On June 2, 2022, the ZKM | Center for Art and Media will host the symposium "The Cyberpunk Experience", which is being organized in cooperation with the Badisches Landesmuseum, the Käte Hamburger Kolleg für Apokalyptische und Postapokalyptische Studien (CAPAS) at Heidelberg University and Macromedia University Stuttgart. Cultural and media scholars will focus on the phenomenon of cyberpunk, which is once again experiencing a global hype with the release of the computer game "Cyberpunk 2077" at the end of 2020.
"Neuromancer", "Blade Runner", "Matrix": as a cultural phenomenon, cyberpunk stands for aestheticized retrofuturism, post-apocalyptic visions of society and anthropological demarcations. With the release of the computer game Cyberpunk 2077, the phenomenon has experienced a powerful revival. On the one hand, it was the most hyped game of all time, sold millions of copies and used by the largest simultaneously active gaming community, allowing players to immerse themselves in and experience the world of cyberpunk and its stories. On the other hand, the game has also been harshly criticized since its release and has become one of the most controversial titles ever. After all, many of the visions of the cyberpunk cosmos have since become reality - just think of globally active mega-corporations or the gradual transformation of the internet into a metaverse.
The symposium addresses this finding and explores the question of why the cyberpunk phenomenon has obviously struck a nerve in 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic. At the center of the symposium are both the computer game with its playable staging of retrofuturism and the vision of a technical-digital future with apocalyptic, anthropological and capitalist dimensions.
