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Category: Aesthetic (page 2 of 2)

Images and media with a cyberpunk vibe. For more frequent #inspo, peruse Exolymph’s Tumblr.

This website was archived on July 20, 2019. It is frozen in time on that date.
Exolymph creator Sonya Mann's active website is Sonya, Supposedly.

Pastiche Review of Nirvana (1997)

Here’s how IMDb contributor Sembola describes the 1997 cyberpunk movie Nirvana:

“Jimi, a successful computer game designer, finds that his latest product has been infected by a virus which has given consciousness to the main character of the game, Solo. Tormented by the memory of his fled girlfriend Lisa and begged by Solo to end its useless ‘life’, Jimi begins a search for people who can help him both to discover what happened to Lisa and to delete his game before it is released.”

cyberpunk movie Nirvana from 1997

The blog 100 Films in a Year fills in a little more detail about the mysterious Solo:

“[W]e get to witness Solo’s experiences inside the game, frequently dying and re-living the same story with a group of characters who aren’t aware in the way he is. To be blunt, the in-game stuff is a bit odd. It doesn’t really go anywhere, and builds to a lacklustre climax — indeed, the word climax is a bit strong. But perhaps this is part of the point: as the only character in the game capable of independent thought, Solo is stuck in a loop of story and fellow characters who just re-enact what they were programmed to re-enact. Literally, he can’t go anywhere.”

Nirvana, 1997 cyberpunk movie

The Film Connoisseur gives the film 3.5 stars and opines:

“The thing about sci-fi films is that if you don’t have the budget to create a fictional world convincingly, it always shows. In the case of Nirvana, its budgetary restraints are evident in the cramped sets and small in scope story, but you can still see that the filmmakers tried their best to offer us interesting visuals in spite of their low budget. […] I love how low budget productions can force filmmakers to play with ideas and push the envelope and in that respect, I thought Nirvana did well. It has many ideas that help establish the futuristic elements.”

Nirvana, 1997 cyberpunk movie

And lastly, g33k-e says that despite drawing heavy inspiration from William Gibson’s Neuromancer

“Nirvana manages to remain distinct and unique in its execution of the central plot, as it deals with themes like the concept of artificial intelligences developing sentience, and the idea of immortality as a simple data construct.”

That’s how you review a movie that you haven’t watched — by assembling the best quotes from other people’s reviews!

Cyberpunk Anime: A Comprehensive List of Everything

This is a huge list of every cyberpunk anime that I could find recommended on the web. I compiled all the suggestions from blog posts, forum discussions, and so on. The list includes the usual suspects — Bubblegum CrisisErgo ProxyPsycho-Pass — but also a lot of fringe titles that you won’t find on top-ten lists.

I did eliminate some suggestions because they weren’t quite anime enough (A Scanner Darkly) or diverged from the genre too much (mecha series like Armored Trooper VOTOMS) but you are free to contest my decisions in the comments or via email. There is a list of omissions at the end. Without any further ado…

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26 Cyberpunk Gadgets Recommended by Reddit

Reddit user MentalRental asked /r/Cyberpunk what tech would be included in a modern-day version of the “R.U. a Cyberpunk?” magazine page. People suggested lots of cyberpunk gadgets, a few of which I didn’t know existed. Here’s a condensed list of the answers that various commenters threw into the ring — I tried to minimize redundancy and limit the list to portable devices:

More suggestions of cyberpunk gadgets can be found in the original Reddit thread.

The “Dot Hack” Anime

The .hack series sprawls confusingly through at least three forms of media, including video games and manga books. Here I just included the anime, which was more than enough.

.HACK//SIGN

.hack//Sign cyberpunk anime

“Tsukasa wakes up inside The World, a massive online role-playing game full of magic and monsters, and finds himself unable to log out. With no knowledge of what’s happening in the real world, Tsukasa must discover how he ended up stuck in the game, and what connection he has with the fabled Key of the Twilight — an item that’s rumored to grant ultimate control over the digital realm.” — Funimation

.hack//Legend of the Twilight

.hack//Legend of the Twilight anime

“Rena wins a limited edition character model contest for The World and invites her twin brother Shugo to play the legendary character Kite while she plays as the legendary BlackRose. On their first outing together, Shugo is killed by a monster, but is revived by a mysterious girl named Aura. As well as reviving Shugo, Aura gives him a mysterious bracelet. Shugo and Rena continue to play ‘The World’ and find many warped monsters.” — Wikipedia

.hack//Liminality

.hack//Liminality anime

.hack//Liminality is an OVA series directly related to the .hack video game series for the PlayStation 2, with the perspective of Liminality focused on the real world as opposed to the games’ MMORPG The World.” — Wikipedia

Couldn’t find much else about this one, but the Wikipedia page and the .hack Wiki page have varying amounts of information about the plot and how this title fits into the overall .hack universe.

.hack//Roots

.hack//Roots cyberpunk anime

“In the newest version of the massive online RPG know as ‘The World,’ Haseo and his guild mates search for a legendary item called the Key of the Twilight—but they’re not the only ones looking for it. When a rival guild faces off against Haseo and his teammates, the conflict has deep repercussions both inside and outside the game, and threatens to leave the players forever changed.” — Funimation

.hack//G.U. Trilogy

.hack//GU Trilogy anime

“After one of his friends falls into a coma playing an online game called The World, Haseo logs in to find the man responsible. But before he can unravel The World’s many mysteries, he’ll have to awaken the secret power hidden in the code of his character.” — Amazon

The next part is .hack//G.U. Returner; there is more information on MyAnimeList and the .hack Wiki.

.hack//Quantum

.hack//Quantum anime

“Tobias, Mary, and Sakuya are into the The World. Together, they grind toward the break of day and run dungeons in search of the artifacts of adventure. But when the trio becomes lost in this virtual labyrinth, their lives will change forever.” — Amazon

.hack//The Movie (Sekai No Mukou Ni)

.hack Sekai No Mukou Ni

“In 2024, the computer network prevails throughout daily life. Sora Yuuki is a 14-year-old girl. One day, she is invited to an online game ‘The World’. After an accident in the game, the real world begins to deform.” — MyAnimeList

“But not all is well in The World: a malicious virus has been spreading around the net and will soon cause a new network crisis. Aura, the omnipotent goddess of The World has devised a plan to stop the virus, and although Sora might not know it yet that plan requires her cooperation.” — .hack Wiki

Sekai No Mukou Ni reportedly also includes an OVA short called Thanatos Report.

A Cyberpunk Logo or Several

The greatest cyberpunk logo is, I would argue, the Laughing Man icon from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex:

Cyberpunk logo: Laughing Man interpretation by thooley.

Laughing Man interpretation by thooley.

The hacker gleefully teasing his staid corporate victims with a symbol of youth culture: perfect. And I’ll have you know that my opinion is backed up by a random Reddit comment from two years ago! The ultimate measure of legitimacy! (Just kidding, of course.)

Cyberpunk Logo Origins

The Laughing Man’s emblem is particularly potent because of the quality of the series it comes from. But the wider world of cyberpunk media yields equally great graphic design — and occasionally tech companies accidentally (or intentionally?) mimic the aesthetic. Marco Ricchi has put together a compelling roundup of both types of images on Pinterest.

CD Projekt RED, the video game studio behind The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, has a dope logo, which marries the medieval arcana and dark futurism of its two landmark titles:

CD Projekt RED logo by, unsurprisingly, CD Projekt RED, makers of the The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077.

CD Projekt RED logo.

Cyberpunk 2077 itself, eagerly awaited by fans of the genre, sports an unabashedly ’80s-feeling neon splash:

Cyberpunk 2077 game logo.

Cyberpunk 2077 game logo.

Across the web many independent artists have drawn cyberpunk logos for companies from beloved media series, or logos that express the artists’ own imaginations; Redbubble lists a variety of these, as does DeviantArt.

Cyberpunk logo by Overdrive Graphics.

Cyberpunk logo by Overdrive Graphics.

Unexpected Gifts

Sometimes a stimulating cyberpunk logo slips into an otherwise straight-laced film (comparatively speaking). Initech is the white-collar hellscape from Office Space, and it has appropriately “software modernist” branding:

An unexpectedly cyberpunk logo: Initech, the white-collar hellscape from Office Space. Graphic cribbed from Alex Bigman on 99designs.

Image cribbed from Alex Bigman on 99designs.

Cyberpunk Logo Principles

I think these are the elements that unite various different cyberpunk logos:

  1. Visuals that evoke technology, especially computers or bioengineering.
  2. Either antiauthoritarian or hyper-corporate connotations.

It’s messy, though — questions of aesthetics are always messy. In the cyberpunk Facebook group that I occasionally frequent, people constantly argue about whether this or that “counts” as cyberpunk, and when writing the Exolymph newsletter I often must ask that question myself. Luckily I put together a list a while ago 😉 We must always return to the phrase “high tech meets low life” — it expresses the core of cyberpunk so neatly.


Commenters on Facebook contributed more awesome cyberpunk logo examples.

Futuristic Furniture: Examples from Two Sci-Fi Movies

What does futuristic furniture look like? It depends on when you’re asking. The aesthetic we imagine for the future shifts depending on the decade defining it. For instance, the interior of the space shuttle in 2001: A Space Odyssey looks quaint in retrospect, but felt cutting-edge at the time.

Futuristic furniture: sleek white floors and ceilings, contrasting with scarlet Koonsian chairs in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Sleek white floors and ceilings, offset by scarlet Koonsian chairs, in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

And yet we’ve held onto some of the trends that preoccupied the design futurists of the late 1960s — stark colors (or absence thereof), shiny opaque surfaces, and an ineffable sense of mystery are all still crucial. In fact, we haven’t moved very far from modernist forms; the computer screens were updated, but not their surroundings. In general, the surfaces are simple, and the shapes are either rounded or defined by plain rectangular angles.

Observe this set of ascetic end tables built by Patrick Cain Designs, which are explicit evocations of modernist style, and which wouldn’t feel out of place in a venture capitalist’s office:

Two powder-coated white end tables, examples of futuristic furniture, by Patrick Cain Designs.

Two powder-coated white end tables by Patrick Cain Designs.

Or this much more intricate end table that plays with interlocking patterns while restricting itself to right angles:

Black-painted steel end table with a glass top, sold by Etsy shop ObjectOfBeauty.

Black-painted steel end table with a glass top, sold by Etsy shop ObjectOfBeauty.

The vendor writes of the latter table:

“The overall style is very reminiscent of Paul Evan’s metal furniture creations as well as Harry Bertoia’s metal sculptures. The design includes a brutalist style decorative detail also representative of the period and the aesthetics of the aforementioned artists — three gold tone, textured discs (appear to be gold leaf plated).”

And yet this clean, intellectual vision of the future is artificially limited, only addressing the conditions of a digitized technocracy, and even then only depicting the upper classes. Another vision of futuristic furniture and next-century decor significantly differs from this pattern. The post-apocalyptic movie Snowpiercer imagines a stratified aesthetic stack — gritty, Dickensian slum conditions for the proles versus baroque, almost steampunk lushness for the rich.

Where the poor people live in the dystopian movie Snowpiercer -- a different take on futuristic furniture.

Where the poor people live in the dystopian movie Snowpiercer — a different take on futuristic furniture.

The desk of the teacher who raises well-off children in Snowpiercer.

The desk of the teacher who raises well-off children in Snowpiercer.

The bourgeoisie paradise in Snowpiercer.

The bourgeois tea-party paradise in Snowpiercer.

However, Snowpiercer‘s depiction of ultimate power recalls the tunnels and sleekness of 2001: A Space Odyssey, albeit with more embellishments:

The control center in Snowpiercer.

The control center in Snowpiercer.

Perhaps futuristic-ness — futuristicality? — doesn’t so much depend on visual specifics as it does on the political and technological context. Which has been my thesis about cyberpunk all along…

Cyberpunk Librarian: Podcast & Research Paper

Cyberpunk Librarian is a podcast with the tagline “High tech, low budget”. You can listen on the official website, on YouTube, or via iTunes, where it is classified as “Software How-To”. The podcast’s creator is Daniel Messer, a technologist who works for the Maricopa County Library District in Phoenix, Arizona. He describes himself as an internet fiend:

“While some people log in, do their online stuff, and then log off, I pretty much stay online twenty-four hours a day. Sure, I sleep just like everyone else, the biggest difference is that I’m sleeping next to a tablet computer, smart phone, and occasionally a laptop computer — all of which are jacked into the Internet.”

Both at work and recreationally, Messer is a fan of open-source software. As he writes, “open source is accountable to, and partially owned by, a community, which makes it very similar to a library.”

Daniel Messer, the cyberpunk librarian himself.

Daniel Messer, the cyberpunk librarian himself.

Messer used to blog at the website Not All Bits, but in January, 2012 he moved to a self-hosted instance of WordPress (linked above). He can also be followed on Twitter, and has written three books:

The other thing that comes up when you Google “cyberpunk librarian” is a research paper called “Enter the cyberpunk librarian: Future directions in Cyberspace” by Jonathan Willson. You can’t easily access the full text online, but according to ERIC:

“This article describes the properties and culture of the electronic frontier, discusses the social impact of cyberspace, examines the role of libraries and librarians in the future. Argues that librarians can help shape a vision of cyberspace that benefits society by providing fair and equitable distribution of information resources.”

ResearchGate has another, slightly different description.

Cyberpunk librarian photo by Cindi on Flickr.

Perhaps another sort of cyberpunk librarian… Photo by Cindi.

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