The tech giant is forced to delete a new Hololens commercial that promotes artist Marina Abramovic's mixed reality following criticisms over her alleged affiliation with Satanism.
- Apr 19, 2020
AceShowbiz - Bosses at Microsoft decided to scrap a new commercial featuring artist Marina Abramovic after conspiracy theories suggested she was affiliated with Satanism.
Abramovic had been featured in the advertisement for a Microsoft headset called the Hololens 2, which allows the user to see digital imagery with the outside world, where she discussed her new mixed reality project and interviewed the CEO of Christie's auction house.
"I believe that art of the future is art without objects," she says in the since-deleted YouTube clip. "This is just pure transmission of energy between the viewer and the artist. To me, mixed reality is this answer."
However, the clip was met with backlash, amassing 24,000 dislikes amid an online outcry over alleged Satanism, after conspiracy theorist Alex Jones - who is alleged to have sold bogus coronavirus cures - said on his blog Infowars, "Would a tech company really want a Luciferian individual like her to be the face of their new mixed reality device because of her art?"
Abramovic became a target of right-wing conspiracies in 2016 and defended herself when asked about the issue, insisting, "I'm outraged because this is taken completely out of my context."
"Anybody who wants can read my memoirs and find out that (my work) is far away from Satanism."
