Sounding Cyber*feminist Futures. Speculations on Sonic Unknowns

What can the legacies of cyber*feminism offer towards thinking about sonic futures? Cyber*feminist thought and action since the 1990s has demanded that the intersections of gender, race, class and ability be included in the often allencompassing enthusiasm which dominates debates around technology. Crypton Future Media’s hugely successful virtual pop star Hatsune Miku’s character name Future Sound of Pop Music, Bern 2017 translates literally as “the first sound from the future.” Taking Miku as an example, I will examine what tropes of its history as a vocaloid software combined with successful marketing strategies have led to its huge popularity. Miku as a vacant feminized technologized vessel in which the voice plays a central role has a history which can be traced back at least to the sexist science fiction of August Villiers de L'Isle-Adam’s 1886 novel “The Future Eve”.

Undeniably, technological innovations shape pop musical aesthetics, however my lecture aims to explore from a cyber*feminist position which tropes have transformed and which have, according to history, unfortunately remained the same in the larger ecologies of popular music. In line with a tradition of feminist speculative thought, I suggest that greater attention to the inequitable politics and economics of music technology production today will be vital in challenging notions of music technology in the future.