“Cyber” is a term used for technology, computers, and internet. “Twee” is defined as excessively or affectedly quaint, cute, pretty or sentimental.
How can we imagine a science fiction that is girly and soft, an antithesis to cyberpunk? The cybertwee collective has been exploring this concept after coining the name “cybertwee” back in 2016, a sci-fi genre that has always existed but never had a name.
With AI, Violet Forest (co-founder of cybertwee) continues to explore what a cybertwee fiction could look like, from character design to speculative product design, by combining elements of kawaii, cyberpunk, and influences of internet subculture aesthetics. This project also attempts to test popular AI models like Midjourney to generate what they have been trained to recognize as “cybertwee”, assuming that the models were trained on what the collective has left behind on the internet, mostly on cybertwee.tumblr.com (now archived by the Rhizome.org ArtBase: https://artbase.rhizome.org/wiki/Q15265).
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This artwork was minted for the Claire Silver x Unit London Exhibition, E-motions. Curated by Claire Silver, E-motions is an exhibition celebrating the sense of communion that develops from creative collaboration with artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
Delving into the multifaceted realm of Post-Internet art and the cultural movement hikikomori sweeping Japan, this exhibition spotlights an expansive group of 26 artists who recognise the transformative power of technology.
E-motions launches Wednesday 6 September 2023 at 5pm BST.
