Did you see the Mike Hatsune trend on twitter? So many Catalan Mikus!!!
I hadn't seen it! They're so cool!!
(And by the way, Miku is already Catalan 😉 the software used for her voice —Vocaloid— was created by the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona)
Say in the comments which one is your favourite!
Miku dancing sardanes wearing traditional clothes (pubilla outfit). By @/itsnailasart
Miku in a calçotada! By @/miden808
Miku castellera and pubilla Miku. By @/SpaceSpheal (also on Tumblr @spacespheal!)
Modern girl Miku who is a monitora de cau. By @/enosst
Miku castellera!! By @/TaySokka
Miku dancing sardanes. By @/NoddlsChikk
Miku with a Tió de Nadal. By @/gatomonogordo
Miku with the dragon, Mic and a calçot. By @/mewvy_y.
Miku dressed as castanyera! By @/lau_artwork
I've reached the photo limit for a Tumblr post but there's more! Say which one is your favourite in the tags. I can't choose just one but I'd say the 1st one, SpaceSpheal's, and the castanyera.
Hi all! This is a lil progress update for those interested. In a rush? Here's the cliff notes!
The map site at miku.earth is back: sorry for the delay in fixing it! Check it out: it has six hundred Mikus!
Including the hyuge ol' queue, we've collected over 3,100 mikus!
Representation is important! I've been using some fancy stats to avoid bias. To that end, please help make sure we have a Miku in every African country!
oh hey! you clicked 'keep reading!' well hi! here is your Miku Direct. .
The map site, miku.earth, is back!
I ran into a kinda complex issue and it was a whole Thing. I was working on the site the whole time though! Sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy now it's back up and running.
This site has six hundred Mikus on the map, and more are added each week. It was recently rebuilt from scratch (fun fact! I am not a web developer) so I hope it is far zippier and less glitchy as before. A mobile-friendly version is coming soon too!
Also: check out the new search feature! In addition to the title, artist name and region(s), it can also search for the categories indigenous and historic!
cw: this video involves moving around a 2D map with some speed. on the site itself site, this only happens when you hit the Enter key.
We've reached more than 3,100 mikus!
Even at its Miku-per-hour speed, the queue will continue until 2025 at least! This is with thanks to an incredible number of contributions, including donations of literal thousands of links.
Thank you so much to @awnowimsad, @worldmikuposter @the-hatsune-miku-trend, @communist-hatsunemiku, @council-of-beetroot, L-A and a whole host of DMers and emailers for helping get this far.
Oh and by the way: over two thirds of the collection are tumblr posts! Given that this was originally a twitter trend… if you know any Twitter users who are into this trend, please reach out. Some napkin math tells me there are at least 10,000 works of art total out there, which is, by the way, surreal. Let's make sure not a single one is lost.
If you're super curious, the collection is public! I have some tools to auto-annotate (I do not want RSI), but be aware the backlog isn't vetted.
Representation is important!
Fun as this trend is, this project was always intended as a serious study into how people represent their own culture through artwork. I'm no anthropologist, but I feel it is important to make sure this collection is respectful and bias-free. If we're to represent the world, we have to avoid underrepresentation!
To that end I've used some fancy statistics to calculate a "representation value" for each country. Here's a table if you're into the stats of it! This info is handy to help me with the queue – especially with tweets as they're a lil more effort than a carefully-tagged reblog. Of course, Indigenous, hyperspecific and low-note Mikus get priority.
And, well, of course you can see on the site there are purple regions for countries still missing a Miku. In particular, please help me make sure every country in Africa is represented.
Thank you for reading!
Phew! That was a lot. If you're still curious, please check the behind-the-scenes and source code. I work in the open! Even if my code is probably messy.
And if you're a programmer, issues and pull requests are welcome! This is actually a static site, so it's purdy easy to develop.
Each region in Brazil is like a subcountry. Here's Hatsune Miku from Ceará (Nordeste, Miku V2). in all her close-to-the-equator glory, and Hatsune Miku from Santa Catarina (Sul, Miku NT), a natural dancer.
I found that the original Brazilian MIku reminded me a lot of Rio de Janeiro, but there's a lot more out there and many brazilian folks have gotten a go at representing the cultural diversity in here. This is my take! They're silently judging each other, hahaa....
btw: I decided to draw them out of a sense of justice almost-- i know the trend is bygone xD