Audrey Xuan

[audreyxuan]

Nike x The Office: “Air Force Schrute”

The Air Force Schrute combines Dwight's signature mustard yellow and spicy brown colour scheme with a patterned necktie swoosh and clean bright white of his undershirt. The gum sole evokes the sensibility of Timberlands and workwear, appropriate for Dwight's ethos of hard work and practicality.

[audreyxuan]

Hot Pink // Doja Cat record concept

[audreyxuan]

3.15.20 // Childish Gambino record concept

[audreyxuan]

Primitive x Lee Kum Kee concept design

[audreyxuan]

Sass Pancakes // Ashnikko vinyl concept

[audreyxuan]

Self Titled // Playboi Carti record concept 

[audreyxuan]

"TEMPORARY" wristwatch  Original art by Virgil Abloh × IKEA Original art by Off-White × Braun

[audreyxuan]

Body and Biology: Cross-Cultural Depictions of the Human Form in Cyberpunk Media

My project will concern the portrayal and treatment of the human body in cyberpunk media, particularly the role of body modification and biotechnology. I will define the history and origins of cyberpunk, a dystopian subgenre of science fiction borne out of paranoia around technology, capitalism, and globalisation. The human body has always played a significant role in the genre, as characters adapt or themselves to reach a perfect ideal, whether for weaponisation or aesthetic self-expression. This paper studies different approaches to the idea of humanity and whether it is inherently tethered to the physical, organic human body. My project covers a total of six media, three from Western countries and three from Eastern countries: Blade Runner (U.S./Hong Kong), Altered Carbon (U.S.), Gunnm (Japan), Ghost in the Shell (Japan), ACRONYM (Germany), and Comme des Garçons (Japan). The first four sources are all filmic media (movies or series) and are listed chronologically to show the role that each one had on the following. The final two sources are fashion labels that have been influenced by the form-consciousness ethos of cyberpunk, and recontextualise the body in two different ways: deconstruction and protection. I will explain the sociological and historical reasons why each media addresses the concept of humanity differently, especially in relation to concepts such as globalisation, free trade, and cultural diffusion. By exploring the idea of the body in relation to technology and modification, we can learn more about what it means to be human.

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction that operates in a futuristic, dystopian sphere. The movement originated from the New Wave sci-fi movement, which sought to dismantle the lowbrow B-movie myths the genre had become affiliated with in the 1950s. New Wave prioritised deep philosophical and narrative concepts over sensationalist storylines and genre clichés, such as the monster movie or the damsel in distress (Parker 2011). The late 1970s saw the start of a technological revolution, as mass-produced computers were offered to the public in 1977 (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2020). With unprecedented technological advancement, as with anything new and strange, came a healthy--though some may argue exaggerated--degree of skepticism and distrust. 

Another important factor was that the birth of the subgenre came at the climax of the Cold War. The United States and Russia waged a war of beliefs, battling for ideological control; worldwide economic power and political systems would be determined by this outcome. “It is no coincidence that cyberpunk came of age in the era where capitalism was moving towards global dominance, culminating in its symbolic triumph at the fall of the Berlin Wall,” writes Paul Walker-Emig for The Guardian (2018). Capitalism’s laissez-faire, non-interventionist policy enabled international trade, leading to the rise of globalism and cultural diffusion. It also, however, allowed for socio-economic inequality and gross exploitation, reinforcing frustration among the lower- and middle-class.

The intellectual elements of New Wave sci-fi, the advent of wide-spread technology, and globalisation as a result of capitalism all combined in a perfect storm of paranoia and cynicism, giving birth to the cyberpunk subgenre.

One of the defining tropes of cyberpunk media is its relationship with the human body. The nature of that relationship can fluctuate, but it’s often obsessive and damaging. Whether it’s the anti-establishment sentiment of personal expression or the militaristic goal of creating a human weapon, bodies are enhanced, implanted, and amputated to meet a “perfect” ideal. Whatever the rationale, all modification is derived from an inherent dissatisfaction with the natural human form. This project will examine the portrayal and treatment of the human body in cyberpunk media, particularly the role of body modification and biotechnology. I will consider both Western and Asian depictions and explain the sociological reasoning behind their choices. Finally, we will move past filmic mediums and into the world of fashion, exploring how cyberpunk and its obsession with the body has filtered into the realm of our reality. 

Because of its dominance in the Cold War and its already-established film industry, the United States became one of the prime exporters of cyberpunk cinema. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, released in 1982, is considered to be one of the first cyberpunk films. The movie follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter tasked with killing androids known as “replicants”, originally created to populate newly-colonised planets. After some lead a violent uprising demanding freedom, all replicants are outlawed and ordered dead. Deckard describes the replicants as “more human than human and sometimes the ‘more’ turned out to be a problem” (Fancher 1980). If the replicants are sentient beings with who can think (and perhaps feel) like humans, should they be deprived of rights simply because they do not inhabit an organic human body? The Voight-Kampff machine Deckard uses to determine who is a replicant and who is not is about as reliable as a modern polygraph test, or perhaps even less so. In other words, it provides no safe answers about one’s true nature. The lines between human and robot are so blurred, some fans and scholars have adopted the idea that Deckard himself is a replicant, possibly without even him knowing (Organ et al. 12). 

While Blade Runner takes place in the U.S., there are clear Asian influences, from the visuals to the production (American Film Institute). The city is described as “a futuristic Los Angeles, modeled after the Hong Kong cityscape”, but Scott avoids appropriating imagery for mere aesthetic merit (Zhu 2016). Hong Kong, with its colonial history and fractured national identity, was specifically chosen for its relevance to Blade Runner’s story. In his case study “Hong Kong’s Influence on Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and Cyberpunk Cinema”, Ray Zhu writes:

A typical Hong Kong street scene represented in the protracted scenes of cityscape in Blade Runner serve to illustrate a society confused about its own identity, about to implode at any moment. In Blade Runner, the conflict and tension between the Replicants, or cyborgs mimicking humans, and people of flesh and blood parallel the modern day consequences of increasingly expansive consumerism and intrusive technology encroaching on people’s lives. (2016)

After losing funding from an American production company, the movie was backed in part by Hong Kong producer Sir Run Run Shaw, making it a joint United States/Hong-Kong production (Sammon 64-67). Even though the film is helmed by an Englishman, written by Americans, and stars American and European actors, it’s interesting to consider how cross-cultural diffusion had a role in the production of the film itself. 

Much of the film is spent trying to pin down notions of what it means to be human, and a sense of uncertainty is woven throughout. Numerous rewrites and international releases have resulted in seven different versions of the film being released, leaving audiences questioning what the “real” ending is. In one iteration, the movie ends with Deckard and his replicant love-interest Rachael as they choose to begin their life on the run from authorities, their fate unknown (Grab 2013). This sentiment runs parallel to the narrative themes of Blade Runner: questioning what is authentic and what is not, never providing any definitive answers.

Gunnm, a 1993 anime adaptation of manga series Battle Angel Alita, plays with similar ideas of characters being defined by the nature of their bodies. Gally, known as Alita in some versions, is a dilapidated cyborg discovered by cyberdoctor Ido. Not even two minutes in, Ido proclaims “She’s human all right”, despite looking very clearly un-human; she has no limbs, only a disembodied torso of metal and wires (Gunnm 0:01:50). After her first fight, which she ends by dismembering two rival cyborgs, Ido rushes over to her, asking “Gally, are you alright? Is your body damaged?” (Gunnm 0:13:56). Her body is his primary concern. In every aspect except physically, Gally is human. She talks like a teenage girl, thinks like one, laughs like one. But Ido, her protector and father figure, sees her as a body, a weapon--something that happens to have consciousness, but never qualifies as fully human.

In 1995, Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell was released. One of Japan’s seminal cyberpunk films, it takes place in a world where people can implant or replace their body parts with cybernetic tech. Major Motoko Kusanagi is a cyborg police agent in Neo-Tokyo, tasked with hunting down the Puppet Master, a hacker who infiltrates cyborgs without their knowledge. The Puppet Master appeals to Major as a fellow cyber-being, leaving her questioning her worth and humanity. By the end, he convinces her to upload his mind into hers, pooling their consciousness and knowledge and effectively betraying her human superiors. 

By the mid-90s, Ghost in the Shell was able to touch on new topics and new tech; during the genre’s inception in the early eighties, notions of Internet networks and advanced AI were still too abstract to be analysed. “The rapid development of artificial intelligence [...] reveals the identity crisis of mankind as they are developing a more close-knit connection with machine over time,” write Hui-tong Zhou and Jing An (136). They explain how the “Ship of Theseus” problem applies to Major’s artificially-implanted memories: “if all of parts of physical body are superseded by machines, and if the memory of one is completely distorted or disappeared, is this human still the original one?” (Zhou and An 138). If her body parts (including her brain) were replaced with technology, piece-by-piece, is Major human? Her ultimate decision to join the Puppet Master suggests not. Ghost in the Shell debates not only the difference between how we should treat robots versus humans, but the essential differences in defining the two.

Almost four decades after Blade Runner, Altered Carbon (2018 to present) was aired, taking many of its stylistic and thematic cues from Scott’s masterpiece. In the future, human consciousness can be uploaded onto biotech devices called stacks, which can be implanted in any human “sleeve”. “Your body is not who you are,” speaks an unnamed narrator in voiceover. “You shed it like a snake sheds its skin.” (S1E1 “Out of the Past” 0:06:55). Like Blade Runner, it takes place in an endlessly-rainy, neon-drenched, globalised metropolis called Bay City, where the main currency is UN credits and characters often switch into Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, or German. The world is highly-stratified, as the rich live in towering skyscrapers far from the streets and slums of the poor. Activist groups demand rights for human sleeves, who can be bought and sold like slaves for billionaires who want a new body. Like modern-day cosmetic surgery, it’s an example of how capitalism lets the rich modify themselves to fit beauty standards. 

Protagonist Takeshi Kovacs suffers from paranoia and PTSD, feeling a disconnect to his new sleeve and seeing his old face in the mirror. He was born as a person of Asian descent, played by Korean-American actor Will Yun Lee, but is resleeved into the body of a white man (Swedish-American Joel Kinnaman). Changing one’s physical identity is perhaps a more interesting concept than the straightforward physical immortality that the stack technology provides. Creator Laeta Kalogridis addresses the fact that switching bodies has particularly important implications for transgender and genderfluid people.“This kind of technology creates interesting intersections between your idea of your physical self and your idea of your inner or spiritual self, or your idea of being fluid in some way, certainly the idea of reassigning your gender,” says Kalogridis in an interview with The Wrap (Maas 2018). The series employs decades-old themes of identity, globalisation, and capitalism that are still, and perhaps painfully, relevant. Paying homage to cyberpunk’s body-obsessive origins but with an added social context, Altered Carbon covers new, socially-conscious ground in the genre.

The conscious examination of the relationship between the body and technology has transcended non-filmic mediums and found its way into various artistic disciplines. From Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayama’s hyper-sexualised humanoid robots to upcoming biotech-themed video game Cyberpunk 2077, the genre’s unique aesthetic cues have been embraced by every corner of the design and media industry. But perhaps most fascinating is how cyberpunk, given its fixation on the human form, has been appropriated by the fashion world, from high fashion to streetwear. 

Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons, founded by Rei Kawakubo, is known for “deconstruction and silhouettes that reimagine the human form” (Smith 2017). They are not so much clothes as pieces of art, “objects for the body” that redefine our anatomy (Bolton 157). Her items are often abstract to the point of being unwearable, like an oddly-shaped plaid dress from her Spring/Summer 1997 collection “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body”. This collection was described as “a reorganization of the body, where the symmetry of desirable curves is mocked, literally pushed aside and distorted by tumorous lumps and bumps” (de Perthuis 9). Other releases were driven by similarly disruptive ideas: “skirts and jackets were made entirely of shoulder segments [...] garments came with ‘spares’--one dress would have two more hanging from the shoulders, and jackets had extra sleeves” (de Perthuis 9). Her anti-fashion ethos seeks to evolve notions of clothing, and how it is more powerful as a tool of expression and emotion than as mere visually-appealing aesthetic. “Clothes provide a physical and symbolic barrier between ourselves and the world. Linked to gendered, cultural and social identities, they connect us to others, but can also separate and protect us from their gaze,” writes professor of design and communications Karen de Perthuis (11-12). By challenging the very definition of fashion itself, Kawakubo subverts not only beauty standards but body standards.  

While Kawakubo supposedly works in a self-proclaimed “void of fashion history”, much of what we see on the runways is often a reflection of current trends in underground fashion (de Perthuis 10). In the past few years, independent streetwear brands have tended towards utilitarian clothing that values practicality over all else, owing much of its aesthetic to the world of cyberpunk. Techwear and tactical wear is nearly always black (though may feature shades of grey or camouflage), accented with straps and buckles and made of durable materials like nylon, mesh, and paracord. Popular items include cargo pants, waterproof Gore-Tex jackets, face masks, utility vests, and hooded parkas. German fashion label ACRONYM is one of the leading brands in the techwear scene. The brand’s proprietary features sound like science fiction, like “Sound Forcelock - A hidden magnetic function near the collar to hold earbuds in place while wearing the jacket” or “EscapeZip - Allows the wearer to quickly unzip the jacket with one quick pull” (Li 2016). The label’s unofficial mission statement is “maximum utility and a futuristic aesthetic that blends militaristic designs with a sleek science fiction minimalism”, and their promotional videos use “stylized sci-fi films and anime [as] major sources of inspiration” (Li 2016). ACRONYM’s integration of technology into clothing serves as a form of modification; while not implanted into the body itself, the tech enables and enhances the wearer to move differently and perform better.

Many techwear pieces are reminiscent of cyberpunk’s combat-ready costumes; an ALYX chest rig wouldn’t look out of place on Ghost in the Shell’s Major. The popularity of this militaristic aesthetic, writes Tyler Watamanuk of SSENSE, “crest[s] on a backdrop of heightened conversations surrounding gun violence” (2020). The cargo pants, strappy harnesses, and combat boots remind Watamanuk of an infamous security camera still from the Columbine shooting. Utilitarian style “can trigger memories of terror and violence, fear and panic. [...] Ultimately, the poignancy of an aesthetic is informed by what we collectively associate it with” (Watamanuk 2020). Like Kawakubo’s work, utilitarian style uses clothes as objects to rework our physiques; rather than deconstruct the body, tactical wear armours and protects it. Labels like Comme des Garçons and ACRONYM ask wearers for permission to change their bodies, or sometimes demand it--by putting on a piece of clothing, you become something else.

Cyberpunk emerged in a time of uncertainty, exploring rapid globalisation, economic inequality, international trade, and cultural diffusion. Most importantly, though, it asks the most essential question: who is human, and who decides? Over the past forty years, both the West (Blade Runner, Altered Carbon, ACRONYM) and East (Battle Angel, Ghost in the Shell, Comme des Garçons) have grappled with this idea, each work influenced by the history of their regions. From Fritz Lang’s social drama Metropolis to Cold War allegory Invasion of the Body Snatchers, science fiction has always used fantastical settings to study the emotions, actions, and reactions of people in unprecedented situations. By studying the way we view the body, we can discover what it means to be strong, to be beautiful, to be human.

Works Cited

American Film Institute. “Blade Runner.” AFI Catalog of Feature Films, catalog.afi.com/Film/68260-BLADE-RUNNER.

Bolton, Andrew. Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017.

de Perthuis, Karen. “Breaking the Idea of Clothes: Rei Kawakubo’s Fashion Manifesto.” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, 7 Jan. 2019, doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2018.1531621.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Personal computer.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 31 Jan. 2020, britannica.com/technology/personal-computer.

Fancher, Hampton. “Blade Runner.” 24 Jul. 1980, screenplay.com/downloads/scripts/Blade%20Runner.pdf.

Grab, Eiskaltes. “Blade Runner.” Movie Censorship, 7 Jun. 2013, movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=774077.

Gunnm: Battle Angel. Directed by Hiroshi Fukutomi, Madhouse, 1993, youtube.com/watch?v=tofSaLB9kwE.

Li, Rocky. “Master Class: ACRONYM.” Grailed, 30 Nov. 2016, grailed.com/drycleanonly/master-class-acronym.

Maas, Jennifer. “‘Altered Carbon’ Creator on How Show Could Examine LGBTQ Issues in Season 2.” The Wrap, 13 Feb. 2018, thewrap.com/altered-carbon-transgender-stacks-lgbt-laeta-kalogridis.

Organ, Michael K., Susan Jones, Anthony M. Rice, & Grant C. White. “Catching 'tears in the rain': Blade Runner and the archiving of memory and identity.” Australian Society of Archivists Conference: Archives in a Blade Runner Age, 2018, ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1734&context=asdpapers.

“Out of the Past”. Altered Carbon, season 1, episode 1, 2 Feb. 2018. Netflix, netflix.com/watch/80097693.

Parker, John R. “‘New Worlds’: One of the Most Influential Sci-Fi Magazines Returns This Fall.” Comics Alliance, 20 Aug. 2011, comicsalliance.com/new-worlds-magazine-returns.

Sammon, Paul M. Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner. Dey Street Books, 2017.

Smith, Katie. “Comme des Garçons and the Kawakubo influence.” Edited, 4 May 2017, edited.com/resources/comme-des-garcons-influence.

Walker-Emig, Paul. “Neon and corporate dystopias: why does cyberpunk refuse to move on?” The Guardian, 16 Oct 2018, theguardian.com/games/2018/oct/16/neon-corporate-Dystopias-why-does-cyberpunk-refuse-move-on.

Watamanuk, Tyler. “Tactical Fashion: A Modern Love Story.” SSENSE, 9 Mar. 2020, ssense.com/en-us/editorial/fashion/tactical-fashion-a-modern-love-story.

Zhou, Hui-tong & Jing An. “How Cyborgs Define Themselves: On Ghost in the Shell.” International Conference on Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, 2018, pdfs.semanticscholar.org/81d9/6083bcaa47cfaa3768b3e994b238224e168e.pdf.

Zhu, Ray. “Case Study: Hong Kong’s Influence on Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and Cyberpunk Cinema.” Medium, 31 Dec. 2016, medium.com/@ray.zhu/bridging-the-gap-sci-fi-cinema-and-depictions-of-hong-kong-sar-b15800678c29.

[audreyxuan]

Lana Del Rey’s Long Path to Independence

Her stage persona has evolved from depending on lovers for money and success to relying on herself.

[audreyxuan]

A Brief History of Science Fiction Films: Blade Runner and Arrival

When people think of science fiction, their mind often turns to one of two things: either campy B-movies featuring outlandish creatures and damsels in distress; or CGI-filled summer blockbusters that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make. Either way, people believe sci-fi is a genre where spectacle is emphasised over story. That is not the case, nor has it ever been. Science fiction is a genre that uses scientific elements to explore the what-ifs of our world, allowing us to peel back the façade and examine our definitions of society and humanity.

Generally considered the first science fiction film, Georges Méliès’ Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) involved a group of astronomers landing on the moon and meeting its alien inhabitants. It introduced some of the most common elements of science fiction, both in setting (space or another planet) and character (extraterrestrials). In the hundred-plus years since Méliès’ 1902 film, these components have been used and reused countless times. George Lucas’ 1975 space epic Star Wars (and its ten sequels and prequels) became the most well-known entry into the science fiction genre. Extraterrestrials both malicious and benign have been notably featured in Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Men in Black. Outer space can be used as a positive or negative context, as a final frontier to explore (Star Trek) or an isolated wasteland to be stuck in (Duncan Jones’ Moon).

The next major innovation came in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, a dystopian film that used science fiction as a way for viewers to reflect upon themes like class, wealth, and status. The George Orwell’s novel 1984 and its subsequent movie adaptation used some of those themes, along with a greater message of government control, to create a chilling cautionary tale. Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, released in 2009, viewed classism and poverty through the lens of an extraterrestrial family living in South Africa. Metropolis spawned a genre of intellectual, belief-driven, political sci-fi films, which are often disregarded in favour of pulpy sci-fi that dominated the 1950s.

Them! and Creature from the Black Lagoon introduced movie audiences to strange creatures in their sci-fi (like giant ants and sea monsters, respectively). The Japanese interpretation of “monster movie” saw Ishirō Honda create Godzilla, which would spawn 33 sequels, remakes, and spin-offs. Director Guillermo Del Toro, known for his science-fiction and fantasy films, has a penchant for misunderstood beasts of all sorts. 2013’s sci-fi action movie Pacific Rim was an ode to these movies, blending American and Asian influences. Del Toro’s latest film, The Shape of Water, was a loose reinterpretation of Creature from the Black Lagoon that garnered 13 Academy Award nominations. Some were truly ridiculous movies, while others, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, used monsters as a metaphor for Cold War-era paranoia. The introduction of outlandish beings enticed mainstream audiences to the genre; like sugar to make medicine go down, the sensationalism often masked deeper intellectual themes.

Arrival is a 2017 film by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve. After twelve mysterious spaceships land in locations around the world, linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is called upon by the U.S. government to decipher the alien species’ language. Arrival mixed “hard” science fiction concepts with compelling performances, an equation that resulted in universal critical acclaim (including eight Oscar nominations). It starts off with a sci-fi trope dating back to Le Voyage dans la Lune: humans confirm the existence of aliens, but do they have good or bad intentions? The beginning of the movie is rather formulaic--the scientists want to study the alien beings, the government wants to wage war on them, and our trusty protagonist believes there’s more to them than meets the eye.

But unlike other sci-fi movies, Arrival stands out for its intimate, intellectual plot and exceptional technical elements. Villeneuve teamed up with cinematographer Bradford Young to create a “dirty sci-fi film” that wasn’t “concerned with straight lines or the perfectly textured alien or the perfectly modeled ship” (Minoff, 2016). The aliens and their ships look real and raw and biological, unlike the futuristic, pristine aesthetic found in Star Trek or even Wall-E. In fact, Arrival doesn’t take place two thousand years in the future, or in a galaxy far, far away. The movie takes place here and now, with Banks standing in as a proxy for the audience; when she shows up at the impromptu military base erected around the alien ship, she’s just as disoriented as we are. Villeneuve walks a fine line as Banks wavers between what she understands and what she’s utterly oblivious about. In a genre known for its lack of gender representation, Louise Banks is a female character who’s not constantly bamboozled by her male colleagues’ scientific ramblings. She may not understand every concept aired by her scientist co-workers or the ever-present government personnel, but her ignorance serves the story; it creates confusion as she navigates this new environment. Banks is a genius in her own right, in her own field, with concepts and theories that leave her (mostly male) co-workers in the dust. In fact, she is the key to deciphering the alien language and the solution to their problems. In a room full of men, this woman holds the fate of the world in her hands.

Blade Runner is a 1982 film by American director Ridley Scott. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a “blade runner”, a cop who must hunt rogue androids, known as Replicants. At its release, it polarised critics and audiences alike. Supporters praised its philosophical approach and unique visuals. Detractors disliked its slow, unorthodox pacing, and ambiguous ending. After the success of Star Wars, studios saw the benefit in blockbuster sci-fi franchises that would perform well at the box office. Audiences became accustomed to the fast-paced, action-driven sci-fi of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Blade Runner differed from any other science fiction movie at the time, which led to lower-than-forecasted box office returns. In 1982, sci-fi relied on special effects (Tron), heartfelt story (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), or horror (The Thing). Blade Runner interpreted familiar science fiction components, like flying cars, robots, and artificial intelligence, and portrayed them in a totally different way.

Despite the initial reaction, Blade Runner has been since hailed as one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. Its topics and technical elements have nearly spawned an entirely new genre. The synth-driven soundtrack, endlessly dark and rainy climate, dystopian cityscape, and themes of humanity, morality, and corporate greed have become hallmarks of the “cyberpunk” subgenre. Blade Runner inspired and influenced cyberpunk classics like RoboCop, Ghost in the Shell, and The Matrix, as well as countless TV shows, video games, and songs. Ridley Scott took a chance when he created Blade Runner, something movie audiences had never seen before. His gamble paid off, and we have a new genre because of it.

Genre can help classify films by giving them concrete labels to adhere to. When we laugh, it’s a comedy. When we cry, it’s a drama. When we see an alien, it’s sci-fi. It gives audiences a clear idea of what to expect from a movie. But it also limits filmmakers in how they can express themselves. Genre forces movies into neat little boxes, or at least tries to. Film is a reflection and an imitation of life, which never fits into one category or another. Movies that encompass multiple genres are more interesting, because they are unpredictable--anything can happen, or at least more things can happen that one genre would allow. When film is treated more like a business than an art, conformity to genre is prioritised over storytelling. But when filmmakers are allowed to tell thought-provoking stories unlimited by the bounds of genre, in the case of Blade Runner and Arrival, true works of art can emerge.

[audreyxuan]

[audreyxuan]

east of june

in the north, the sun grins most afternoons but the air still has a bite to it I wash dishes in the six o’clock window so I can feel the warmth coming in from the west it washes over the city and then comes out in waves to us. the year’s nearing its end so no one thinks too clearly instead we spit barbs through tight teeth and turn our fingers upwards and across the room when mistakes are made the sky’s kind but cool we still have a ways to go

[audreyxuan]

good news

for a year I rested indulged my every sense to the sweetness of syrup and a soft touch and sitting in the honey of the morning sun with nothing to do. strummed sharp chords, made bad music with ten fingers and ten lines took my time to eat slow and taste each bite to lie motionless and stay up late most nights laugh at whatever I like good news or whatever this year will bring

[audreyxuan]

[audreyxuan]

[audreyxuan]

[audreyxuan]