Still on mini-hiatus but I couldn’t resist sharing this moment of techno-zen with you. From Gizmodo:
“For the low price of $1000 a month, you could overcome your physical limitations with a HAL exoskeleton from Cyberdyne. While HAL prototypes have been around for a few years now, Cyberdyne has just begun building a lab that will mass produce 400-500 of the suits per year starting this October.
Using sensors attached to the skin, the suit supposedly moves effortlessly with your muscles and it has the capability of increasing your strength up to 10 times the norm. It also has a continuous operating time of about 2 hours and 40 minutes. As mentioned, the monthly rental fee has been set at $1000 which includes $300 for maintenance and upgrades. No word on whether or not they plan on selling these things outright, but I would be perfectly happy renting one and going all Hulk on my enemies for a month or so.”
Despite HAL’s lack of lasers and other such minor shortcomings I think I know what I’ll be doing for my next birthday. Can it fly?
Her cell phone is ringing, but the display is turned off. She lightly pushes a small dot on the skin on her left forearm to suddenly reveal a two by four inch tattoo with the image of the cell phone’s digital display, directly in the skin of her arm. She answers the call by pushing a tattooed button on her arm. While she’s talking, the tattoo comes to life as a digital video of the caller. When she finishes, the tattoo disappears.
Now imagine yourself sipping something exotic and maybe reading on a rooftop. Suddenly, the face of a dear friend [presently in Shanghai, for instance] emerges through the skin on your forearm. A long-overdue conversation begins. Not a bad prospect, mm?
Body modification may be a somewhat neglected topic here at Coilhouse, but every once in a while something truly unique catches our collective eye. Take this render of a blood-fueled subcutaneous cell phone implant, for instance. Revealed by Jim Mielke at Greener Gadgets Design Competition, this is not an actual phone with keypad, earpiece and mic, but rather a thin touchscreen - a silicon and silicone pad which runs on your very own fuel! Myriads of tiny spheres change from clear to black during calls and can be seen through your skin, digital video of the caller coming into view once a call begins.
Only a concept at the moment, this is a mod I’ll be signing up for just as the option is available, provided there is a way to turn the thing off. Via Psyorg.
Ah, Soviet socio-political satire, ah Russian dystopia. Could anything be greater than a combination of both, in movie format? Unlikely, says Kin Dza-Dza! - a minimal and clever sci-fi masterpiece from the ’80s. Written and directed by revered director Georgi Daneliya, this film from my early years was only allowed to see the light of day thanks to its creator’s reputation. The plot revolves around the story of two oddballs who accidentally teleport to the mysterious planet Pluk in the Kin Dza-Dza galaxy. Fiddler and Uncle Vova unwittingly activate a device belonging to a hobo who claims to be an alien, and the fun begins.
Pluk’s inhabitants are a strange bunch; far advanced in technology, though scarcely evolved socially, with command of only a 2-word vocabulary. They look exactly like humans, have the power of telepathy, yet use a tool that divides all being into two groups - superior and inferior. Uncle Vova and Fiddler have many interesting encounters in store, and much to overcome if they’re ever to make it home.
Kin Dza-Dza! is rich with [not entirely subtle] critique of Communism and the poignant bitter humor I expect from Soviet Era films along with crunchy puns, rust, dust, and a Mad Maxy landscape throughout. Steampunk costumes and gadgets make appearances and are actually utilized in a way that makes sense! It’s a shame this Russian cult favorite isn’t better known - I deem it worthy of the pickiest sci-fi fans, provided they can get past the complete lack of any special effects.
Artist Soomi Park from Seoul has created a set of LED eyelashes that light up in the dark. In an interview with We Make Money Not Art, Park describes the motivation behind her design:
I tried to project Korean’s obsession to big eyes, and how this fetishism is interpreted into excessive plastic surgery done on the eyes among Korean women. I really thought the obsession with big eyes can be represented through media design, because both yearning for bigger eyes and projecting the look through lights can be done by distorting the representation and creating new images. The LED Eyelashes have a mercury sensor that controls the light on the face. When wearing the LED eyelashes, you look embellished as if you were wearing a piece of fashion jewelry.
Politicized wearable art that invokes cybernetic technology? Marry me! In truth, you had me at “light-up lashes.” Read the article for more about the eyelashes and about Park’s compelling Digital Veil projet. The article mistakenly refers to Soomi as a boy, but she corrects the misconception in the comments. The interview is excellent nonetheless.
Sorayama and Mac. Two great tastes that taste great together! Before you get too excited, these aren’t actual ads, just some design concepts like by Leif Olson - you can see the rest here. But how awesome would it be? Especially if all the ads were directed by Chris Cunningham, in the same style as this video? If I saw that, I bet even I would buy a Mac (full discloure: almost every friend I have, including the Coil-staff, loves the Mac. I love the PC. Too much Oregon Trail in elementary school).
Degenerotika Clothing is a new alt fashion label by Slovenian artist/videographer/designer Tea Bauer. The clothing is gothic for sure, but there’s nothing pensive or frou-frou about it: the sharp, angular, textured garments look like they’re designed for dangerous people, people with unnatural reflexes and ambiguous morals. I can see Aeon Flux wearing this for a violent date with Trevor Goodchild, or Molly Millions donning this for a rare night out dancing on the Killing Floor.
The Degenerotika portfolio can be here, and I’ve included my favorite pieces after the jump. I’ll admit that some of the pieces are hit-or-miss for me, but when it’s a hit, it’s a stab straight to the heart. Tea has a clear voice and a unique perspective on alternative fashion. Definitely one to watch.
The last issue of Mondo 2000, featuring Nina Hagen on the cover.
I’m obsessed with dead magazines, especially ones that crossed over into the mainstream. The history of such magazines often sounds like a VH-1 Behind the Music special; first the group’s idealistic creation rises to fame on account of its originality, then comes the inevitable collapse due to in-fighting under the conflicting pressures of appeasing a wider audience, a set of advertisers and the project’s own artistic aims. More often then not, the problem is simply that such a magazine is way ahead of its time. This was the case with Mondo 2000, yet I’m grateful that it existed precisely when it did.
So, what made Mondo 2000 so special? It was, in my opinion, the best alternative culture magazine that America ever had. They wrote about smart drugs, brain implants, virtual reality, cyberpunk, Cthulhupunk and cryogenics. They covered Laibach and Lydia Lunch in the same issue. The pantheon of writers was a force to be reckoned with: Bruce Sterling, Robert Anton Wilson, and William Gibson all lent their talents, and there was even a Burroughs vs. Leary interview face-off. Then there was the famous U2-Negativland interview, in which Negativland, disguised as reporters, interviewed U2 into a corner to reveal the band’s hypocrisy over their lawsuit against Negativland over sampling. All in all, the magazine took risks. “The good dream for me and Mondo,” said editor R.U. Sirius in an interview with Purple Prose, “is overcoming the limits of biology without necessarily leaving sensuality or sexuality behind.” Issue after issue, Mondo 2000 threw a sexy dystopian bash and invited the decade’s best thinkers.
Cheeky monkey Emily Rishea submits her fashion label, Artifice Clothing, through our submit form: “hey why not, I feel shameless,” she writes. Okay, we’ll bite! Artifice does a great job with all the classics and invents some new ones, such as these Victoria’s-Secret-meets-the-Rocketeer light-up mechanical wings. The range also has bit of a sense of humor, as can be seen in this Bunny Lolita ensemble, which the site describes as “terrifying”. But my absolute favorite item on the site has to be this Cybertek Collar, which makes you look like a Dr. Who villain from the Tom Baker era. In an era of Victorian future, the one person who rocks up wearing this as part of an outfit inspired by bad 1970s sci-fi tech will be the envy of the tea party indeed.
In vein with the hologram photos earlier, another odd, though more common medium. Usually I am, admittedly, prejudiced against 3D modeling, but something about Japanese artist Almacan’s work appeals to me. Maybe it’s that the medium suits the subject matter. His part Escher part Giger constructions are, undeniably, very 90s, but tonight I don’t particularly mind. Too busy being delighted by all the propellers and wishing I were watching Videodrome, or Tetsuo, for that matter.
Steve Pyke is an English photographer who covered the early cyberpunk scene. Pyke writes, “Cyberpunks, a small subculture, influenced by the work of the author William Gibson and particularly the film Bladerunner, existed in London in the early 1990s. I became interested and photographed a series of about fifty portraits in my studio over a short period.” Here’s a link to his image gallery, which features 16 portraits. I love his clean, streamlined, almost anthropological portraits of this small sub-genre. There’s something really charming about this original incarnation of the cyber aesthetic.
One thing I found really interesting about this series that almost half the people in the pictures have some sort of lenses concealing their eyes. This makes sense, because mirrorshades were one of the strongest symbols of cyberpunk writing from the late 80s and early 90s, starting with Molly in Neuromancer. This is why everyone in The Matrix also wears mirrored shades as an homage.
