Artery. A podcast on art, authorship and anthropology · Artery. A podcast on art, authorship and anthropology

Misumi Lancia with Liudmila Bredikhina

·30 min·2 clips

In 2016, Misumi discovered a live 2D image that made her believe she could finally exist as a woman on the internet.

Researcher Liudmila Bredikhina interviews virtual YouTuber and metaverse resident Misumi Lancia. Lancia identifies as a virtual existence art and advocates for a body abolition theory called *nikutai haishi*. She explains that *nikutai haishi* is a concept about detaching one's identity from the physical body, with a long-term goal of transferring consciousness into a network. For Lancia, living as her avatar, Lancha Misumi, in platforms like VRChat is both an artistic practice and a model for a future way of being. She began exploring a feminine identity online around 2016 after seeing Live2D technology, which she combined with a voice changer. Lancia started formal VTuber activities in 2018 and describes the profound comfort of finally existing as her true self in virtual space. Her avatar's name, Lancha Misumi, incorporates references to a butterfly orchid and a three-dimensional space, inspired by a Chinese philosophical story about a dreaming butterfly. She uses a combination of VR, AR, and XR technologies, along with voice training since 2014, to maintain her virtual presence. Lancia's creative projects include an original song called "Colorful Metaverse," which she wrote to express themes of diversity and self-expression, and she deliberately releases it without copyright to encourage sharing. She sees her developmental disability and gender dysphoria as motivations for using technology to eliminate suffering and create freedom from physical constraints. A key insight is her view that her everyday life as an avatar is itself an artwork sketching a future where people are not trapped by their bodies. The conversation reveals how virtual existence allows Lancia to reclaim an identity suppressed by her male physical body. She maintains a basic avatar form based on how she dressed as a child but changes details between her idol performances and daily VRChat life. Practical aspects of her setup include a two-meter square mat to dampen sound while dancing in her Japanese apartment. Lancia believes many people sympathize with her philosophy because technology can alleviate various forms of bodily struggle. The episode is an educational and conversational dialogue focused on personal experience and philosophical concepts. Listeners interested in digital identity, transgender experiences, virtual art, or posthumanist philosophy would find this episode compelling. Those seeking debates on technology or purely art-historical analysis might find the highly personal and conceptual focus less engaging.

As heard by us

A careful conversation about VeerChat, naming, embodiment, and the freedom to be recognized.

Artery presents a patient study of naming, embodiment, and recognition through VeerChat and self-making. Ludmilla Bredekina, a researcher at the University of Malta, brings a frame shaped by art, literature, and kawaii male virtual gender practices in Japan, while Misumi Dancha…

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VRChat, an orchid name, and a philosophy of becoming yourself.

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