Assignment: Cyberpunk and Cinema

Cyberpunk is a genre of storytelling that has directly influenced the face of cinema. Its’ power to compel audiences continues and thrives in today’s communication technology dependent culture. Although the images presented in Cyberpunk depict a science-fiction based reality, there is a direct link to our own reality. Our modern society continues to be so immersed in technology that the realities presented in Cyberpunk, despite their fictional properties, could easily become the world we will inhabit in the future. The cyberpunk genre centers upon the relationship of humanity to technology. Its significance is that cyberpunk literature and film creates anticipatory fictions which are based upon existing and upcoming technologies.

William Gibson, born in 1948, is widely acknowledged as the ‘father’ of Cyberpunk (Weir, 2003). He had his short stories published in the early 1980s and then moved onto writing novels, with one of his most influential works being Neuromancer, published in 1984, which is considered a landmark of the Cyberpunk Literary Genre (‘Cyberpunk’, 15/05/08). Gibson, who coined ideas such as "Cyberspace", allowed for the mainstream acceptance or cyberpunk as a legitimate mainstream genre (Weir, 2003).

As best surmised by Hafner & Markoff, ‘Cyberpunk revolves around high-tech rebels that live in a dystopian future, in a world dominated by technology and beset by urban decay and overpopulation. It’s a world defined by infinitely powerful computers and networks that create alternative universes filled with electronic demons. Interlopers travel through these computer-generated landscapes and some of them make their living by buying, selling and stealing information, with information being the currency of a computerised future (1995, p.9).’

Cyberpunk can be simplified to the struggle between man and technology for the control and manipulation of information. As Gibson himself puts it, we are ‘rushing headlong towards some unthinkable degree of interactivity, of connectivity, of the speed and breadth and depth of information’ (Gibson, 1994, p.278). The fear examined and defined in cyberpunk is based on our dependency on technology and is forecast as our downfall (‘William Gibson Biography’, 22/05/08). Our personal connections and interactions crumble and fall by the wayside because of our reliance on technology. Gibson ‘exploits our fear of and fascination with the modern world, especially its enthrallment to the personal computer and the ‘freedoms’ of ‘cyberspace.’ (Bennie, 2007). Cyberpunk literature is unfairly grouped in science-fiction because of its seemingly fantastical elements. However, because Cyberpunk ‘not only deals with possible, not just the probable, but technology that man already has (Walchak, 1993), there exists a reality-based fear that is expressed in cyberpunk literature and motion pictures.

Cyberpunk was born from the need to rebel against the rise in reliance on technology. Cyberpunk stories serve as cautionary tales for technology based communities and ‘increasingly prophetic of the way the world is changing’ (‘What is Blade Runner?’, 12/05/08) Cyberpunk presents stories of individuals or groups that try to revolt against the status quo present in the current society, to undermine the authority that exudes its power over the people. The authority is either in the form of technology itself or multi-national corporations’ control over technology, like in the film Blade Runner (Scott, 1982).

Visual presentations of Cyberpunk themes were inevitable. Cyberpunk Cinema has been forged from earlier works of science fiction and cyberpunk literature but in turn helped to redefine and influence Cyberpunk literature. William Gibson once said about the film Blade Runner,

‘About ten minutes into Blade Runner, I reeled out of the theater in complete despair over its visual brilliance and its similarity to the "look" of Neuromancer, my [then] largely unwritten first novel. Not only had I been beaten to the semiotic punch, but this damned movie looked better than the images in my head! With time, as I got over that, I started to take a certain delight in the way the film began to affect the way the world looked. Club fashions, at first, then rock videos, finally even architecture. Amazing! A science fiction movie affecting reality!’ (Loud, 1992)

This cements the argument that the most succinct and demonstrative example of Cyberpunk in Cinema is in fact Blade Runner, made in 1982 (Scott, 1982). Blade Runner was adapted from a novel by Phillip K Dick titled ‘Do androids dream of electric sheep’, which was published in 1968 (Dick, 1968). After being shown some preliminary footage of the film version of his book, Dick said: ‘This is not like anything we have ever seen…. It isn’t like anything that has ever been done.’ (Spinard, 1990, p.64)) It depicted a dystopia where Globalised companies and technology have obtained control over society, and where the lines between man and machine have been blurred. Those who do not have the control are forced to live substandard existence in the relative slums. It has been stated that ‘Blade Runner cannot be understood without comprehending the deeply felt moral, philosophical, ecological and sociological concerns that are interwoven throughout the story’ (Whitehead, 2002), and therefore succeeds in representing the themes vital to Cyberpunk.

Motion pictures attempt to harness a movement of self reflection for society, to challenge how far technology has taken us and how further it will go in the future. As popular Cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling puts it, ‘Say goodbye to your stale old futures. Here is an entirely realized new world, intense as an electric shock.’ (’Cyberpunk’, 15/05/08). It challenges how humans relate to each other and with technology. Cyberpunk cinema gives the viewer an inescapable view of the perils of over-reliance on technology, and the removal of power that inherently comes from giving control of society over to technology.

It will always be a relevant sub-genre of story telling because the themes it represents are timeless. The connection between humanity and technology is becoming even more relevant topic with the emergence of and dependence on new communication technologies. Cinema is a vital component in the transfer of themes and ideas of Cyberpunk to a mainstream audience. Cyberpunk Cinema gives the audience an insight into the possibilities of our own future, in most cases a bleak and damned state of affairs. By having a visual presentation of the themes that exist in Cyberpunk, the viewer is able to fully grasp the possible consequences of a technology predominant existence.

Cyberpunk and Cinema Bibliography

Bennie, Angela (September 7 2007), A reality stranger than fiction, The Sydney Morning Herald.

‘Cyberpunk’, http://hem.passagen.se/replikant/cyberpunk.htm (Accessed 15/05/08).

Dick, Philip K (1968), Do androids dream of electric sheep, Ballantyne Books, New York.

Gibson, William (1994), Neuromancer, Ace Books, New York.

Hafner, K. & Markoff, J. (1995), Cyberpunk: outlaws and hackers on the computer frontier, Touchstone, New York.

Loud, Lance (October 1992), 10th anniversary of Blade Runner, Details magazine.

Scott, Ridley (Dir) (1982), Blade Runner (Motion Picture), The Blade Runner Partnership.

Spinard, Norman (1990), The Transmogrification of Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction in the Real World, Southern Illinois University Press.

Walchak, J. A (1993), Where the Street Finds Its Own Use for Things: Cyberpunk Fiction and the Philosophy of Technology. Humanities and Technology Conference, Atlanta.

Weir, Robert (2003), Text, Analysis of a Subculture Group: Cyberpunk http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/analysis_of_cyberpunk_subculture.html, (accessed 20/05/08).

‘What is Blade Runner?’, http://www.brmovie.com/What_is_BR.htm, (Accessed 12/05/08).

Whitehead, John (2002), Blade Runner: What it means to be humans in the cybernetic state, Gadfly online. http://www.gadflyonline.com/02-18-02/film-blade_runner.html, (Accessed 25/05/08).

‘William Gibson Biography’ (2007), http://www.antonraubenweiss.com/gibson/biography.html, (Accessed 22/05/08).

Topic Twelve: Electronic Civil Liberties

Lecture

This weeks lecture by Adam 'addressed' the whole issue of free software. It was basically him promoting Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Creative Commons, two organisations he is affiliated with. The EFF's tagline is "Protecting and promoting on-line civil liberties". It tries to protect and inform consumers of injustices in the online arena. Creative Commons is an interesting sounding idea. It sits somewhere between complete copyright and free source information. It allows an artist (music, film, visual artist) to have some control over how their works are distributed and shared amongst the public. It allows them to retain some control, but allows easier distribution and circulation to interested parties. We also were told about the emergence of more and more free software available to consumers. Software designers are creating products that either rival or surpass those created by electronic software giants. The main advantage with free software in the form of open source software is that it can be adapted and changed to suit your needs for it.

Tutorial

In this weeks tutorial allowed me to catch up on my blogs that I hadn't given enough attention, and most importantly to tweak my assignment to make sure all of the references were correct and up to standard. I did get to think about my personal electronic civil liberties, and also how I would feel if someone took my artistic property and circulated it without my permission, or altered it in a way that i wouldn't approve of. The idea of creative commons does have certain appeal though to get your work out into a public arena, allowing the work to gain recognition, which certainly is a good thing if that's your desired intent. I guess it would depend on whether you wanted the work to stay in designated circles or you wanted to get it out to the largest possible audience.

Topic Eleven: The Ethics of Peer-to-Peer Filesharing

Lecture

In this weeks lecture we we informed of the ethics of peer-to-peer filesharing, and the different points of view on the subject. Adam's point of view was that free peer-to-peer filesharing was immoral and lead to victims, in the guise of music execs and the artists themselves. Vast amounts of money has been spent by big business that makes its money from the control and distribution of artistic works, whether it be music, movies or copyrighted images and other material. The other side of the debate says that information, in any form, should be free to everyone.

Tutorial

In today's tutorial we further discussed the ethics attached to the debate over peer-to-peer filesharing, mostly focusing on the music and film industry. The problem is they base their distribution on old technologies and techniques. They have not evolved with the times, therefore they have fallen behind and new technologies have allowed for easier and quicker distribution of these entities. Now the music and movie industries have caught on, they wish to either destroy these means, or somehow make their cut from it. They are failing miserably, because consumers realise they no longer have to be dictated by what big business says. In most cases this behaviour is considered illegal, however the digital revolution is taking place, and big businesses will lose in the end. The masses have spoken, and they no longer wish to be controlled in regards to gaining and distributing their chosen media.

Readings

Week eleven’s readings consisted of an article named ‘When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide’. It serves as commentary on the fairly recent debate over illegal downloading of music. It comments about the state of affairs in the music industry of yester year, and how the music environment has changed because of the increase of illegal downloading. The article looks at both sides of the debate. One side, from the pro free music point of view is that the music is out there for free, thus we are entitled to it and we are not doing anything wrong by downloading it. The other side is a bit more complicated, in that it takes the view of the majority of the music industry and music artists and aficionados. This side believes that by illegally downloading music, the artist and the producers are missing out on their hard earned proceeds from their work. The author takes middle ground I guess, as he states that the music industry should have taken the idea of digitising their catalogues long ago, when the technology first presented itself. Consumers have shown their preference for digital media, as most young consumers have an ipod these days. The music industry needs to further adapt to the digital age, or it will become practically extinct because independent companies will swoop in to take advantage of the trend towards digital music, and away from traditional physical sale of music.

Topic Ten: Blade Runner

Lecture

We watched the film named Blade Runner, made in 1982. We watched it in its theatrical version. Over the last twenty five years there have been three or more different versions floating around, with my favourite being the 'Final Cut'. The version we watched included overly simple and irritating narration and a 'feel good' or positive ending, which differs from the ending in the 'Final Cut'. In that version there was a bleaker yet more realistic ending and the narration had been removed to add more mystery and ambiguousness. The movie followed on from our discussion on Cyberpunk and includes such themes as artificial intelligence, cities out of control and post-industrial dystopia dissected all contained in a film noir sensibility. We have a protagonist who is deeply conflicted and whos motivations come into question throughout the movie. His jobs consists of hunting down human looking android fugitives and 'retiring' them. He falls in love with one of these creations created by a large corporation, but the question remains if he is in fact a replicant himself.

Tutorial

Talking about Blade Runner directly relates to my chosen assignment of Cyberpunk and its effect on film. My research for the topic has ranged from the creation or emergence of cyberpunk and cyberpunk themes, cyberspace and Utopian/Dystopian ideas and ideals. My research will continue to gather more scope of the effects that this type of literature has on film. Blade Runner's influences can clearly be seen when compared with movies like Alphaville and Metropolis. It was however adapted from the book "Do androids dream of electric sheep?", but a few changes were made. The whole cyberpunk genre appeals to be because it can be acknowledged as an indicator of what will befall society if we rely too greatly on machines and technology. Sure technology can increase efficiency and productivity, which are two great advantages, but in some cases over reliance can result in detachment and segregation. I believe there must remain a balance between human elements and technology, and that face to face communication must always be the preferred option, however today's society limits this, and in fact encourages communication by technology means (i.e phones and internet). Cyberpunk themes foreshadow that this disconnection of face to face contact, and shows where this disconnection could possibly lead to.

Readings

The readings for the week consisted of an essay named 'An exploration of what it is to be human'. It discusses our interpretation of what being a human entails and focuses on the novel "Do androids dream of electric sheep?", that i mentioned earlier. It discusses the way humans and replicants in the book can be told apart by the Voight-Kampff machine. The machine uses technology that deciphers the difference between instinctive and stimulated responses. The essay comments on our growing lack of humanity in regards to people or things we don't understand and wish to control. The more control we wish to have, the less distinctive traits we are allowed to exhibit. The essay suggests that we judge and interpret people based on only what we already know about them, as opposed to what we can find out about them. It also brings up the point that one of Philip Dick's prevailing themes in his novel, that is, that empathy is what makes us human. By negating empathy we in turn start to lose our humanity.

Topic Nine: Cyberpunk

Lecture

Our main focus for the lecture was the different aspects of cyberpunk, from its foundations and clear definitions of the topic. There is a subsequent importance of the cyberpunk writer William Gibson. He was a writer who drew influences from other writers such as Phillip K Dick. There are common themes throughout these works such as hackers vs corporations (big business), artificial intelligence, cities out of control and and post-industrial dystopias. Cyberpunk themes can be grouped together into headings like 'Technology and Mythology', the difference between a Utopia and Dystopia, seeing Cities as Machines, Technological change in a society, and the difference from Modernism to Postmodernism. The cyberpunk tries to evaluate who has control or controls the switches in society. Is it corporations, the government or is it all self regulated by societal pressures.

After the discussion on cyberpunk, we watched the French New Wave film, La Jette. If followed the story of a man, who happened to be a prison inmate, who is sent back in time as an experiment. While in this time he falls in love, but in his heart of hearts realises that he cannot be with the woman because he it is not a natural state of being. The film consists of still images linked together with the aid of voiceover to form a narrative. There is only one frame that does have movement, which is when the female character looks lingeringly into the camera. This was a vital part of the film, where we the audience are made to feel what the male character is feeling in regards to the female character, his love and adoration of her.

Tutorial

We spent most of the tutorial discussing our assignment topics and how I was going to tackle the arguments I have chosen to delve into. My assignment will focus on why individuals chose to play a game such as 'Second Life'. I will include an introduction, that wont be too boring for those already familiar to the game. I'll talk about who made it and why, how the avatars in the game represent the users of the game, and in turn talk about why people chose to represent themselves in particular ways (i.e adding more hair, having bigger breasts, being trim and tall etc.) and why people can become addicted to playing the game and how it turns from playing the game to living the game. I'll sum up by commenting why people chose the game and how that affects their lives.

Readings

The first reading this week was the allegory of the cave by Plato. The main point that Plato addresses is that the majority of humankind can 'think, and speak, etc., without (so far as they acknowledge) any awareness of his realm of Forms'. In basic terms, humanity in the form of the general public, has an awareness of a 'reality', but only has the tools to identify it, but doesn't have the tools to step back to see whether reality actually exists or is just their interpretation of events that happen to them. In the allegory, the shadows on the wall represent the prisoners 'reality' and their reaction to that reality. The second reading was The Burning Chrome, which consisted of ten short stories by author William Gibson. This is the first book to coin the phrase "cyberspace", and would cement his name as the 'father' of Cyberpunk. This book and Gibson's other popular book Neuromancer persuaded me to delve into the Cyberpunk topic for my assignment, instead of the topic listed above. I put a fair bit of effort into the Second Life topic, but would rather focus on Cyberpunk and Cinema. Personally i love the connection of Cyberpunk literature and Cyberpunk cinema, or cinema that has been influenced by Cyberpunk, but doesn't necessarily fit exactly into that genre.