Clarissa Siddle

An exploration of parasocial relationships and technological advancement through visual storytelling.

Your Teen Popstar Best Friend Forever is a story-based publication that discusses issues of parasocial relationships, internet addiction and celebrity worship through the perspective of Allegra, an artificial intelligence popstar turned cyborg. The story takes place on a dystopian internet between the years 2034 and 2039 and depicts Allegra’s fame and influence driving the plot through internet-based interactions between supporting characters. Your Teen Popstar Best Friend Forever additionally aims to satirise internet culture and behaviours, presenting the characters and events as allegorical reflections of our modern reality, and exposing the negative effects of the topics investigated. The methodologies used in the project include storytelling, satire, cultural and social references and character descriptions to create a familiar and engaging fictional world within the publication.  This project contributes a discussion to the growing societal concerns of the effects of rapid technological advancements on human beings.