Cassette Futurism vs Cyberpunk

カセット・フューチャリズム / サイバーパンク

Both sit in Visions of the Future, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. One is aesthetic and the other style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Cassette Futurism

Cassette Futurism — キャンプ・スミスのIBM 729 磁気テープ装置 1969 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainCassette Futurism — コモドール PET 2001 1977年発売の一体型ホームコンピュータ 撮影 Alexander Svensson — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0Cassette Futurism — NASA 撮影 宇宙ステーション「ミール」基幹モジュール内部 1996 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The future as the 1980s pictured it, built from CRTs, physical buttons, thermal paper and squared-off white plastic. Its matte pragmatism is now being reappraised as the counterproposal to sleek science fiction.

Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk — 新宿・歌舞伎町のネオンサイン — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0Cyberpunk — 新宿・歌舞伎町の看板群 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Cyberpunk — 香港・德己立街の夜景 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Advanced technology and ruined daily life share the same frame, so the future arrives as promise and as threat.

Cassette FuturismCyberpunk
Era1977–1990s / retro revival1980s–
FamilyVisions of the FutureVisions of the Future
KindAestheticStyle
CuesCRTs and physical buttons / Squared-off white plastic / Dot-matrix displays / Matte pragmatismRainy nights / Multilingual neon / Dense cabling / Dark cities
Best used forControl panels and readouts for near-future films and games · Interfaces for music gear or instruments sold on physical feelSpeaking of technology's light and shadow together · Thick world-building for games and film
TypeMonospaced dot type beside small engraved-looking labelsAngular sans, monospace, multiple scripts
CompositionPanels divided by function, surfaces filled with rows of buttonsStack information densely on dark planes
MaterialYellowed white plastic, thermal paper, glow carrying scan linesBlack, teal, red neon, raindrops
CautionArranging nostalgic parts without working out the operation produces a panel that looks right but never tells you what to press first.Don't use Asian cities as a symbol of otherness. Make the fictional social order concrete.

Put these two together

Visions of the Future

IndexStyle