REANIMATING CYBERPUNK IN THE 21ST CENTURY FASHION:

MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN

“…I felt that I was trying to describe an unthinkable present and I actually feel that science fiction’s best use today is the exploration of contemporary reality rather than any attempt to predict where we are going…The best thing you can do with science today is use it to explore the present. Earth is the alien planet now”.

William Gibson

The cyberpunk 123 movement still has a pulse in the 21st century artistic expressions; despite believes that this concept had died in the fin de siècle of the 20th century. It has an emblematic meaning for transcending into an entity of higher integrity, a way to escape the human body through technological traits. By way of evolving of the criteria for the ‘ideal’ representations of the body in the 21st century fashion, the need for re-evaluation of the penetration of cyberpunk arises. The dissemination of cyber technology into the social and fashion field is more visible, primarily by means of ‘stitching’ a new ameliorated virtual body that would be appropriate for the ‘augmented reality’ that we currently live in.Defining ‘cyber’ aesthetics in the 21st century pre-supposes a renewed integration and interpretation of cyberpunk as movement that symbolizes the modification of the body through technology, the provoked raw human emotions as well as understanding of the contemporary modes of communication. The story of 21st century fashion is another feature that portrays the human desire to overcome the limits of the body, by designing clothes for ‘new’ bodies and bodies for ‘new’ clothes. The classic garment is a range of wearable technologies and interface: no longer just a means of seduction, but ‘furniture body’. With collections featuring deconstructed suits and dresses that acknowledge the effect of ‘Tron’4 alike beings, the hints of the cyberpunk influence are evident in the collections of Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh, Rick Owens, Haider Ackermann, Ann Demeulemeester, Christopher Kane, Helmut Lang, Versace, and Alexander Wang. In blurring the dividing line between the natural and the artificial, cyberpunk also triggers the question of alteration of the human body due to 21st century technological advancements in the fashion photography of Steven Klein, Mert & Marcus, Nick Knight and Steven Meisel.Technology does not erase the body’s materiality; the physical body is not removed from the picture. Rather, it problematizes it by “underscoring its involvement with virtual phenomena: simulated bodies, synthetic organisms and personality constructs”5. The process of ‘technologization‘ of the body is increasingly depicted in the last few years, it has been able not only to approach the human body, but even to penetrate it, which resulted in creating body modifications, that are another

1 According to Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature (1995), cyberpunk is defined as: “A science-fiction subgenre comprising works characterized by countercultural antiheroes trapped in a dehumanized, high-tech future.”2 SF writer Bruce Sterling defined the movement in 1986, in the preface to Mirror-shades: The Cyberpunk Anthology: Suddenly a new alliance is becoming evident: an integration of technology and the Eighties counterculture. An unholy alliance of the technical world and the world of organized dissent – the underground world of pop culture, visionary fluidity, and street-level anarchy. Bruce Sterling, Mirror-shades: The Cyberpunk Anthology, (Berkley: Ace Books, 1988), xii-xiii.3 Behind the hyperbole, cyber suggests cyborg and cybernetics and the increasing presence of computers in our lives, while punk is an attempt to identify this new writing in terms of its edge and texture. Constance Penley, Technocultures (University of Minnesota Press, 1991), 296. 4 Tron is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Wald Disney Pictures. The costumes were characteristic neon light suits.5 Dani Cavallaro, Cyberpunk & Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson (London: Athenaeum Press, Ltd., 2000), 83.

attribute of the cyberpunks, that existed as fictional characters on films and novels even three decades ago. Fashion in that time was enriched by the right to wear hybridization and electronics that shaped smooth appearance of the body, which implied a seductive fascination with technology.Film scholars and cultural theorists elaborated ideas related to the body, the city and technology represented in cyberpunk novels and films that attain ‘milieu’ in the neo-noir genre. In relation to this, Zizek underlined the need for a “refined philosophical and psychoanalytical conceptual distinctions”6 in the analyses of cyberpunk. Regardless of the in-depth analyses of the cyber space and the cyber characters in the epic sci-fi movies, such as Blade Runner and Matrix, as well as the cyber setting in the pivotal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer; the articulated tensions between human and machine opened space for abjection of the corporeal that resulted in serious analyses within gender studies, but the study of cyberpunk has been overlooked within the fashion field.The 1980’s and 1990’s fashion that was labelled as cyberpunk was either related to punk rebelliousness (Vivienne Westwood’s 1983 Nostalgia map collection) or to futuristic expression of the ‘utopian’ cyber world (Thierry Mugler, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto). In addition to this, mediations between the varying discourses of cultural and social theory, science, and the tropes and images of science fiction, translating theoretical, cultural and narrative models of the ‘post-human’ into performative parameters of corporeal actualization should open new perspectives for filling the void in understanding the meaning of cyberpunk for the 21st century fashion representations. The flow of images these days, are proof of the way we inscribe our bodies and narrate our identities, due to the high technology that now includes cyberspace, information technology, virtual imagining, virtual reality, and biomedical methods of body reconstruction. Ultimately the post-human body in the post-modern environment is the core with which we map our relation to others and tell ourselves our own stories, as Poster argues “in an increasing hyper-anesthetized everyday life it is through various fictions that we endeavor to come to know ourselves” 7. The struggle to establish identity in the ‘Tomorrowland’ opens the question of the virtual body as a more powerful counterpart of the human body.

6 Slavoj Zizek, The Matrix: The Two Sides of Pervesion. Inside the Matrix: International Symposium at the Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, 1999.7 Mark Poster, Postmodern Virtualities in Mike Featherstone and Roger Burrows (eds.) / Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk: Cultures of Technological Embodiment. (Sage Publicatiions Ltd. 1993), 13.

Cyberpunk in Movies

LOS ANGELES, NOVEMBER, 2019

I’ve... seen things you people wouldn’t believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost

in time, like [small cough] tears... in... rain. Time to die...

Tears in Rain monologue by the replicant Roy Batty, Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner (1982)

Replicants are like any other machine. They’re either a benefit or a hazard.

DeckardBlade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner (1982) The Matrix (1999); The Matrix Reloaded (2003); The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen,

teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand,

most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that

they will fight to protect it.

Morpheus The Matrix (1999)

The thing about perfection is that it’s unknowable. It’s impossible, but it’s

also right in front of us all the time. You wouldn’t know that

because I didn’t when I created you. I’m sorry, Clu. I’m sorry...

Kevin FlynnTron: Legacy (2010)

Everything you do or learn will be imprinted on this disc. If you lose your disc, or fail to follow commands, you will be subject to immediate de-resolution. That will be all.

SarkTron (1982)

Tron (1982); Tron: Legacy (2010)

As a girl, she was a legal prey, especially if she was dressed in a worn black leather jacket and had pierced eyebrows, tattoos, and zero social

status.

Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

It is estimated that the human beings only use 10% of the brains capacity. Imagine if we could

access 100%. Interesting things begin to happen. All this knowledge…you can unlock secrets that go beyond our universe. I’m not even sure that

mankind is ready for that.

Professor NormanLucy (2014)

It’s like all things that make me human are fad-ing away…

LucyLucy (2014)

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011); Lucy (2014)

Cyberpunk Cityscapes

Shibuya Tokyo

Cityscapes have been influenced by cyberpunk, the representations of vertical urban life and sci-fi scenarios from 20th century science fiction literature have become a key inspiration in

contemporary urban settings.Cyberpunk as a subgenre of science fiction developed in the 1980s and 1990s is closely linked with the metropolitan urban life. The cyberpunk philosophy read in the important cyberpunk

novels generates the ideas of formal urban theory, such as the idea of global cities, cities as communication systems.

Architecture elements, Shanghai

Burj Khalifa, Dubai

Sony Center, Berlin

Miami Bridge, Miami

Financial Center, Frankfurt

Shinjuku, Tokyo Radio City Hall, New York

Nathan Road, Hong Kong

Cyberpunk in Fashion

“Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body.”

Lawrence Person

The 1980’s and 1990’s fashion that was labelled as cyberpunk was either related to punk rebelliousness (Vivienne Westwood’s 1983 Nostalgia map collection) or to futuristic expression of the ‘utopian’ cyber world (Thierry Mugler, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto).

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Cyberpunk fashion 80s & 90s

1. Alexander Mcqueen for Givenchy fall collection 1999 2. Alexander Mcqueen A/W 1999-20003. Thierry Mugler, photo by Helmut Newton, Monte Carlo, 1998 4. Yohji Yamamoto, Vogue France, December 19885. Vivienne Westwood Punkature collection S/S 19836. Koji Tatsuno, A/W 1993-1994

7. Yohji Yamamoto, photo by Nick Knight, A/W 1988/1989 8. Thierry Mugler, Les Insectes Couture Collection, S/S 19979. Thierry Mugler, Bridesmaids, fall 1995 couture details10. Thierry Mugler, photo by Irving Penn, 80s11. Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcons, 80s12. Rei Kawakubo, A/W 1990

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Cyberpunk fashion 00s

The story of 21st century fashion is another feature that portrays the human desire to overcome the limits of the body, by designing clothes for ‘new’ bodies and bodies for ‘new’ clothes. With collections featuring deconstructed suits and dresses that acknowledge the effect of ‘Tron’ alike beings, the hints of the cyberpunk influence are evident in the collections of Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh, Rick Owens, Haider Ackermann, Ann Demeulemeester,Christopher Kane, Helmut Lang, Versace and Alexander Wang.

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1. Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garcons, Fall 20082. Ann Demeulemeester, A/W 20123. Fall 2012 runway looks from left to right: Chanel, Ann Demeulemeester, Christopher Kane, Fendi.4. Fall 2012 runway looks from left to right: Haider Acker-mann, Gareth Pugh, Versace, Vivienne Westwood.5. Gareth Pugh, Metalic Organism

6. Haider Ackermann, photo by Tim Walker, 20127. Versace men A/W 2010 -118. Alexander McQueen F/W 20119. Rick Owens A/W 2014-201510. Rick Owens A/W 2014 - 201511. Gareth Pugh A/W 201112. Haider Ackermann A/W 2008-2009

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Cyberpunk in fashion photography

In blurring the dividing line between the natural and the artificial, cyberpunk also triggers the question of alteration of the human body due to 21st century technological advancements in the fashion photography of Steven Klein, Mert & Marcus, Nick Knight and Steven Meisel.

1. Metal Headz. Photography Mert & Marcus. Stylist Karl Templer 2. Yohji Yamamoto campaign A/W 1999. Photography by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin3. Steven Klein. American Vogue. 2012 4. Raquel Zimmerman. Photography by Steven Meisel Vogue Italia, November 2011 5. Nick Knight. British Vogue 2011

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“For cyberpunks technologies is inside, not outside, the personal body and mind Itself”.

Darko Suvin

1. Paola Mirai bracelet2. Benjamin Shun shoes3. Gareth Pugh jacket4. The Light Glasses5. Rick Owens bracelet 6. Niels Astrup, Touch Skin OLED watch 7. Gareth Pugh pants

Cyberpunk elements

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“Cyberpunk emphasizes the pockets of invisibility that fold and unfold within the visible. Indeed, the matrix itself is not only a siteless site – ‘There is no there, there’

– but also a sightless sight: a fog of visions endlessly receding towards the black infinity of spaces between mirrors”.

Dani Cavallaro

References:Cavallaro, Dani. Cyberpunk & Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson. London: Athenaeum Press, Ltd., 2000.Calefato, Patrizia. The Clothed Body: (Dress, Body, Culture). London: Berg Publishers, 2004. Featherston, Mike. Body Modification. Nottingham Trent University Press. 2000. Haraway, Donna J. Simians, Cyborg, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. Shinke, E. Fashion as Photograph: Viewing and Reviewing Images of Fashion. New York: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd., 2008.

Online sources:http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/vivienne-westwood-designs/http://singularityco.tumblr.com/post/31738130793/heroine-chic-the-season-of-sci-fi-fashionhttp://www.patternindy.com/2012/05/30/fall-2012-trend-report-blade-runner-babeshttp://moesucks.com/2011/07/06/defining-cyberpunk-and-steinsgate/http://silverscreenmodes.com/?p=211https://images.google.com/

by Kristina Gligorovska