964 Pinocchio (1991) is a cyberpunk body horror film directed by Shōzin Fukui. The film tells the story of a memory wiped cyborg slave who after being discarded by his owners, wanders through an urban wasteland and meets a homeless woman suffering from memory loss and together they descend into a hallucinatory nightmare of identity, control, and transformation.
Fukui's film is a visceral assault on the senses, blending surreal imagery, kinetic handheld camerawork, and industrial noise into a fever dream of dehumanization and decay.
964 Pinocchio stands as a cult landmark of Japanese cyberpunk cinema, exploring the collapse of the body and mind in a dystopian, post-industrial world. It is widely considered as one of the best examples of the underground Japanese Cyberpunk genre.
A burger shop employee (FM Einheit from German industrial band 'Einstürzende Neubauten'!) discovers hidden hypnotic frequencies in pleasant restaurant background music, alters them (after William S Burroughs tells him how to do it in a dream) and incites a revolution against a dark, dystopian regime. His girlfriend (played by 80s icon Christiane F) helps him with her frog collection.
Oh yeah... and Genesis P-Orridge from Throbbing Gristle helps him on his mission too with some magick.
*Decoder Handbuch*, is a compilation of text and image brought together and edited by Klaus Maeck and Walter Hartmann as a tie-in for the film *Decoder* (in which Burroughs plays a role). Contributing editors are Volker Schäfer, Muscha, and Genesis [Breyer] P-Orridge. Typesetting by Petra Petzold. A scarce item. German-language only (except for Brion Gysin's "Cut-Ups Self-Explained").
The film *Decoder* which this book supports was produced by Fett Film (Düsseldorf, Germany), directed by Muscha, and written by Klaus Maeck, Trini Trimpop, and Volker Schaefer. Camerawork by Johanna Heer, Peter "Sleazy" Christofferson, et al. Music by David Ball of Soft Cell, as well as F. M. Einheit and Genesis [Breyer] P-Orridge, et al. The cast included F. M. Einheit, Bill Rice, Christiane Felscherinow ["Christiane F."], Matthias Fuchs, Bertold Bell, Ralf Richter, William S. Burroughs, Genesis [Breyer] P-Orridge, et al. The film was also released in 1984.
This book contains a number of Burroughs and Gysin related contents.
At page 9 is a quote from William S. Burroughs taken from "Die unsichtbare Generation" ["The Invisible Generation"], along with two images: a still (uncredited) from Antony Balch's *Towers Open Fire* of Burroughs with a reel-to-reel tape machine, at rue Gît-le-Cœur, 1962, and a still of Burroughs from the film Decoder, in London, 1982, picking at a tape player (this was likely shot by Peter "Sleazy" Christophersen [of Throbbing Gristle and Coil]).
At pages 10-11 is "We Are Here to Go", a brief interview of William S. Burroughs by Klaus Maeck. Photos of Burroughs by Kate Simon accompany this interview.
At pages 15-16 is "Der erste Watergate–Skandal passierte im Garden Eden" [this is an excerpt from "Playback from Eden to Watergate"] by William S. Burroughs.
At pages 16-17 is "Infraschall" ["Infrasound", an excerpt from *The Job* – ref. pp.54-56 of the Cape edition] by William S. Burroughs.
At pages 22-23 is an excerpt from "Die Städte den roten Nacht" ["Cities of the Red Night"] by William S. Burroughs,
An image of Burroughs and some text about him and Brion Gysin is at page 55, in "Decoder Drehbuch" by Klaus Maeck, Muscha, Volker Schaefer, and Trini Trimpop.
At page 59 is a short bibliography of William S. Burroughs.
A still from the movie showing Burroughs is on the back cover of this book, as well.
In addition, there are two Brion Gysin contributions: "Cut-Up Self-Explained" – which is accompanied by a photo by Ian Sommerville of Gysin with William S. Burroughs – and "Dreamachine" – which includes Dreamachine plans.
This copy was acquired from Antiquariat Kyra Maralt (Warthe, Germany). I brought it with me to the EBSN "Cut-Ups Conference" in Paris, 2023, where Klaus Maeck kindly inscribed the copy, at his foreword, following a screening of *Decoder*.
https://www.miningforburroughs.com/2025/05/decoder-handbuch-by-klaus-maeck-and.html
Ultimately stunning in its revelations, Lutz Dammbeck's THE NET explores the incredibly complex backstory of Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber. This exquisitely crafted inquiry into the rationale of this mythic figure situates him within a late 20th Century web of technology - a system that he grew to oppose. A marvelously subversive approach to the history of the Internet, this insightful documentary combines speculative travelogue and investigative journalism to trace contrasting countercultural responses to the cybernetic revolution.
Documentary looking at the black market website known as the Silk Road, which emerged on the darknet in 2011. This 'Amazon of illegal drugs' was the brainchild of a mysterious, libertarian intellectual operating under the avatar The Dread Pirate Roberts. Promising its users complete anonymity and total freedom from government regulation or scrutiny, Silk Road became a million-dollar digital drugs cartel.
Homeland Security, the DEA, the FBI and even the Secret Service mounted multiple investigations in the largest online manhunt the world had ever seen. But it would be a young tax inspector from the IRS, who had grown up in the projects of Brooklyn, who would finally crack the case and unmask 'DPR'.
With unparalleled access, Silk Road is a thrilling cat-and-mouse crime story for the digital age, bristling with intrigue, mayhem... and murder.
"If there is a cartographer of altered states of consciousness—of the highways and byways of the inner trip—it is John Lilly, a rare combination of scientist and mystic." —Psychology Today
This documentary examines the work of Dr. John Lilly and his team in the 1960s when he was working on interspecies communication between humans and dolphins. The film contains extensive audio and film recordings from John Lilly's early work. The documentary tells the story of the most extraordinary experiment in the history of animal science. In the 1960s John Lilly flooded a house. He then invited a young woman to live there full-time with a dolphin. Their intention was to teach the dolphin to speak English. What happened next would change all their lives. For the first time those involved in the experiment reveal the secrets of the Dolphin House.
Between 1959 and 1968 Lilly wagered and lost his mainstream scientific career largely over this audacious, ultimately inconclusive bid to establish and document for scientific validation “communication with a nonhuman mind.” In that effort, however, he mobilized the best available tools, a cutting-edge array of cybernetic concepts. He leaned heavily on the information theory bound up with first-order cybernetics and operated with heuristic computational metaphors alongside the actual computers of his era. As I will elicit through some close readings of his texts, in that process Lilly also homed in on crucial epistemological renovations with a constructivist redescription of cognition that may have influenced and motivated his colleague Heinz von Foerster’s more renowned formulations, arriving in the early 1970s, of a second-order cybernetics- (Clarke).
John Lilly went on to write numerous books about inter and intra personal communication and awareness. His work with floatation tanks, LSD and telepathy are well known in both the scientific and in the counter culture communities. His essay, Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer is a classic for anyone studying the nature of consciousness.
Stelarc is a Performance Artist and holds the Chair in Performance Art at the School of Arts, Brunel University, London. Stelarc speaks on mixed and augmented realities and our biological bodies at the Screen Media seminar: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2251/
Abstract: We are increasingly expected to perform in Mixed and Augmented Realities. We are no longer merely biological bodies but increasingly accelerated by our machines and enhanced by our instruments. And we have to manage data in virtual systems. We have become extended operational systems, performing beyond the boundaries of our skin and beyond the local space we inhabit. As well as Circulating Flesh it is now an age of Fractal and Phantom Flesh.
More info: http://www.v2.nl/archive/people/stelarc/
The Documentary 'Stelarc Psycho Cyber' was made in the year 1996 and directed and produced by Mic Gruchy.It is a comprehensive one hour documentary of the 30 year body of work of Australian electronic media and performance artist Stelarc.
An interesting summary of Stelarc's most influencial works presented in the form of a short documentary, augmented by comments of Stelarc himself. The film also gives an idea of his approach to the body and his works in general, as well as his perspective on the future.
Edward Ihnatowicz was a Cybernetic Sculptor active in the UK in the late 1960's and early 1970's. His ground-breaking sculptures explored the interaction between his robotic works and the audience, and reached their height with The Senster, a large (15 feet long), hydraulic robot commissioned by the electronics giant, Philips, in Eindhoven, Holland in 1970. The sculpture used sound and movement sensors to react to the behaviour of the visitors. It was one of the first computer controlled interactive robotic works of art.
Ganguro is an alternative fashion trend among young Japanese women which peaked in popularity around the year 2000, but remains evident today. The Shibuya and Ikebukuro districts of Tokyo are the center of ganguro fashion.
In ganguro fashion, a deep tan is combined with hair dyed in shades of orange to blonde, or a silver gray known as "high bleached". Black ink is used as eyeliner and white concealer is used as lipstick and eyeshadow. False eyelashes, plastic facial gems, and pearl powder are often added to this. Platform shoes and brightly-colored outfits complete the ganguro look. Also typical of ganguro fashion are tie-dyed sarongs, miniskirts, and lots of bracelets, rings, and necklaces.
The deep ganguro tan is in direct conflict with traditional Japanese ideas of feminine beauty. Due to this, as well as their use of slang, unconventional fashion sense, and perceived lack of hygiene, ganguro gals are almost always portrayed negatively by the Japanese media.
Fashion magazines like Egg and Cawaii have had a direct influence on the ganguro. Other popular ganguro magazines include Popteen and Ego System. The ganguro culture has evolved its own synchronized dances, called Para Para. Participants do predetermined moves at the same time, usually as accompaniment to J-pop music. Para Para events are held by ganguro circles, and involve either going to clubs to perform Para Para or gathering to learn new dances.
People generally associate the ganguro look with the old style. The newer style consists of a mid tan, natural makeup, long white to brown hair, with curls or straightened and backcombed. Current clothing trends include mini shorts, knee socks, and tanktops.
One of the most famous early ganguro girls was known as Buriteri, nicknamed after the black soy sauce used to flavor yellowtail fish in teriyaki cooking. Egg made her a star by frequently featuring her in its pages during the height of the ganguro craze. After modeling and advertising for the Shibuya tanning salon "Blacky", social pressure and negative press convinced Buriteri to retire from the ganguro lifestyle
Yamanba is a newer term often used to describe extreme practitioners of ganguro fashion. Yamanba feature darker tans and add white lipstick, pastel eye makeup, tiny metallic or glittery adhesives below the eyes, brightly-colored contact lenses, plastic dayglo-colored clothing, and incongruous accessories to the ganguro look. Some yamanba wear stuffed animals as decorations. The male equivalent is called a "center guy" (Sentaagai?, Center Street), a pun on the name of a pedestrian shopping street near Shibuya Station in Tokyo where yamanba and center guys are often seen.
Perhaps the overriding theme of Gibson's work is the knowledge that, as Bukatman (1993: 5) (rather clumsily) puts it '[t]echnology and the human are no longer so dichotomous'. The boundaries between subjects, their bodies and the 'outside world' are, like everything else, being radically reconfigured (Haraway, 1991; Plant, 1993). The division between technology and nature is dissolving as the analytic categories we draw upon to give structure to our world - the biological, the technological, the natural, the artificial, and the human - begin to blur (Stone, 1991: 101-2). The mainstreaming of cosmetic surgery and the rise of biotechnology, genetic engineering and nanotechnology have led some to contemplate that the next 'generation could very well be the l ast...of "pure" humans' (Deitch, 1995). A programmatic users guide on new technological developments (Rucker et al., 1993: 100) puts it like this: 'We are already cyborgs. My mother, for instance, leads a relatively normal life thanks to a pacemaker. Beyo nd that, genetic engineering and nanotechnology...offer us the possibility of literally being able to change our bodies into new and different forms...a form of postbiological humanity can be achieved within the next fifty years'. Cyberpunk as Social and Political Theory RJ Burrows, March 1995
