The two avatars Ashley and Allison are virtual assistants who are brought to life as projections onto human silhouettes. Artist Malin Kuht allows them to critically reflect in conversation on their existence. In doing so, she examines the function and impact virtual assistants have on people. OFFREAL is based on research into the development and application of voice user interface. Formative for the artist’s exploration was the concept of immersion – the plunge into virtual surroundings. The intensity of immersion is determined by the level of communicability in the interaction between person and machine. Voice control intensifies immersion, making it almost possible for the user to forget that his counterpart is a machine. The installation plays with the perception of the physical and the artificial, and provokes moments of the so-called “uncanny valley” – a paradoxical effect in the acceptance of particularly human-like artificial figures on the viewer (acceptance gap). Virtual assistants are very similar to people, but are not always convincingly realistic: Their lips never move quite naturally in sync with the spoken text, and Allison’s cough repeatedly exposes her as artificial and reminds us that, normally, female impersonators are created without human weaknesses or mistakes. In addition, much of the voice command applications are, by default, set as female voices. This simulation of forms of femininity is a topic of discussion for Ashley and Allison, and shows the extent to which the concept of service and care still has female connotations. Indeed, Ashley is actually employed as a virtual nurse for human patients, for example. Her appearance and voice were developed by ODDCAST, a provider of text-to-speech software. The possibility of discrimination on the basis of this simulated femininity has long been part of the code for female impersonators. Alexa has a host of answers readily available should she be confronted with harassment. OFFREAL offers the viewer a new perspective – by letting the virtual assistants speak for themselves.