My panel activity for the NASAGA 2012 conference (50th anniversary of NASAGA) happened this afternoon (Thursday, Nov 8th). The web page that I created for the activity is at (https://daveendresak.com/academic-activities/2012-nasaga-panel/). Here’s my summary.

First of all, I almost missed that they had changed my panel from Friday to Thursday. The organizers were somewhat misled by the hotel because they were told that wi-fi Net access would only be in specific rooms but this was revised when they arrived to being informed that wi-fi access for the conference would be available throughout the hotel. The organizers apologized for the oversight, but fortunately I had checked the schedule first thing Thursday morning.

The conference has about 70 attendees but the panel activities are fairly small. For example, the activity I attended in the morning was only about 10-12 attendees. My panel was right after lunch and had about 8 people so so attend.

My planned activity was for people to view several of Miku’s videos on YouTube and NicoNico Douga (English). I made sure that I included Net access and PC as needed items. However, a couple of things changed this plan, as often happens with presentations (or classes, for that matter). One major issue that arose was the official roleout of NicoNico Doug’a multilingual site in mid-October and the associated issues with videos loading, comments loading, and other problems such as tags. As I explained in my web page for the activity, this was simply unfortunate timing for my activity, but such things happen.

Also, a couple of the approximately 8 attendees for my activity did not have their own computers, so my planned interaction of having academics, corporate training officers, and similar professionals offer comments on various videos and become part of the creative process as audience members didn’t work out as intended. I simply went through a few videos myself to make sure that everyone experienced the content. I held Q&A after each video so that people could offer input for the group and discuss their own impressions between themselves.

I started the activity by introducing myself and the general nature of my doctoral dissertation research, particularly the focus on exploring the uncanny valley and cultural diversity with Vocaloid Hatsune Miku. Of course, this was a good point to ask if anyone was familiar with the uncanny valley concept. One woman who is also a new member of the NASAGA board was the only one of my attendees who knew about it and offered a general explanation based on what she knew. She related it to animated characters. I explained the origins and how it has had important ramifications for many other areas including how we perceive and interact with each other and our environment.

This was a great time to ask the next logical question: whether any of them had heard of Vocaloid technology or Hatsune Miku. No one had, so I offered a very brief explanation, stressing the consumer-generated facts of the content creation as opposed to the traditonal top-down approach. Of course, the Yamaha official video introducing Vocaloid 3 is a good general introduction to the entire movement, as well as how Yamaha has now realized that Vocaloid can be far more successful by offering voice banks to the general consumer rather than targeting professional musicians. The Google Chrome Japan commercial offered a specific example demonstrating Miku’s success with the same general mechanic. Professor Tara Knight’s “Mikumentary” teaser trailer offered a view of the enormous diversity of perceptions that people have about Miku.

We spent some time discussing the possibilities that these examples illustrate, as well as various questions they raise. Two of the women, including the new NASAGA board member who I mentioned earlier, were discussing something while I answered someone else’s question. When I asked them to share what they had discussed, they pointed out that the feelings that some people have expressed about Miku are similar to what they can recall about their feelings as thet grew up about a character such as Kermit. However, they also stressed that Miku is different because her popularity is not formed by a company and its marketing, but is a result of general consumers choosing a character and associated products that they love, creating content for the character, and taking it upon themselves to promote the character over other characters and their associated products and/or services.

I showed the group “Tell Your World” and “Rera” (subtitled version of the latter). After “Tell Your World,” I asked for input. Again, the NASAGA board member who spoke earlier mentioned how Miku’s voice sounded AutoTuned, so it really wasn’t much different from a human pop singer being AutoTuned. I explained that the song was by kz(livetune), that he was one of the earliest adopters of Miku, and that he chooses to tune Miku this way but that she can be tuned quite differently. After a bit more Q&A, I showed “Rera” and the vast difference in tuning for Miku’s voice was immediately apparent to the entire group. I explained how Hoshigami RaikuP’s award-winning work took several months to create and that he was the first non-Japanese MMD Cup winner, including the special award from Sega recognizing his work.

There were some interesting questions about applications such as voiced automated translation capabilities, using Vocaloid to preserve voices or to alter voices for new creativity, using Vocaloid for fields such as films and games, etc. In fact, the questions about Vocaloid evolving to automated voiced translation services works for a lingustic and cultural services company in Washington, D.C., and she found the many issues and possibilities quite fascinating as we spoke at some length after the activity. One attendee pointed out that music videos have been used to promote safe sex behaviors in certain cultures or other behavior education efforts (I didn’t get a chance to talk to him afterwards but this is related to my own research so I hope to find him before the end of the conference). I explained that there is growing interest in and research about Vocaloid, but the technology is very new so the possibilities are still being explored by various companies as well as consumers.

Throughout the presentation, I pointed out how Miku’s English voice bank is planned for sometime in the first half of next year and that there are various other voice banks available, including non-Japanese voice banks. I explained how all attendees can download MikuMiku Dance (MMD) and other tools, content, etc from the URLs I provided. In short, I stressed how attendees can not only become part of the creative community by offering feedback on videos, but that they can also create their own works or share the ability to do so with other people they may know who might like to try out the tools available.

We were running out of time due to the interactive approach and other adjustments I decided to take after the activity began. The last video I showed was “Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu (The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku)” after explaining the story behind the inspiration for the song, as well as the meaning of the lyrics. I also stressed how it is a good example of some of the relatively unique potential that Miku and Vocaloid offers for creativity in music as human singers either would not be able to sing that fast or would not do so consistently repeatedly, pointing out that some people have covered the song as a challenge to be met. I also mentioned that official translations are seldom offered and that the various translation and/or subtitled versions of Vocaloid songs have been done almost entirely by consumers. Likewise, I pointed out that there are often multiple versions of popular songs such as this one, including one version in MMD subtitled in English, Chinese, and having Miku’s movements be Japanese Sign Language (JSL).

I explained to the group that Crypton’s PiaPro license was similar to the Creative Commons approach, but that CC focuses on copyright use while PiaPro focuses on character use. One attendee asked if Vocaloid had been used for uses such as political messages, so I explained the “real life imitating art” example of the Diplomatic Party of Japan requesting the right to use Miku to send a political message to the public and Crypton’s refusal. I pointed out how the DPJ used Miku for their message since anyone can use the software even though they could not use Miku’s name and character, and how the public was infuriated because they easily recognized Miku and did not approve of her being used in such a way. In a similar way, I offered the fact that various Western media has reported on Vocaloid and Miku, and that almost none of the reporting has been informed because the journalists are not part of the community and do not understand the facts of who Miku is or why she has become so popular around the world. I offered the recent Wired magazine article of her and the angry reaction of many people in the community. I also mentioned the 5th anniversary Family Mart campaign commercials and the creation of Miku’s vegetable juice product from “Po-Pi-Po” (i.e., virtual product popularity leading to physical product development).

Overall, the activity went well. There were a few technical issues and I wish that the attendees could have actually offered comments and interacted as I had originally planned, but I can say that the group understood some of the potential as well as various issues that Vocaloid illuminates.