417.6 - Beautiful | Ugly

CIM 417 Week 6

The Ugly Duchess (painting by Quentin Matsys, c. 1513)

This bloated, wrinkled and asymmetrical Duchess caricature, while not the most ugly thing I've seen, encaspulates some of the qualities that are repugnant to me, and incorporates grotesque qualities that I, a white, straight-presenting, man with Irish heritage and a punk-goth-metal-alt-tech style, has been conditioned to abhor. Right down to the "lamb in sheeps clothing" and being of a ruling class.

Conversely, Natalie Dormer as Cressida from the Hunger games, a hot young media-savvy rebel activist who makes “propos,” a mix of viral advertising, on-the-fly news clips and inspirational messages that are the only way for the rebels to communicate to the outside world typifies the qualities for which I have been conditioned within my habitus, right down to the edgy, half shaved hairstyle, non-chalance of a tank top and cargos and vine tatoos that can be imagined to go "all the way down".

In Cyberpunk, the aesthetic principles of "style before substance", "low-life and high tech" irreverance, minimalist, iconoclastic, and satirical and a gritty and violent backdrop featuring crime, artificial intelligence, class uprising, governmental and corporate corruption, anarchy, gang warfare as central themes. While missing the Neon, Chrome and only touching on transhumanism, Cressida typifies this aesthetic, in a realistic and relatable way.

-Trigger warning-

In the game Cyberpunk 2077, Judy Alvarez takes this character archetype one step further - a braindance* producer with a spunky attitude, and the cyber implants to match the spunky attitude truly matches the cyberpunk aesthetic.

*Experiential recordings that allow playback of all sensations emotions and thoughts, that can be highly addictive, and revolutionalised the media industry, especially around porn, and more illicit areas like black market violence, torture and suicide.