In the middle of corona time, from Oct. 17 to Nov. 10, 2020, a special event was held in Hong Kong. It was called "Heart of Cyberpunk" and was a cross-genre festival event with fashion design as the main protagonist.
"Heart of Cyberpunk was a journey to a sustainable future. The exhibition at this event transformed waste from local neighborhoods into new materials and developed new designs to reduce waste," Sam Lam said in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week in late October. She is curator and director of Business Development & Projects at the Hong Kong Design Centre.
Hong Kong is the heart of cyberpunk culture. 'Blade Runner,' a 1982 Hollywood film starring Rutger Hauer, showed stunning futuristic cyber cities. They were heavily influenced by Hong Kong and was considered the classic cyberpunk film of all time that spawned and cultivated the genre.
Since then, cyberpunk can never be separated from Hong Kong. Numerous works have been produced that belong to the cyberpunk genre with Hong Kong as part of the futuristic aesthetic. Some scenes in the film Ghost in the Shell were filmed in the Sham Shui Po district, where saturated neon lights and metropolitan-style high-rises create the ideal aesthetic and atmosphere.
The event included a cyberpunk exhibition by local and international artists, 10 Hong Kong fashion designers who created 30 sets of cyberpunk costumes and accessories, and a cyberpunk film set.
Cyberpunk clothing
"By creating a futuristic and surreal film environment, visitors to 'Heart of Cyberpunk' were invited to dress up in cyberpunk clothing and participate in this hyper-sensory experience. In the process, the intersection of fashion design, light installations, street art and technology was explored," Sam said. Visitors became an important part of this mini-cyber city that consisted of a futuristic market with themed merchandise, immersive fashion experiences and costume parties.
