Thursday 24/9/20 - Cyberpunk

After researching the context and meaning behind the painting I wanted to twist it in my recreation. I wanted to instead have it focus on the idea of very amibitious and utopian visions of the future versus the dystopian cyberpunk ideas. This is because it is a topic that strays far away from the more down to earth and realistic meaning behind the painting but also because it looks at themes that are still relevant today with the question of what lies in store for us.

The idea of cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction that plays around with the idea of an extremely advanced technological society however in a very dystopian setting, a "combination of low-life and high-tech" (Gibson, 1986, p.14).

Often in cyberpunk it makes use of the ideas of enhancing people through cybernetics, artificial intelligence and other varieties of advance technology we often dream about. All of this is used in juxtaposition with more bleak themes often revolving around the breakdown of society or the strong disparity between the social classes (They often have the technology but can't have the same benefits as the upperclass). The key theme is that it is always a darker perception of the future compared to the traditionally hopeful and ambitious ideas, this is why they are very rarely set on a planet other than Earth. More themes are often based around hackers and megacorporations.

Cyberpunk stories often express the idea of rebellion and revolution against the power in control. This is where the term punk comes from, the protagonists are often outsiders who don't fit in due to one reason or another and are usually the underdog. They are often seen as subversive and will attempt to undermind or overthrow the exisiting form of power and have a certain attitude about them.

"...a closer look [at cyberpunk authors] reveals that they nearly always portray future societies in which governments have become wimpy and pathetic ...Popular science fiction tales by Gibson, Williams, Cadigan and others do depict Orwellian accumulations of power in the next century, but nearly always clutched in the secretive hands of a wealthy or corporate elite" (Brin, 1998).

"The Cyber Age brought us more violence and more hatred in human's souls, more pain and more suffering... The crimes were moving to the new world, the world of 1's and 0's... New communities rose from the data world. Hackers, FreeJacks and Phreakers were the new rulers of this world" (The History of Cyberpunk, 1996)

Some famous works that are examples of this genre include 'Do androids dream of electric sheep' the book which was later adapted into the film Blade Runner (Another example of cyberpunk), The Matrix trilogy, the novel Neuromancer and the manga series Akira (And the 1988 anime film adaptation) which is considered a huge influence for many later films including The Matrix and Inception. There are also a selection of games in the cyberpunk genre such as Deus Ex, Metal Gear and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077. It has even made its way into other fields such as music with the origin being the synthesizer-heavy soundtracks for films such as Blade Runner, though it has since then developed further with vaporwave and synthwave being heavily influenced by the genre. All in all, the genre of cyberpunk has had a huge impact and influence on media as a whole, but it has also had a strong social impact. Fashion, architecture and artwork are some key examples of areas where cyberpunk has had influences such as Berlin's Sony Center or the clothing company Cyberdog.

The New Wave science fiction movement is considered the origin of cyberpunk. It was a literary movement that started during the 60s and 70s which utilized the idea of 'soft' science, which essentially put stylistic and creative ideas over actual scientific accuracy. They often criticised traditional science fiction as unambitious. New Wave encouraged a high amount of experimentation that used the concepts of surrealism, postmodernism and also political influences from the time including the cold war (more specifically the Vietnam war). Cyberpunk developed from this movement but took the very stylistic and ambitious approach and twisted it into darker themes to avoid the idea of utopia. It started when writers such as Philip K. Dick started to look at the current social trends such as drug culture, technology and its advances, sexual revolution and other big themes during the time. Other genres have heavily influenced cyberpunk such as crime fiction.

References

Brin, D., 1999. The Transparent Society. New York: Basic Books.

Dick, P., Parker, T., Blond and Starkings, R., 1968. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?. Doubleday.

En.wikipedia.org. n.d. Cyberpunk. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk#:~:text=generalized%20cultural%20formation.-,History%20and%20origins,styles%2C%20techniques%2C%20and%20archetypes.> [Accessed 24 September 2020].

En.wikipedia.org. n.d. New Wave Science Fiction. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_science_fiction#References> [Accessed 24 September 2020].

Gibson, W., 1986. Burning Chrome. 1st ed. Harper Collins, p.14.

Gibson, W., 2001. Neuromancer. London: HarperCollins.

Neon Dystopia. n.d. What Is Cyberpunk? – Neon Dystopia. [online] Available at: <https://www.neondystopia.com/what-is-cyberpunk/> [Accessed 24 September 2020].

Ōtomo, K., Umezawa, Y., York, L., Duffy, J. and Sivasubramanian, K., 1982. Akira.

Project.cyberpunk.ru. n.d. History Of Cyberpunk. [online] Available at: <http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/history.html> [Accessed 24 September 2020].

Sf-encyclopedia.com. n.d. Themes : New Wave : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: <http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/new_wave> [Accessed 24 September 2020].

Shellzine.net. 2019. Cyberpunk Music: Origins And Evolution – Shell Zine. [online] Available at: <https://shellzine.net/cyberpunk-music-origins-and-evolution/> [Accessed 24 September 2020].