William Gibson (Author), Yukimasa Okumura (artist) & 'Glitch Aesthetic' (Facebook group)

I had an image in my mind that I've seen before of a head with lots of cables in a sci-fi-come-HR Geiger style. I thought that it might have been from the science fiction book, Neuromancer by William Gibson. I went and had a look but couldn't find the specific book cover I had in mind but I found so much more! :) I had been thinking about science fiction when cycling home earlier today. I have definitely have been having sci-fi thoughts in my head about experience machines, transhumanism and cyberspaces. I've been looking at old computer graphics since starting this project because you usually need an understanding of what has come before you before you make something for the present, that's my philosophy, anyway. I find old sci fi quite interesting as well because it's from the past relative to me but they are about the future relative to me (and sometimes set in 2000). That leaves us right inbetween, what a cool place to be!
Anyway, check out these book covers-

'Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...' -William Gibson, NeuromancerPretty sweet, pretty glitchy. I don't have a lot to say about these, I'm quite tired and my eyes sting a bit. but as I was scrolling through these book covers, one really really stood out to me: 












 'The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel'





'bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colorless void...'

Ahhh, I really love this! So glitchy looking but also clearly a paper collage.
This is the book cover for the Japanese edition of Neuromancer, designed in 1986 by Yukimasa Okumura. I decided to see what other art he's made. 

 I think that this one has been printed on some kind of fabric and distorted, I think! if you zoom in you can see a fabric kind of pattern and the colour looks like it could have been embroidered on but I don't think it was. The pattern is quite 'pixelly' and thus digital looking, the bright primary colours help this as well. I'm not as fussed about this one compared to the collaged picture.

This one is interesting but once again I don't like it as much as the first collaged one. It's good to see that the artist has experimented, though and this poster might be more suitable for it's client.
The reflective dome top of her head is interesting and reminds me of some of the 3D digital art I see.

I like this one more than the two above, the technique is more similar to the first image of Okumura's work for 'Neuromancer'. I decided to see if these books were related and did some more research...  and what do you know- they are!
Burning chrome is a short story in the same universe. Neuromancer and Count Zero are both in the 'Sprawl Trilogy' which famously coined the term 'Cyber space'.

 

Finally, I shared a few of these pictures with a facebook group I'm in, 'Glitch Aesthetic'. There are a huge amount of dedicated different art groups on facebook. I'm in 4 or 5 active digital art groups that range in size. They all massively encourage posting 'OC' (Original Content) If not, the original artist MUST be credited. I find these communities great because they are supportive and provide great criticism and discussion. The 'Glitch Aesthetic' group was perfect because it is dedicated to physical art that is inspired by glitch.

Sometimes I feel that it is my duty to sort and organise data to places it should go. As you can see, it was shared 11 times meaning it will have been seen by hundereds of people because I shared the image which was then shared by another 11.
That means art which I have personally considered good has been seen by many people.
That feels good.... probably because of 'The selfish Gene' proposed by Richard Dawkins that makes us feel good when we spread our own ideologies and geneology.

Anyway, that last part was a bit of a tangent but it's all relevant to my thought processes for this project! I'll see you soon.