Miku's Mask: Fictional Encounters in Children's Costume Play
Peer reviewed, Journal article
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Date
2014-11-03Metadata
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Original version
https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568214554962Abstract
Children’s engagement with Japanese toys and fictional characters has taken on new significance in the age of YouTube. Drawing on ethnographic research on technology-mediated play among 8- and 9-year-olds in Norway, this article shows how boundaries between “real” humans and “fake” non-humans are blurred and undermined when children take on the perspective of a fictional pop star known as Miku. I argue that YouTube provides a platform for children’s playful experimentation with posthuman subjectivities, where they orient themselves toward the future not in terms of becoming adult but in terms of multiple becomings.