The best feature of the new “Alien Romulus” is not HR Giger’s timeless monster, but that the film has recreated the original’s stunning computer aesthetic. Although the first “Alien” movie from 1979 takes place on a spaceship in the year 2122, the computers did not have touch screens or bluetooth, instead they were canisters built into the walls with screens as small as pocket mirrors.
In this future scenario, we were on the one hand able to develop androids, on the other hand content with a floppy disk as a storage format.
Meanwhile on another part of the internet I start a social media reel where an old 486 computer picks up. There is a loud noise as the megahertz numbers fall down the crt screen. A disc is inserted into the disc drive and soon “Wolfenstein 3D” will flash on the screen.
Cassette Income borrows its aesthetic components from the sci-fi worlds created between the seventies and eighties
Yes, I’m an octogenarian, and it’s very likely that the algorithm makes me homesick. But I’m not the only one who loves analog dials and magnetically damaged video cassettes. Generations that have never owned a floppy disk or rented a VHS are crazy about the retro-futuristic feeling called “cassette futurism”.
Cassette Income borrows its aesthetic components from the sci-fi worlds created between the seventies and eighties. Imagine an alternate future (or present) where some technology has advanced, while others have stopped. A life with flying cars but no wireless router, humanoid robots but no smartphones.
Everywhere, it seems that the interest in past technology is gaining ground. On November 8, “The Pirate Bay” will appear on SVT, a drama series about the file sharing site of the same name. It’s full of piss-yellow fluorescent lights, desktop computers and one hundred percent Bluetooth-free technology. This period of torrent files and peer-to-peer networks has been coined as the cassette and VHS age.
The fascination for analog technology came from a fetish, not an imagined notion of reality
Since then, the massive computer canisters have become smartphones, the video tapes have been digitized, pirated motion streaming services and everything else has gone out to the cloud. It’s no wonder that generations raised without physical storage media romanticize a smarter era of cassette tapes and network cables.
It is no coincidence that the Retro Games Fair, which has been silent since the pandemic, came back this year. This weekend, enthusiasts gathered on Ringön to play antique games on big TVs and both sell and collect old game records. Many of the visitors were significantly younger than the hardware they bought.
To celebrate the 45th anniversary of “Aliens” in December, “Alien Romulus” is being released on VHS tape. A videotape that the press release confirms is “fully functional”. It reminds me of when my friend released an EP on a hip label a few years ago. When I asked for a copy, he handed over a cassette cover. That’s all. The EP. When I took out the cassette tape, a note fell out, with a link to a page where I could download the songs. Because I don’t listen to the album.
The advent of cassette, unlike many other sci-fi genres, is aesthetic rather than conceptual. The fascination for analog technology is born out of a fetish, not a fanciful idea of reality – although it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish one from the other.
It’s not about research for development it says something about our lost faith in the future. We know that the future was not better before, but we take comfort in the fact that it was better at least.
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2024-11-02 16:38:00
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