Miranda July is her own island. No one matches the quiet, funny way she exposes humanity in the mundane and the secret. Her 2014 app, Somebody, was one of the most interesting attempts to use technology to give us a more human experience.
In the app, users could send messages not directly to a person but instead to someone in the vicinity. The actual receiver was then tasked to go and find the person and relay the message using their actual voice. Messages also included stage directions including emotions and blocking.
The app was short-lived, but remains an intriguing experiment in how technology could bring us closer together, rather than further apart.
Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, singer, actress and author. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art.
She wrote, directed and starred in the films Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) and The Future (2011) and wrote and directed Kajillionaire (2020). She has authored a book of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007); a collection of nonfiction short stories, It Chooses You (2011); and the novel The First Bad Man (2015).