

“I Have No Idea What I’m Doing: Adventures in Academia #1” by Kirsty Fife of Crosswordszines on Etsy! This is an enjoyable read that carefully examines the realities of grad school.

“All Together: A Primer for Connecting to Place & Cultivating Ecological Citizenship” by @emmalucillepercy! This one I’d highly recommend for anyone interested in #solarpunk.

“Space, Yo!” by Miquela Davis @ghostsb4breakfast! This #artzine #minizine features — well, my review for it is coming up, so no spoilers! It’s an adorable illustrated artwork.

What are your favorite zines?

#zine #minizine #perzine #solarpunk #art zine #zine review #izm2023

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

Text

More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela

The makers of the virtual influencer, Lil Miquela, snag real money from Silicon Valley

If Miquela is arguably the most successful U.S. version of this new breed of entertainer, the collective behind the account is far from the only one.

youtube

Toonstar lets you bring cartoon characters to life thanks to facial recognition

Now, they’re also experimenting with creating their own animated influencer. Leveraging the popularity of the Musical.ly app (now rebranded under its new owner, TikTok), Toonstar launched Poppy.tv.

Lil Miquela and fellow brud avatar Blawko22

Those kinds of numbers are music to the ears, of Dylan Flinn, a former agent at the Los Angeles powerhouse Creative Artists Agency, who left to start his own company.

Flinn has partnered with the producers of BoJack Horseman on a new venture called Shadows, which has already launched two virtual avatars into the wild.

Ultimately, these types of entertainments aren’t going to go away — at least according to the investors and entrepreneurs who are creating the companies that are building them.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://tcrn.ch/2QM2vV1 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

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sheminecrafts · 5 years

Text

More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela

The makers of the virtual influencer, Lil Miquela, snag real money from Silicon Valley

If Miquela is arguably the most successful U.S. version of this new breed of entertainer, the collective behind the account is far from the only one.

youtube

Toonstar lets you bring cartoon characters to life thanks to facial recognition

Now, they’re also experimenting with creating their own animated influencer. Leveraging the popularity of the Musical.ly app (now rebranded under its new owner, TikTok), Toonstar launched Poppy.tv.

Lil Miquela and fellow brud avatar Blawko22

Those kinds of numbers are music to the ears, of Dylan Flinn, a former agent at the Los Angeles powerhouse Creative Artists Agency, who left to start his own company.

Flinn has partnered with the producers of BoJack Horseman on a new venture called Shadows, which has already launched two virtual avatars into the wild.

Ultimately, these types of entertainments aren’t going to go away — at least according to the investors and entrepreneurs who are creating the companies that are building them.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://tcrn.ch/2QM2vV1 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

0 notes