What does the advancement of AI mean for the future of the arts, music, and fashion? Will robots come for our creative industries? Could a machine ever dream like a human can? This week on Dazed, with our new campaign AGE OF AI, we’re aiming to find out.
If you’ve kept up with the “career” of robot Instagram It-girl Lil Miquela, you may have noticed that weaved into her life story are two other (less well-followed) characters, Blawko and Bermuda.
Both Blawko and Bermuda support Miquela’s soap opera story with their own personas – Blawko is a streetwear kid with face tattoos and an acerbic tone of voice on social media, Bermuda is a conventionally attractive white girl who harbours ambitions to be “the most famous robot in the world”.
Blawko and Bermuda are in an on-off relationship, one which Miquela often gets stuck in the middle of – just the other day Miquela posted that she “had to go back to LA”, as Blawko and Bermuda had got in a fight, but told her followers that she “don’t wanna go into details”. But like any high-profile Instagrammers in love, Blawko and Bermuda regularly make up with posts of themselves enjoying life, and all the right motivational hashtags.
Recently, as did a lot of humans, Blawko started vlogging on IGTV, with a review of Nicki Minaj’s new album. It’s uncanny viewing, one that captures a general nihilism you often find on Instagram, often as compelling as watching a human, while throwing up eerie slash hilarious glitches.
We reached out to his creators Brud – who declined the opportunity to shed light on how Blawko’s speech is developed and delivered, although Blawko himself alludes to his POV being created by “running all of Twitter through a processor” – to ask Blawko to review some looks for Dazed. Here he is giving the lowdown on some fits. As Blawko says, “them some fuckin’ clothes”.
Watch the video below.