A trans-disciplinary forensic study of Lil Miquela’s virtual identity performance in Instagram

Virtual Influencers (VIs) have become the most prolific research subjects in human–computer interaction and mass media and communication studies from a plethora of perspectives. Developed to integrate social traits and anthropomorphic minds in their social media posts, human-like VIs engage with followers via visually authentic personae, emotionally captivating multimodal storytelling, and semio-pragmatic labor-intensive strategies in conformity with the expectations (and pressures) of the contemporary influencer culture. Informed by Belk’s revisited model of and timely scholarly works on the extended self, we introduce a new conceptualization of the virtual self that performs identity in platformized spaces. To examine virtual personae’s identity performance, we adopt a trans-disciplinary mixed-method forensic netnographic research design, synergizing computer vision, natural language processing, and semio-pragmatic analytical tools. A convenient sample of 334 (sponsored) posts, retrieved from the official Instagram account of the quintessential virtual agent Lil Miquela, is scrutinized taking into consideration her posts’ images and accompanying captions. The paper carries out the tripartite analysis in serious attempt to unravel: (a) how humanoid her synthesized images appear to the naked eye in quest of authenticity building; (b) the techno-affects that contribute to her identity performance; and (c) the semio-pragmatic affordances appropriated and deployed in Instagrammable spaces, showcasing how the three serve the performance of her digital identity. Valuable insights reveal that her agency draws heavily on algorithmization and semiotic immateriality to produce action. The study’s findings contribute to the existing body of literature on VIs and the extended self within the context of artificial intelligence.