The Consumptive Significance of Images and Interface Values in Cyberpunk Cities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.10.15Keywords:
cyberpunk, the City, image, interface, novum, capsuleAbstract
Cyberpunk is one of the latest genres in the development of science fiction. The genre emerged during the 80s and 90s, and in it the characters are confronted by an abundance of images and interface values. As a result, these images and values have become key identifying motifs of this genre. Referring to the theoretical conceptualizations of Adam Roberts about novum, and Lieven De Cauter on capsules and capsulization, the present study argues that the reason for the abundance of images and interface values is due to their facilitation of the consumption of novelties in cyberpunk cities. Within a scientific and rational discourse, images and interface values combine familiar and unfamiliar concepts and package them both as convenient commodities to be consumed by the characters of cyberpunk fiction. One of the key outcomes of such a combination, the study argues, is that the characters of cyberpunk fiction rely on the consumption of images and interface values as a convenient means to handle the overwhelming presence of technological and cybernetic advancements in the represented cities. This outcome turns the need to see and consume the cyberpunk world through images and interface values into an ideological necessity—or what can also be called a defense mechanism—for the characters against the technological shock of cybernetic advancements; a necessity whose qualities will be discussed in the study, as well.
Downloads
References
Davis, Mike. “Fortless L.A.” The City Reader. Ed. Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout. London: Routledge, 1996. 193–98. Print.
Google Scholar
De Cauter, Lieven. “The Capsule and the Network: Notes Towards a General Theory.” The Cybercities Reader. Ed. Steve Graham. London: Routledge, 2004. 94–97. Print.
Google Scholar
Eck, Diana. “What is Pluralism?” Pluralism.org. The Pluralism Project 2006. Web. Feb. 2019.
Google Scholar
Featherstone, Mike. Cyberspace, Cyberbodies and Cyberpunk. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1995. Print.
Google Scholar
Gibson, William. All Tomorrow’s Parties. New York: Viking, 1999. Print.
Google Scholar
Gibson, William. Idoru. New York: Viking, 1996. Print.
Google Scholar
Gibson, William. Virtual Light. New York: Viking, 1993. Print.
Google Scholar
Hollinger, Veronica. “Retrofitting Frankenstein.” Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. Ed. Graham J. Murphy and Sherryl Vint. New York: Routledge, 2010. 191–210. Print.
Google Scholar
Hubbard, Phil. City. London: Routledge, 2006. Print. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203392256
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203392256
Jameson, Fredrick. Postmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke UP, 1991. Print. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822378419
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822378419
Lyon, David. Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life. London: Open UP, 2001. Print.
Google Scholar
Lyon, David. The Electronic Eye: The Rise of Surveillance Society. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1994. Print.
Google Scholar
Mitchell, William J. City of Bits. Cambridge: MIT, 1995. Print.
Google Scholar
Mitchell, William J. Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City. Cambridge: MIT, 2003. Print. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/4512.001.0001
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/4512.001.0001
Morgan, Richard. Altered Carbon. London: Orion, 2002. Print.
Google Scholar
Moylan, Tom. “Global Economy, Local Text: Utopian/Dystopian Tension in William Gibson’s Cyberpunk Trilogy.” Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. Ed. Graham J. Murphy and Sherryl Vint. New York: Routledge, 2010. 81–94. Print.
Google Scholar
Roberts, Adam. Science Fiction. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Google Scholar
Sterling, Bruce. Island in the Net. Michigan: Arbor, 1988. Print.
Google Scholar
Sterling, Bruce. Schismatrix Plus. New York: ACE, 1996.
Google Scholar
Tatsumi, Takayuki. Full Metal Apache: Transactions Between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop America. Durham: Duke UP, 2006. Print. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388012
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11sn76g
Vint, Sherryl. “The Mainstream Finds its Own Uses for Things: Cyberpunk and Commodification.” Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. Ed. Graham J. Murphy and Sherryl Vint. New York: Routledge, 2010. 95–115. Print.
Google Scholar
Warren, Robert, et al. “The Future of the Future in Planning: Appropriating Cyberpunk Visions of the City.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 18 (1998): 49–60. Print. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X9801800105
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X9801800105
Youngquist, Paul. Cyberfiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106215
Google Scholar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106215
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.