I noticed lots of cyberpunk art depicts someone connected to cables keeping them in place or sustaining them. Is it supposed to represent the “puppet on strings” motif? (potential spoilers in images)
I noticed lots of cyberpunk art depicts someone connected to cables keeping them in place or sustaining them. Is it supposed to represent the “puppet on strings” motif? (potential spoilers in images)
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Sometimes, yeah. Other times, it represents oppressive and onerous tech.
I’m sure there’s other meanings as well.
The representations of how the Major is cabled up in Ghost in the shell are some very obvious ‘shibari’ callbacks.
(Japanese rope ‘play’).
It’s usually just someone hooked to the internet. The first one is a very Ghost in the Shell-y thing with a bunch of crazy cords in weird places and the third picture is a cover variant of Neuromancer, that’s a headset.
They just look cool.
Most cyberpunk was made in the 80s they thought we’d have sapient AI and full body transplants and never predicted wi-fi.
Really depends on the context of the rest of the work
At least for Songbird, a puppet on a string is pretty apt. That scene in particular always brought crucifixion or witch trials to mind as well, the way her one hand is all fucked up still sticks with me.
Kusanagi was involved in the Puppetmaster case so it seems plausible here.
Those wires give me different vibes, depending on the context of image / book / movie etc. Puppets is definitely one, also being on a leash (of corporations). On a brighter side – ability to connect to the web and download data directly to your brain (assuming that’s a good thing).
A lot of cyberpunk is from the 80’s or based on that aesthetic and no one would have thought pack then we would be carrying computers in our pockets to make phone call, browse the internet and play games.
There were huge supercomputers that terminals connected to and you couldn’t connect to them wirelessly. I think the connected cables are just a reflection of that idea that a portable computer wouldn’t be fast enough to process and send the information needed and depending on the setting wifi doesn’t exist. Like SAC at least has some kind of mobile internet but I think cables get used a lot to tie it in with visuals from the manga. Even today a wire is usually faster then wifi.
I think if they were going for any metaphor it would less be about a puppet on strings and more how humanity has become overreliant on technology and how that can dehumanize us. If you are used to cyberpunk it doesn’t look all that weird but the first time you see it it feels innately unhuman. My first experience with that was the matrix and while that was an awesome usage none of the humans feel like regular humans to me due to their ability to jack into the matrix and download information/skills.