Sylvia

Instagram is full of wannabes, but there was only one Sylvia.  Co-written with AI, Sylvia is a storytelling experiment that disrupted the virtual influencer landscape. Unlike most of her virtual peers, who are designed to appear young forever, Sylvia was designed to age rapidly. The project was posted to Instagram as @myfriendsylvia from July to November 2020, and featured images of Sylvia as she aged five decades, from 30 to 80 years old. The project challenged conventions around the design of virtual humans; including aging and death in the design process.