Final Major

In the beginning....

To start with, both my dissertation and final major project are tied together, not wholly one and the same, but both are addressing interpretations of the cyberpunk subculture, and therefore it makes sense to research and develop these two projects alongside one another.

I believe I have defined and redefined What is Cyberpunk? too many times on this blog already and therefore will skip straight into defining exactly what I wish to portray, or what I wish to prove with my project and my dissertation.

For the meantime, as I am at an early stage in the year, I will be writing for my final project alone, as that needs far more exploration and refining at this moment in time, and the research will inevitably end up as relevant for my dissertation.

Idea Brainstorm

Now, I am very much of the devout opinion that the predictions and much of the visualisations of the near future that emerged from that 80's early 90's golden era of cyberpunk, are taking form and proving true within our contemporary society. Some are taking subtler forms and slightly different shapes, but the boxes are being ticked none the less. For instance Gibson's vision from Neuromancer of the matrix, and those addicted to diving into this virtual world, depending upon it's existence and blotting out the real, is something very much taking form through a slightly different means. What Gibson called the matrix we call the internet, and we're at an age where, broadly speaking, everyone is always online, across multiple synchronised devices, we update our facebook status to tell our global networks how we feel, or what we're up to today, we geo tag our locations on foursquare so everyone knows exactly on the map where we are at every moment, hell we take pictures to document and instagram our every damn meal or coffee now. The masses no longer simply live their lives, or experience the world, they reject simply being and instead keep a lens or a screen in between them and the world at all times, and simple document the everyday  experience. The process of the day to day could almost be seen as robotic in that we track and log and document everything like a control group, instead of life's natural rhizomatic flow.

Not only do we now live and exist via the internet as our proxy, we delve and explore this mainframe as our new source of knowledge; instead of going to a library to find knowledge in the written word or even seeking out and consulting those more knowledgeable than ourselves, we now consult the oracle that is the internet, and we have access to unfathomable knowledge, more then we could ever need.

Even this blog that is being written and publicly uploaded is acting in place of the written journal. The list is almost endless, and with the invention of the smart phone, all of this and more is all synchronized between our multiple E-devices that are always on our person in one form or another, our phones linked to the net and synchronized with our home computers that are synchronized to our tablets and laptops, that are even now synchronized to our televisions and home entertainment devices.

I guess my feelings and reactions to this are the main focal point of my final project, as people no longer simple 'be' or 'do' it is all done via proxies, and privacy is becoming a thing of the past, and instead we live in the global village.

I am both dazzled and amazed by our current technology in contrast to what such a short time ago was considered science fiction, but I am also rather apathetic and vexed by this technologies impact on us as people, as it slowly dehumanises us and removes us from our more natural states.
In short, I find my place in contemporary society rather conflictive, as I struggle to embrace or regect technologies or social changes without having to compromise my own desires or ways of life.
For instance, I am something  of an escapist, and often retreat into virtual worlds via predominantly video games, but also fiction in film and television. I often try to escape or reject the world around me, but paradoxically the world now artificially toes me back via a virtual world and online persona, stating what game I am playing, tell me what virtual escapes others are playing, and that they are online and keeping open channels of communication with the world.

In an attempt to quantify this project into words, I guess, I am trying to visualise the fact that it has occurred that now, we are cyberpunk. And my confliction in trying to both embrace and reject elements of the world we live in.
I wish to do this via montage and photo manipulation, as digital photography and manipulation are booming technologies with this new world that I embraced, and so I wish to utilise them to manipulate a clearer visualisation of the cyberpunk world we live in. Conceptually it is important, as I believe that my images will depict true themes, and true social issues about our states of being, and that is that our states of being have become more artificial and virtual then they are real, and therefore the images themselves, must also simultaneously be both real and artificial.

Visual Brainstorm

Now that I have begun to define my project conceptually I need to brain storm visuals to refine exactly how this is going to be portrayed. So I will post, an almost random, assortment of images that I simply like the visuals of, or stylist elements I would like to draw inspiration from.

Many of these images contain messages about social issues, or the relationship between us and technology, or simply visuals that I quite like.

Test Shoot

After looking through many of the above images, I have started thinking about visuals, and how I am going to photograph my project.
Currently, I would like to self model in at least some of the images, as it my own personal view of the world, and my own confliction with our changing world I am addressing. Having said that I am still unclear if this will be a few images or a series, and so I am still very much in experimental stages.

I am going to begin in the studio, trying lighting styles and so forth to see if I can create a cinematic esque series of images, and mostly trying to get that Blade Runner style lighting of smoke and directional beams of light, as Blade Runner's visuals and mood definitely capture the same feelings I wish for my project. so I am starting with that iconic lighting that Jordan Cronenweth utilised.

The shoot was quite successful as experimentation, the results proved very cinematic, the smoked worked very nicely, though to get closer to Blade Runner lighting I will need to use stronger Arri lights next time so that the light beams are powerful enough to be picked up.
The experimentation with coloured gels proved quite effective, though if I am trying to mimic the light given by those classic neon street signs, I would rather simply use projection of said streets.

The aspect of the model concerns me slightly, the lighting test may have been successful but conceptually it's far from what I am seeking. I like the idea of self modelling for this project, as I am producing a reflection of my views on contemporary society, but I need to think of much more detail to the photograph than simply the lighting.

Random Dissertation Tangent

Had a zen moment with my dissertations directions and need to make a record:

I begun my attitude in a die hard / fan boy approach of "Cyberpunk is not dead!" that was opinionated and misguiled.
Upon reading Silvia Melichova's paper, Cyberpunk as Subculture, I have come to the revelation that cyberpunk is most certainly not dead, however, it is not entirely the entity I perceived it to be in the first place.
It's golden age in the late 80s and early 90s was a spark or flare of an entirely new subcultural form, on which I will elaborate within my dissertation. It's social bonding formed through a love of technology and fascination with a particular sub genre of science fiction writers, that perceived dark dystopian futures as a result of megacorporations and rapid technological growth.
These ethical or social themes where prominent parts of Cyberpunk subculture, as it was a culture formed more through love of computer or information technology, and shared ideologies, and less of a visual identity like punk or goth.
Many of the fears or predictions from the dystopic cyberpunk literature moved to cinema and anime, which gave a visual representation to the fiction but not quite the subculture.
Much of the predictions of Cyberpunk fiction have also manifested, however not quite in the ways predicted.
Technology has continued its rapid advancement and is gaining momentum, due to this, technology has become both an integral part of society and become fashionable, at an alarming rate, which has both in a way, brought out some of the cyerpunk future visions into reality, but at the same time, swallowed the subculture into the mainstream almost immediately after it was formed.
Fictional works continue of the cyberpunk style, like ghost in the shell or deus ex, however they are now more accurately categorised as post-cyberpunk, or even maybe cyberpunk is a more fluid and adaptive label, as the themes, archetypes and plot lines of these works of cyberpunk fiction have all shifted slightly and are slowly changing with the technological and social changes over the last couple of decades.
The most predominant change, being the slow phasing out of the dystopia, and a less black and white view of the mega corporations ruled future is coming into formation. As technology is a fully integral element of the mainstream, the archetype of the lone wolf protagonist has faded as well, as cyberpunks are no longer a small minority of computer enthusiasts.
Much like the ideology of Cyberia or Cyberspace, of the new plain of existence and collective consciousness, cyberpunk has been absorbed and integrated into new identities.
Certain hardcore groups remain that could be categorised as Cyberpunks, for instance the hacker group Anonymous, and whereas not cyberpunk, derivatives of cyberpunk can be seen everywhere, for example the netrunners of 4chan and reddit.

This information has lead to this zen moment, in that I wish to look more at cyberpunk fiction, and how it adapts and has shifted over time as social and technological changes progress, and new fears or simply new perspectives of the near future take form along the timeline of cyberpunk's absorption into mainstream society and culture. It's nature to look 2 steps ahead of where we are now instead of sci-fi's 100 steps ahead.

So with this little zen moment in mind I now need to do a more detailed restructuring of my chapters in order to sort out what information / arguments go where.

If I am going to chronicle cyberpunks absorption into contemporary society, I need to make comparisons to different cyberpunk works of fiction over time, and look at us as a society over that time period, as I am less chronicling their absorption into the mainstream but more commenting on our social change through technological advancement as it has essentially merged us with much of the cyberpunk ethos.
So I need a clear focal point. I am looking at the progression of the cyberpunk genre of fiction, and comparing it to social developments surrounding the timeline.

So chapter 1 is establishing "what is cyberpunk?" but more importantly it is distinguishing the difference between cyberpunk subculture and cyberpunk subgenre, and the links between the two, and how subculture became mainstream, but the subgenre remained, discuss IRL forums, Reddit 4chan.

Chapter 2 is a comparative of multiple works of cyberpunk spanning over time, to show the evolution and changes in the genre. Research, discussion and analysis of Neuromancer and Blade Runner.

Chapter 3 Discussion of newer works, Deus Ex, Ghost in the shell, Watch Dogs.

Short Chapter to summarise, that cyberpunks a critical subgenre looking at our relations with technology and our struggles in the third wave of post industrial society, and as this technology and social changes sets in, it looks critically at our struggles to adapt with it.

So plan for Chapter 1:

I am establishing cyberpunk as subculture and the difference between what is subculture and subgenre.
Introduction, first 500 words, introduce a rough description of cyberpunk, open with quote from David Bell, Cyberculture:

"In cyberpunk, not only is it possible to avoid dealing with the 'real', it is also desirable. The world is a harsh, dehumanised place, an extreme manifestation of the least desirable trends in our own societies in which corporations are more important than governments and all the anxieties about the information economy and globalisation have come true."

Reaction to this, is that this quote eloquently summarises the main themes of cyberpunk literature, particularly the golden age of cyberpunk or boom period in the 80s, however, it only begins to scratch the surface, as cyberpunk is a far more debatable subject, and whereas this above quote is very identifiable with how most think of cyberpunk, cyberpunk itself is far more varied and overlaps between subculture, genre and general phenomenon.

From move onto listing a few works of cyberpunk, starting with neuromancer being the first labelled piece of cyberpunk, make comparison to the matrix.
Then list other cyberpunk examples, i.e. blade runner, as the visualisation of cyberpunks 2 years prior to neuromancer, and william blake another cyberpunk founder coined the term in a short story, "do androids dream of electric sheep" as pre cyberpunk, classified as science fiction, however holds many themes of cyberpunk etc.

Then list some debatable films that are cyberpunk but are somewhat different to the typical neuromancer / blade runner story, for example matrix, dark city, 12 monkeys. Explain that much of the subgenre cyberpunk in cinema overlaps with sci-fi postmodernism.

Then establish trademark setting for cyberpunk, discuss how this generated from the boom period, and that there are definite differences in setting for east and west cyberpunk, due to cultural differences, keep slightly more on the speculative side unless you have clear evidence. Also make a brief note on the term post-cyberpunk, as it is a marked shift in cultural / social fears and technological change that evolved over time.

From here discuss that cyberpunk is a genre and subculture surrounded in vague boundaries and shifting definitions.
Then list things like mondo magazine, wiredm R.U. Sirius and talk about technology and computer boom etc. starting to talk about cyberculture.
Discuss the post-industrial, and what defines subculture, i.e. a group of people with something in common.
Mention Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post Industrial Society, talk about how he predicts the third wave we live in, where the small village and church have disappeared along with the commonplace of the family business inherited by the son, and companies change their modes to be profit driven, a car company begins to manufacture profit, not just cars. The stock market has taken control and corporations benefit from right wing governments (Thatcher, Reagan) and become mega corporations.
This makes it easy for groups of youths to attach stigma and blame or loathing towards an increasing conformist capitalist society. Anxiety takes control and technologically enthusiastic youths identify with the characters of works like neuromancer.
Discuss that cyberpunks had a love of technology in common and computer language, video games, and cyberpunk literature, however due to the boom in technology computer language and love of technology and video games quickly became something the mainstream all had in common.
Discuss how the subculture was something that very much became absorbed into the mainstream due to rapid technology growth, very very quickly, but the subgenre remained, predominantly more in asia though it has continued through both east and west. list a couple of examples.

Back to Final Major Project

As stated this blog post is something of a tangent.
Back to final major project, after immersing myself in background knowledge on CyberPunk I needed to continue my project through the visuals of CyberPunk.
As I said previously this project is something of an indulgence, I am photographing in a way to recreate the world in which I see it.
I spent some time in the studio, using the visualisations of Blade Runner as my inspiration I set up spot lighting in combination with the smoke machine, and self modelled in contemporary high street fashion that reflects the way in which we have become this 'CyberPunk' world.

I had, a potential, mini revelation of thought, toward what I wish from this project.

After the studio shoot utilizing smoke and projected scenes from Blade Runner, I very much like the aesthetics of the shot, however, I do find myself staring at them going, "well, they look pretty, now what!?".

They where a brilliantly wrapped dead end so to speak.

After my tutorial at uni, I very much decided I need to correlate a series of constructed images, and I need meaning towards these scenes. Whether I myself am to be modeling in these images or not is still a matter somewhat debatable to me.

I have however decided to make a list of different interactions with technology, what they represent, or more specifically my interactions with technology and what they represent.

The first idea came to me from a bus stop. Actually specifically Chatham bus stop.

On a purely aesthetic pount of view, its rather contemporary,super bright LED lighting, almost next-gen, I say next-gen rather than space age, as I mean futuristic however its a cliche phrase, making people think of space ships and things far off, where as we are really at a technological turning point, so next-gen feels more appropriate.

 But back on topic, the bus shelter appeals to me, as it is a transient space, they exist in random locations, sometimes in the middle of nowhere, lit up artificially at all times, often plastered in advertising. Whilst a person is there they are there only to wait to go somewhere else.

The light is an important element to me, light artificial of any kind, even a campfire, as it is a symbol of man reaching to the gods, disobeying the dark and adapting their surroundings to them and not their surroundings.

In current society, due to the wide spread of mobile smart phones with internet access, these spaces are also where most people delve into their phones or smart devices such as tablet. As it is a waiting space, what else is there to do? Delve into the net, talk with others, in other locations, you can go anywhere on the net.

This is quite an unusual idea, in that your thoughts in this waiting space disappear from your surroundings entirely. Mine will drift into the fantasy of book, or in music, free from the area. Others will use this space to communicate via the net with others, or look up information online. It is interesting because your consciousness leaves your body in a sense, in that you disregard your physical surroundings and transport your mind to another, in a sense your body is nothing more than a meat suit at this moment, and your mind leaves it to amuse itself elsewhere while said suit awaits transportation to another location.

Now as stated I often listen to music, or retreat into a book, as do many others in such situations, however the transportation of the mind is the same condition, put simply I do not mean this as literal mind dive into the net, rather that, in our current age, we have sculptured our world to suit us in such a way, that in these situations, at night in the middle of nowhere, merely waiting to be transported, we can switch off and switch on in another world. The phone or smart device enables this further of course and makes a wonderful metaphor, but the world we have constructed is what enables this intriguing event.

Unfortunately I immediately found myself disinterested with the look of the photographs, they where not what I was essentially interested in, I found myself more interested with the actual space and the lights, so I found myself photographing those instead.

As I began to explore the space and the lights I drew myself toward the foggy river and I found myself drawn to the way the light spread across the foggy landscape.

The scene that presented itself to me seemed like a completely alternate realm, something out of fantasy. Though I found myself conflicted in that as much as I loved these images and the world they conveyed I could not help but wonder how these would translate into a series. I decided from these to explore the ways in which artificial light travels, and how it illuminates the spaces surrounding it.

I was inspired by the works of Michael Wolf, mostly his series, "Architecture of Density" in Hong Kong, and his depiction of city life, I found it incredible to see scenes of city life straight of the sci-fi films I grew up on but in real life, as the normality for so many people.

This view of the future city I grew up seeing as fantasy realised through Micahel Wolf's photography was inspiring to me, there is an inexplicable fascination with these images and this example of human creation and life. The sheer size and density of the buildings is something incredibly and awe inspiring, the possibilities of such dense clusters of so many lives makes endless possibilities, yet at the same time, it presents life so condensed so various, individuality is lost in a sea of life. There is no nature, only industrialism, you can see neither floor nor sky in the endless production of life. The images are fascinating, and speak a great deal about our society and where we are headed, neither wholly positive nor negative.

The images made me think of a quote from David Bell in his book on Cyberculutre:

"The world is a harsh, dehumanised place, an extreme manifestation of the least desirable trends in our own societies in which corporations are more important than governments and all the anxieties about the information economy and globalisation have come true."

I changed my destination to London, as it presents a world that can exist entirely at night through the shear illumination and intensity of lights. In search of my own "Architecture of Density".

I found that I am conflicted by the images I returned with, I could easily present them a series, and they have a strong quality to them, however I find the buildings take such presence in the photographs, they are so imposing that the photographs become about the buildings, and the presence of the light becomes irrelevant. The density of the buildings is not anything close to that of Michael Wolf's, and upon reflection, I don't intend to simply recreate another's work. I found something that drew me to these images, the darkness of the buildings, the lights that emit. There is something in these images, but not as they are.

Rut Blees Luxemburg

I wanted to add an element of the other world to my images that I could not find in my shots of towers. I have always adored Rut Blees Luxemburg's images of the streets of London, for their 'otherworldly' quality.

These images show simple banal parts of the city that often go overlooked by the passer by, but her use of light and colours transforms the street into an image of fantasy and wonder. I want a touch of this to be reflected in my work, something just slightly off, something unreal that will counterbalance the potential negative portrayal of condensed urban life.


My next shoot was in China town in London, I went to find neon lights and signs as a projected backdrop for another project, and I kept an eye out for inspiration on this project. As I passed through China town I noticed an alleyway that intrigued me.

I liked the sense of portals within the image, the light leading to the seedy massage parlour, the dark alleyway that holds a glimpse of some other world to explore, not wholly sinister yet something seedy, or unclean, another world or society looked down upon from the societal norm of the London West End.

The pots production changes where quite subtle, I wanted simply to enhance both the dark and light spaces, to draw emphasis to the light and the space it illuminates. I will continue to shoot in this manner, no longer necessarily in the city, but focusing on portals and different spaces presented as alternate worlds with the light as a guide.

Upon reflection of these images, they are interesting and they show mystery examples that light may guide you to, however it is a separate project and not really the main draw I used to have for this project is not within these images, and where I could not fault them as such, it is not what I wished to capture.

Upon hitting a brick wall with what to do for this project, I decided to go back to my source inspiration, of Cyberpunk science fiction, the endless cityscapes of dystopian worlds.

I started with the world of Blade Runner, captivated by it's opening cityscapes.

These cityscapes of future density captivated me as a child, and sitting in my fathers car frequently leaving London late at night I would gaze out the window at the city rolling past imagining the same future city of mystery and possibility.

Sadly through photographing this project I realised there is no true way to capture my imagination of the landscape in this style, as it is a construction of imagination, at least as far as English cityscapes go. It is how I imagined the city as a child however, and how I still view cities in my minds eye, as a structure of endless density, a mixture of the utopia and the dystopia and I wanted to realise this vision with my final major project.

Upon revisiting my original research I re-watched the films that inspired me, Alex Proyas 'Dark City', Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner', Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis', and Gerald Potterton's 'Heavy Metal', and much of the art work by Jean Giraud a.k.a. Moebius.

I turned to the concept art for the cities of these works of fiction:

 Dark City

 Moebius

Fifth Element

Blade Runner

Metropolis 

Upon reflection I was completely drawn in by the concept art I found for Fritz Lang's Metropolis, as that photo montage was incredibly effective and drawing and a medium I can draw upon myself.

I wanted to create my own world, show my reflection of the density we live in, the endless construction of man. Having grown up in a large collection of towns and constantly visiting London, I see nothing but town linking to town, or the condensed concrete of London. We live in a nature devoid spectacle in many parts of the world now, and the constant construction packs us denser and denser. I do not necessarily view this as a wholly negative thing, the city is a marvel to behold. To me the city is the quintessential example of man, it is made of concrete and straight angles, carefully sculpted towers packed with artificial light, it could not be more opposed to nature, and therefore could resemble man's own creation more.
Michael Wolf's work shows the density of life, but it is too neutral in tone, to easy to view negatively, where there are negatives to this idea of density, to this sheer scale of man made construction, but there is also beauty, wonder, the marvel at what man can do, density of construction is both good and bad, there is endless possibility, wonder at the impossible, there is also confliction, in such saturation of variety, individuality can be diluted, in the words of Georg Simmel and his essay 'The Metropolis and Mental Life':

"The deepest problems of modern life flow from the attempt of the individual to maintain the independence and individuality of his existence against the sovereign powers of society"

The metropolis of modern life bring us struggle, in the density of endless possibility one has every opportunity to define oneself in the sea of diversity, yet it is also possible to drown in this diversity, and be lost as part of an indefinable mass of life.

In order to create this visualisation using English areas, I need to take control of the landscape, much like the concept art for Fritz Lang's Metropolis, I have to take parts of the city of urban areas, and construct them into a realisation of my vision.

I went to south bank in London to photograph some surrounding buildings, and then stitch them together myself, to create my own dystopian / utopian kaleidoscopes of the city.

I had taken several images of the south bank area, looking for landmarks and buildings, some would be iconic, other would blend in as concrete 'vessels' that comprise the city.
How to string them together was an entirely separate and new task to me, how do I construct these? How to break them up and restitch them into the state of life in my minds eye?

I decided to key reference the work of Moebius to create scenes without beginning nor end, a world where it is impossible to reach the very peak to see the skies, nor is it possible to ever truly reach it's depths to the floor below. The world will be an endless construction of man.

One of the first issues I came across was that perspectives and image quality shift when you resize and play with the images. Thinking however of a quote about Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, I decided to embrace this mis-match of perspective and image quality.

"This tension between past, present and future is mirrored in the retrofitted future of Blade Runner, which is high-tech and gleaming in places but decayed and old elsewhere."

This quote very much reflects the nature of London in particular, as much of the very new is built next to, in between or right on top of the old, past and present collide with the future  architecturally speaking, which is also a poignant reflection on the cultures and lives of those that inhabit the urban world.

South Bank

I began by simply cutting out the buildings I wanted to work with using the pen tool and masks.

I then started arranging and fitting them together, constantly thinking of layers and this idea of endlessness.

With this particular image I wanted a sense of portals through the water, that would also throw off natural perception, as they look more like pools layered on different tiers of the city.

There also had to be a sense of a backdrop, distance, that more of the city was lurking behind to something completely different.

At this early stage I time scaled for six images to be produced, due the large amount of work needed in both shooting the right images and enough images to cut up into one image, and then to allow enough time for the sheer scale of post production needed per image.

As I decided upon six images I wanted to portray 6 totally different scenes, that could fit both together as a diverse city, but sit separately as their own 'districts'. In order to diversify the images I decided they should themselves be tiered, the upper images showing the richer areas, 'higher up the chain' or 'closer to the skies', then the lower tiers of the older and more industrial, the lower classes 'close to the ground shadowed by the city above.'

I next had to work with lighting and colour corrections on this image to make each building fit together.

Each building had to be foldered, and have it's own specific lighting, colour, and saturation adjustments in order to make each piece fit together.

To prevent the image from becoming too flat I also used gradient masks, and manually painted in shadows to give a better sense of distance between buildings.

In the end of the image I built up a very complex yet structured layering system that had each individual building's adjustments in folders, so that the buildings fit together, then several adjustments that apply to the whole image.

This is my final image from my south bank shoot. working with the water as portals, and using the bridges as my homage to the work of Moebius and the endless city.

Barbican

My next shoot was around the Barbican Centre in London as it is quite close to many large high end skyscrapers.

I decided to make us of the previous shoot in the Barbican to manipulate these images into what I intended. The inspiration for this next image was that of a financial district, or a business centre to the city. As the buildings themselves are quite dark and monolithic I decided to embrace that, and create almost a void of a centre point.

I took on a little bit of inspiration from Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' for this image, and began flipping sky scrapers upside down in order to play with and distort perspectives or the notion of the 'real'.

I tilted skyscrapers into impossible walkways and used car park roof tops for some foreground to act as a visual anchor and make the scene all the more impossible.

The same methods applied of layering and individual lighting adjustments man to each building then to the image as a whole to create and spiralling dark void as my epicentre of business.

Piccadilly 

I had scenes of floating pools and luxury buildings in South Bank, and a spiralling tower of finance and business from my Barbican shots, I now wanted to present a scene of entertainment for the upper classes, taking on inspiration from both Fritz Langs' Metropolis.

And there more recent Japanese adaptation of Metropolis by Rintaro.

From these images I applied the same work method of cutting and stitching before, using Metropolis as my visual reference.

And again manually painting in shadows and colour balancing.

As this district represented entertainment and wealth, I wanted it to have just a slight idea of sky or a zenith point, yet upon inspection is still not quite clear sky as there still lurks buildings in the distance.

So I added some more backdrop buildings, and then darkened them so there just nearly disappear, leaving only traces behind.

Chatham

The next three areas where to be the lower class areas, far moodier, darker and unsettling than the above images.

As I was no longer in the complete high rise areas of London, my choice of buildings shifted, and street lights cast far more lens flares with my longer exposures, so taking yet another leaf out of Ridley Scott's book, I decided to embrace them, and use them to my advantage as dazzling city lights.

My main inspiration images for this image, where of Neo Tokyo in Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Akira'.

Something incredibly built up, that once might have been an impressive city centre, but has since fallen into ruin, with the new city dominating over the top of what used to once be the 'peak'.

As I struggled to get a decent enough shot of some of the tower blocks I wished to include, I began cutting up sections of tower block to copy and paste them, warping them together to create monolith tower blocks of flats.

I next filled the empty space under the bridge using a shot of the main road to the Medway tunnel, getting the trails of light from the cars like in Akira.

Finally adding the usual colour balancing and painted shadows, plus one or two lens flares to work with the street light effects.

Strood Industrial 

Now I wanted to look at the strong industrial elements to Medway and that act as a by-product of the city, progress requires industry. The element of mans creation being smoke and pollution in order to create the fantastic.

This would be a piece very heavily inspired by the opening scenes of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, for those scenes themselves where inspired by Teesside, Ridley Scott's hometown, in England's North East as it is such an industrial area.

An element of foreground, or walkways to play with depth worked really well with previous images, so I wanted to keep that foreground, and decided to utilise the wide long roads that the lorries would use to transport supplies between sites.

I know need to build up density and darkness within the image, and most importantly the smoke.

After I had the density of the area and the sweeping industrial road that seemed infinite, I now needed to customise some high resolution smoke brushes and create my own smoke.

I painted in shadows using the same method as before, but then added in my own smoke by painting it in with customised smoke brushes. Next was to balance the lights and smoke.

Woolwich 

My final shoot was in Woolwich London, as I had created the industrial district that lies underneath the city, fuelling it's life, and the abandoned old city centre, cramped underneath the new, I now wanted to look at tower blocks, the crammed lights of life.

My main inspirations for this final image would be a combination of Rut Blees Luxemburg and Michael Wolf. Fusing the condensed urban towers of Michael Wolf, with the wondrous surreal light of Rut Blees Luxemburg.

In order to create this piece I had to resize and layer up my tower block to create a density like Michael Wolf's. 

The fence and lower block of flats where to be my foreground, the intimidation of the iron bars reflecting the towering blocks of life.  I needed to rebalance my images, add density and bring a stark definition to my images in order to bring them out, instead of becoming a flat image.

In order to bring the buildings out more and create my unreal lighting and edge to my images. I did this by duplicating the layer of each building.

Then by inverting the images colours, and desaturating them I create a second black and white layer of highlights and shadows.

I then blend with the original image to bring out it's definition.

Resulting in my final built up cacophony of life.

The images have all been printed A3, and framed in thin black frames, and are to be displayed in two rows, the upper class districts on the top row, and the lower districts underneath, creating my endless city, my 'Existence Moebius'.