This panel discussion explores the Instagram image economy and the role of fake followers, fictional influencers and CGI models such as Lil Miquela and Shudu.

Speakers include Dutch artist Constant Dullaart, whose practice reflects on the broad cultural and social effects of communication and image processing technologies; Olly Lang, an award winning mobile photographer consulting in Instagram and social media; and Lee Mackinnon, Joint Acting Course Leader on MA Photography at London College of Communication.

Constant Dullaart‘s practice reflects on the broad cultural and social  effects of communication and image processing technologies, from performatively distributing artificial social capital on social media to completing a staff-pick Kickstarter campaign for a hardware start-up called Dulltech™. His work includes websites,  performances, routers, installations, startups, armies, and manipulated found images,  frequently juxtaposing or consolidating technically dichotomized presentation realms. http://constantdullaart.com

Olly Lang is not a Photographer, not an Instagramer, and maybe not a bot. He's been flown to New York to shoot with an iPhone for Burberry, taught a Selfie School at Tate Modern, and all while losing 50,000 followers. Since the early days of Instagram Olly has watched the evolution of the app and its users. His message is simple, when you are staring into the darkness... something is staring back. http://oggsie.com/

Lee Mackinnon is Joint Acting Course Leader on MA Photography at London College of Communication. Lee’s scholarship is largely situated in fields of comparative media studies, technology and postdigital visual culture. She is interested in the shifting technical paradigms that affect how we see, think and communicate as well as the implicit power structures that shape cultural practice. Recent papers have explored the politics of automation and nature; feminist theory; data representation; and ethics in the practices of photography, film and literature.