Never Falter Hero Girl by Katie Dey

In virtual spaces, our imaginations run wild, building larger-than-life, idealized versions of ourselves, and our physical presence cracks slowly under the pressure to live up to the standards of our avatars. Avant-pop artist Katie Dey delves into this personal dichotomy in her new record Never Falter Hero Girl, blending acoustic and electronic sounds to stand in for her physical and digital selves. This idealized digital self, which Dey refers to as the “hero girl,” also serves as the story’s love interest. Dey struggles to court her avatar, propositioning this perfect being to fuse with her, which would tarnish the digital purity of the hero girl to allow Dey to reach an awkward, halfway self-actualization. Simultaneously, this vanity project of self-improvement serves as an absurd replacement for the survival tasks which used to occupy the entire human mind, a fact which fills Dey with guilt for pouring so much energy into an impossible, fruitless pursuit. When Dey eventually chooses to leave the hero girl alone in her perfect existence, we all breathe a sigh of resignation, knowing that we too should stop struggling to integrate our digital and physical selves. -Michael