What is a future network ?
What is a future network, a future network in its most simple meaning is that everything human or non-human is a source of potential information. This as a result is producing a range of information from humans to the technology that we create to the world that we live in. Where due to the explosion of information producing technologies and information producing practises through the internet became apparent, the future trajectory of these networks became speculated.
Speculation of future networks
This speculation of the future networks involves looking at how these networks will look in the time to come. This tends to be a very dynamic space where things are constantly evolving and being evaluated. Where due to humans increase in ability to capture, process and store information it is speculated that the future networks of society will be largely technology based, centred around a dystopia of man and machine as a result of technologies ever increasing value and growth rate in current society. An example from the thinking of these future networks can be seen through the popular culture and genre of Cyberpunk, that sees the continuous involvement of future networks centred around technology, where society and people have no choice but to go with it or be left behind as a result.
What is Cyberpunk?
Even despite its growing popularity the genre of Cyberpunk it can be tough to pinpoint a definitive definition. But to generalise it, it is a sub-genre of science fiction that focuses solely on a high technology future, full of artificial intelligence, machine-humanist hybrids, virtual reality and constant internet connection. Where society as a whole lives between the blurry lives of technology and the physical.
Although sounding off a technological utopia, this genre spends more time exploring the critter side of a high technology society. Where it is economically driven, borderless, technology saturated and somewhat lawless.
Cyberpunk photography
A big passion of mine the past few years has been film photography, but this does not rule out photography as a whole. It is due to this passion I found the visual elements of cyberpunk and how it speculates on the future to be very fascinating.
I discovered an article by website designyoutrust, that showcases photographer Teemu Jarvien, spending three weeks in Japan shooting the streets of the city. Where he attempts to photography how he sees the future of society moving forward and how cyberpunk can be captured in society today.
A lot of the photographs chosen tend to be at night in busy city streets as it better showcases the relevance and normality of technology in society. The colours at night of the streets signs also gives that futurist feeling and the imagery of that grittier side of the cyberpunk aesthetic that was mentioned before.
I really enjoy speculating future networks through cyberpunk based photography as it captures in the present time how the future may look and where it could be possibly going.
Also as I found this article to be extremely useful, I posted it on my twitter account and it also linked below, as another way for people who enjoy photography to see how these genres are influencing photographers.
Speculative future networks through graphic design
Another keen interest of mine is graphic design and it is something I enjoy doing, studying but also looking at. This is why I found graphic design around cyberpunk to be so interesting as it gave me another visual medium to speculated on future networks through.
According to the website article from 99designs, it believes that cyberpunk and futuristic design is coming back into the design world with the aesthetic making a relevant comeback. With todays contemporary designers using futurism and cyberpunk ideologies to influence their own work. As the unconventional graphic design layouts, enhanced typography and bold colour schemes becoming extremely popular it helps to give an exciting glimpse into the future.
For example this can be seen through Bràulio Amado’s design below, with the poster showing no clear structure, unconventional layout, contrasting neons with a grainy texture is a perfect example of speculated futurisms.
design – 99designs website
Feeling inspired, attached below via the twitter link is my own graphic design work centred around these topics.
Importance of cyberpunk and futurism to speculative future networks
By exploring and analysing these genres it enables us to properly look at how these speculative networks will function but also how they can be highlighted in todays society. Through the mediums of photography and graphic design it provides us with the visual elements not only feel but look at the world we live in but also the opportunity to re-evaluate what is happening and where it is heading, allowing us to monitor the trajectory of future networks.
References
- Bailey, J., 2020. Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about cyberpunk design – 99 designs (Accessed 22nd August)
- Design You Trust. 2019. Photographer Spent 3 Weeks in Japan And Noir Film Inspired Photographs (Accessed 22nd August)
- Albright, D., 2016. What is Cyberpunk? An Introduction to the Sci-Fi Genre. (Accessed 22nd August)
highfieldonline.photo.blog 