She is not the first "artificial star" in Japan, however. Aimi "joins the company of Hatsune Miku, a pop singer who is actually a computer-generated cartoon with a realistic voice synthesized using Yamaha's Vocaloid program." And, believe it or not, "Miku regularly sells out 'live' concerts featuring 3-D holographic images of the singer performing on stage."
The closest thing we've seen to this in the past is lip-syncing groups (remember Milli Vanilli) or presidential politics. And yes, it would not surprise me if in the not too distant future, that we get a CGI Presidential candidate. It seems that this is what the voting public really wants. As a whole we seem to want the perfect, artificial candidate...not real statesmen who have real convictions and ideas...along with real human flaws. We want perfect hair, perfect soundbites and to be made to feel good about ourselves. We have been building an image of the perfect candidate since the television era began.
This trend of image over substance began with the very first televised Presidential debate in 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. According to an article on the Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) web site, "In August, Nixon had seriously injured his knee and spent two weeks in the hospital. By the time of the first debate he was still twenty pounds underweight, his pallor still poor. He arrived at the debate in an ill-fitting shirt, and refused make-up to improve his color and lighten his perpetual '5:00 o'clock shadow.' Kennedy, by contrast, had spent early September campaigning in California. He was tan and confident and well-rested. 'I had never seen him looking so fit,' Nixon later wrote." But, what about the essence of the debate? Once again, from the MBC article, "In substance, the candidates were much more evenly matched. Indeed, those who heard the first debate on the radio pronounced Nixon the winner. But the 70 million who watched television saw a candidate still sickly and obviously discomforted by Kennedy's smooth delivery and charisma. Those television viewers focused on what they saw, not what they heard. Studies of the audience indicated that, among television viewers, Kennedy was perceived the winner of the first debate by a very large margin."
This first debate has been studied and studied over the decades. Everybody knows that you don't want to be like Nixon on a televised debate...you want to be like Kennedy...regardless of substance. John F. Kennedy's image, though, was not only formed by the debate, but also through endless photo-ops, interviews and fawning magazine articles. From the very beginning of his political career, the image of Camelot was carefully crafted step-by-step. This also has been studied and emulated by politicians.
Today we know that almost everything about the Kennedy mystique was indeed mist...fog and mirrors, if you will. The virile, athletic young man we saw in the "home videos" was actually nearly incapacitated a lot of the time from a back injury suffered during WWII. He couldn't function without almost constant pain killers. The loving family man turned out to be womanizing, serial adulterer. And, the white knight from Camelot turned out to have tarnished armor through his association with organized crime figures. But, he was pretty...not that Nixon turned out to be a gem himself.
Since that time, politics have become almost completely about image. High powered image consultants, spin-meisters and media moguls are all employed to make sure a candidate's image is polished to a clean, shining luster. In a culture that is more concerned with the latest celebrity divorce or rehab story...who know more about the plot of the hot "reality show" than the operation of their government...this is now the criteria on which we base the election to the most powerful office in the world. Who looked best...who had the best comeback...who seemed the most concerned?
Images that can be so easily crafted, can just as easily be destroyed. There are hundreds of press vultures circling out there for a slip of the tongue, or an unsubstantiated accusation to swoop down and feed on the carcass of another dead or dying candidacy. With the number of cameras focused on the candidates every day and the circus that is the presidential debates, candidates are almost assured to make a faux pas, a misstatement or just exhibit mental flatulence. Let's be honest, after the hours and weeks and months on the campaign trail, the candidates get tired. They have to keep an enormous amount of information on the tips of their tongues. They are going to slip. Rick Perry forgetting a department of government in the middle of a televised debate is no more an indication that he is stupid, than Barack Obama's statement that he was in 57 states during his campaign makes him a moron. But...The vultures care little for reality...they only smell death.
This all unfortunately leaves the spin machines and media with a lot of power in picking our leaders. We don't take the time to really understand the issues. We don't really find out which candidates offer the best ideas. We just listen to the edited, 30-second sound-bites and judge their image. Barack Obama came to the office with no resume...with very questionable associations. In the prologue of his own book he wrote, "I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views." He also says "my treatment of the issues is often partial and incomplete." But he had an unbelievably adept media spin machine. Once he got in office and began to show his real stripes, many voters found themselves with a bad case of "buyers remorse."
Where does this leave us? The depth of statesmanship has given way to plastic veneers. Ideas and values are supplanted by quips and comebacks. We don't even know what government's role should be...and don't care, as long as we can still afford our $4 cup of coffee.
Will we wake up? Will we take control of our own destinies? Or will we just continue to choose "artificial stars" to represent us? Will we pick leaders in the future? Or will it be...Max Headroom for President!
