Syd Mead’s Designs for the Original Tron

Oldies but goodies: Syd Mead’s designs for the original Tron from the late 70s. Hot on the heels of last week’s post on cyborg theory, a quote from Mead on the subject:

The fashionable ideology that “artificial” lacks the inherent goodness of “natural” is an appealing, but hopelessly simplistic notion of the intellectually chic. Artifice is the result of a deliberate intent to make. Nature also “makes” things, using a set of basic building blocks common throughout the universe. Exchanging infinite time for deliberate design, nature has ingeniously built plants, planets, galaxies and unimaginable constructs which seem to structure the universe itself. What we call “natural” is simply the result of whatever set of rules nature has followed in fashioning our observable reality. On planet Earth, nature has manipulated the common elements to fashion everything from bacteria to the molten core of the planet. Discoveries in the “nano” technologies of bio, molecular, and micro engineering will re-edit the nomenclature of “natural” versus “unnatural”, blurring if not erasing the line of distinction between “machine” and “organism”, “natural” and “unnatural”, “God-given” and “man-made”.

Fuck yeah, Syd Mead. [To be continued.]

6 Responses to “Syd Mead’s Designs for the Original Tron”

  1. Blue Stahli Says:

    “Fuck yeah, Syd Mead” indeed! These designs are elegant and timeless. Holy merciful crap, Syd’s words read like the baddest-ass posthuman manifesto. Many thanks for getting the synapses all a’twitter here with this.

  2. Jamie Says:

    Wooh, that’s some nifty artwork, he could have helped with the latest Tron film (which I quite liked…) makes me happy to have had the chance to see Syd Mead speak at my uni last year.
    Also? Now I need to find 100 dollars to buy that book, at least the Aussie and American dollar are so close…

  3. JoAsakura Says:

    ah, these are so elegant!

    Syd Mead <3<3<3

  4. Melody Says:

    Gorgeous.

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