Author: Rudy W.

 Exploring Dystopian Urban Landscapes in Blade Runner and Neuromancer

Rudy W.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The movie The Blade Runner and the novel The Neuromancer both heavily explore the cyberpunk theme of neon-lit cityscapes while featuring a technologically advanced civilization that has a low quality of life for its inhabitants. Within this theme, the film and novel were able to highlight the social decay that was ever present in society. 

The Blade Runner was set in Los Angeles which was turned into a neon city with large illuminated billboards and glowing advertisements that were constantly displayed throughout the city to reinforce the theme of consumer culture. Advertisements such as the “Kara Dolls”, were small details that called attention to the high-tech society that existed. In addition to the constant and virtually inescapable advertisements that were plasted throughout the city in the film, there were skyscrapers that dominated the skies. 

 The skyscrapers belonged to big cooperations such as the Tyrell Cooperation’s building. The buildings would be extremely clean and futuristic appearing on the inside while on the outside they had a gritty appearance due to the environment they were surrounded by. The streets would be cluttered and dilapidated while the “spinners”, also known as the flying cars would be clean and fly above them. In The Neuromancer, the city is a largely neon-lit metropolitan area while centering a huge monolithic building. This novel heavily leans into the cyberpunk theme of high tech-low life. In the city, there is a clear divide between the society. There are those who are considered to be apart of the technological elite and there are those who live in the shadows of those considered to be technologically elite. Case is an example of a character who live in a dangerous, dark, polluted environment in which is a clear difference between the lives of the elite who live in comfortable cooperate environments. This creates not only a divide but highlights the difference in the worlds of those living in these environments, it adds depth to the characters in the story and gives the reader the ability to understand their character even more.

Challenging Binaries In The Contemporary World: The Haraway-Monae Manifesto

Rudy W.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

In her Cyborg Manifesto, Donna Haraway explores a world in which the concept of traditional or societal binaries, oppression within technology, feminism, and identity are challenged. In her writings, Haraway uses the half-human half machine- cyberog as a metaphor for liberation. The idea of the cyborg represents fluidity being that it is composed of different elements to make up one whole being. Haraway argues that social constructs that are embedded into our society such as gender, sexuality, and identity are not meant to define us, rather they are fluid and constantly evolving.  

Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae explored the Manifesto that Haraway discussed by highlighting themes of liberation, feminism, and queerness. Throughout the album, Monae uses songs such as “PYNK” to highlight the complexities that exist within ones’ identity; directly correlating to Haraway and her idea of a fluid rather than a fixed identity. Monae also incorporates the intersectionality of queernesss within her identity as a black individual by describing how to break away from heterosexual norms which are opressive.Within her identity, Janelle Monae describes herself as a non-binary individual. While she goes by she/her and they/them pronouns, Monae does not believe in the binaries of gender identiy which is a theme that is consistent within Haraway’s Manifesto. 

The most identical themes that are present within Haraway’s and Monae’s works are the technology cyborg elements. As previously mentioned, Haraway uses the cyborg as a metaphor in her Manifesto to represent liberation through technology. The cyborg does not have a fixed identity due to its robotic and human components; it is a fluid entity. Monae uses technological imagery to centralize the idea of their album. In the visual elements of the album, they often portray themselves living in a world that is enhanced by technology while also incorporating afrocentric elements. This is very important when discussing the theme of cyberpunk; a genre in which diversity in the form of Afrofuturism for example, is not very prominent. Janelle Monae uplifted, liberated, and empowered the various communities of which she belongs to: woman, non-binary, queer, African-American. This is the main idea of the Cyber Manifesto. Haraway conceptualized the idea of a non-binary world that allowed identities to be fluid; Monae gave life to this concept.

The Blurred Lines of Social Media

Rudy W.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Within the last five years, there has been a major shift in the parasocial relationships that exist between public figures or ‘celeberties’ and their fanbases. Before social media, artists connected with their fan bases in a more formal fashion such as television appearances, concerts, meet and greets, and  radio show appearances.There was a very limited direct connection between a celebrity and their fans which gave them room to curate an image of themselves that resonated with their targeted audience and allowed them to romanticize their persona and create parasocial relationships with them. 

Now that social media is as widely used as it is, the connection between artist and fan has faced a major shift. Social media platforms such as Instagram,TikTok, and most specifially Twitter have been utilized by celebrities to grow their fanbases. Nicki Minaj is one example of a celebrity who interacts with their fanbase on a personal level. Artists such as Cardi B. go “live” on their social media pages which is another way that artists can directly interact with their fans. 

Social media has allowed celebrities to become more accessible. Many fans have taken to directly calling out to their favorite artists on social media platforms and in some cases, the artist will respond and interact with them. Celebrities have used social media as a way to increase engagement with their fans as a way to maintain relevance. While this has been good for both the celebrity and fans, the parasocial relationships that have been created have created a false sense of intimacy in which boundaries tend to be pushed. 

Celebrities who choose to engage with their fans on social platforms run the risk of interference in their private lives. Before social media, celebrities were able to establish certain boundaries that ensured their privacy and accessibility was protected. When social media became increasingly popular and fans became able to directly communicate with their favorite celebrities, many celebrities were made to feel vulnerable in the sense that fans felt that were entitled to their attention and access at any given time. 

I believe this major change occurred during the pandemic when social media was the main source of human contact for almost two years. In the early months of the pandemic, many artists took to social media and utilized their platforms to interact with their fans in ways such as digital concerts, Q&A sessions, and simply responding to social media posts. I believe that many celebrities saw this as a good thing due to the fact that fans were staying engaged with their content and it was keeping the public focus on them, however in a way it backfired when fans started to become entitled to receiving a response from their favorite celebrities when they saw how easy it was to get their attention.