Topic 9- ' Cyberpunk'

Lecture:
In the lecture on Wednesday the concept of ‘Cyberpunk’ and its foundations were bought to the attention of the class. ‘Cyberpunk’ written by William Gibson discusses themes and ideas such as hackers vs. the large corporations, post industrial dystopias, artificial intelligence and even the idea of out of control cities. The ‘Cyberpunk’ generation then connected to the movie watched a few weeks ago ‘Alphaville’ and the idea of cities as machines. Modernism and postmodernism are also factors to consider, the technology change in society and as the generations pass. ‘Cyberpunk’ connected and evaluated ‘who has control or controls’ the switchboard or switches with the city and society.The movie ‘La Jette’ was also watched in the second half of the lecture

Tutorial:
In the tutorial today we went over and discussed the assignment in detail. We discussed what is expected from everyone for the draft and the assignment as a whole. As the assignment and the drafts due date are getting closer everyone in the class had their own personal questions to ask the tutor and we discussed everyone’s worries and concerns in the class. My assignment is going to be on the Apple Ipod and how far it has come in such a short amount of time.

Readings:
In the readings this week we looked at allegory of the cave by Plato. The main themes that are addressed by Plato is the concept of humankind. Humanity and reality were bought to attention and the understanding of reality ‘In the allegory, the shadows on the wall represent the prisoners 'reality' and their reaction to that reality.’ The reading was a little hard to gasp but interesting to read overall.
The second reading for the week was William Gibson’s ten short stories called ‘The Burning Chrome’. This book was the start of the ‘Cyberspace’ phrase and almost phenomenon, and impact that cyberspace has had all around the world.