Virtual Idol Hatsune Miku: New Auratic Experience of the Performer as a Collaborative Platform Jelena Guga University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic guga@ntc.zcu.cz Abstract. In this paper, the phenomenon of virtual idol Hatsune Miku will be analyzed in the context of critical theory, emerging technologies, and theory of digital art practices. The first part focuses on the phenomenon of the virtual ce- lebrity seen as Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘body without organs.’ The second part examines how the state-of-the-art technologies have enabled the ex- istence of Hatsune Miku, who is simultaneously a corporate software product, pop icon, performance artist, and collaborative multimedia artwork. Based on the reading of Hatsune Miku as a hybrid product emerging from the fusion of arts and IT, the last part revolves around the concept of ‘aura’ (Benjamin) gen- erated by virtual idol’s presence. Finally, the notion of hyperterminality is in- troduced not only to differentiate between entities/identities appearing on the surface of the screen and those virtual constructs co-existing with us in the spaces of physical reality, but also to explore how these newly emerging “phygital” entities transform the existing conceptions of body and identity. Keywords: Virtual idol, body without organs, hyperterminality, hologram, au- ra, collaborative art, augmented reality. 1 Introduction With the advent of communication technologies such as natural, gestural interfaces, holographic projections, and various forms of wearable technology as the extensions of both body and mind, digital and physical spaces can now be experienced as a sin- gle reality on the corporeal level, i.e. on the level of embodied mind [1], for it is the interconnectedness of the body, mind and the environment that constitute our percep- tion of the world, of reality, no matter how virtualized it may have become. Such an experience of digitally mediated interactions is qualitatively different from the so far widely and commonly used screen-based interfaces specific for leaving the body out- side of digital interactions and thus underlining the virtual-real divide. Within this context and for the first time, cyberspace is becoming what might be termed as tangi- ble virtuality, a phenomenon which not only has a quality of physical environment but virtual constructs are situated in it as well, and can therefore be experienced and inter- acted with on the corporeal level.