Are you lost? Are you wondering what the heck this thing is that you just stumbled into? Well...we're not going to spoil all the fun and tell you everything, but here's a few FAQtoids:
The Beyond Cyberpunk web site is a online version of the classic HyperCard stack of the same name created in1991 by Gareth Branwyn and Peter Sugarman. Currently, we have only a small portion of the original BCP content here. What you see in the index/table of contents is a list of all the material from the original stack and the 1993 Update stack. The hyperlinked items are what's available online so far. We'll be adding more in the months ahead, so stay tuned...
The BCP Web is available in two different flavors: a text-only and a graphics version. If you get tired of the graphics version (or you only have a text browser) you can set your bookmark to the text-only version for quicker access to the heart of BCP articles and reviews.
BCP Web, like the original stack, is divided into four zones:
Each zone has an essay and a resource section. The resource section is further divided by category (books, organizations, zines, etc.).
At the bottom of each page of BCP is a navigation panel that offers access to the four zones, the main index/table of contents, and a glossary. Glossary items are also hyperlinked within the text. The navigation panel also allows you to move up a level (say from a manifesto essay to the manifesto table of contents) and to move back page and forth through a zone via the previous and next page arrow buttons.
Gareth Branwyn is a contributing writer for Wired magazine and the Senior Editor of bOING bOING. He is the co-author of bOING bOING's Happy Mutant Handbook (Riverhead) and Mosaic Quick Tour (Ventana), the very first book on Mosaic and the World Wide Web (honest!).
(Gareth provided the vision, edited every word, and was half of the design team)
Peter B. Sugarman is still trying to figure out, after the last twenty years in the communications biz (Broadcast TV, Satellite Networks and designing multimedia bon mots like this one), why folks aren't having more fun with stuff like this?
(Peter did the HyperCard programming, digitized the sounds and images, did the pixel bricks & mortar work, co-designed the stack.)
Mark Frauenfelder is an associate editor of Wired and the editor and publisher of bOING bOING. He also co-authored The Happy Mutant Handbook. Mark is also an accomplished cartoonist who created Kata Sutra and codeHound, the mascots of Beyond Cyberpunk.
(Mark was an early catalyst for BCP and was essential in contacting many of the luminary writers featured in the stack. He writes real good, too.)
Ward Parkway is a Silicon Valley operative for the "post-physical" NeoWobblies. He specializes in CyberVisualization, Chaotic Pattern Recognition, Information Dispersal, and the modular retrofitting of facts and events. Physically and economically, he blends seamlessly into his local environs as one of the Bay Area's innumerable interface agents. Underneath this facade, from deep within his electronic lair, Parkway's digital tentacles reach into the very vastness of cyberspace. Through this magical realm, his disembodied consciousness roams, plowing up info-treasures hidden in vast fields of data.
(Ward designed the Navigation Panel for the Web version of BCP. In the original stack he created the Media Buttons, the graphic frames that hold the card art, and the opening sequence CyberDeck. He was also the designer for the much-coveted 2Fresh Digital Doughboy T-shirt.)
The opening sequence of the stack system was a collaboration between Branwyn, Parkway, and Sugarman.
Reva Basch is a freestyle data-surfer. She runs a net-based research service out of her home in Berkeley, CA.
Hakim Bey is an anarchist writer and Islamic scholar.
Kevin Bloom is the editor of Mongo Boy magazine.
Stephen Brown is the editor of the awesome journal Science Fiction Eye.
Paul Di Filippo is a science fiction short story writer whose work has appeared in many leading SF mags.
Joan Gordon teaches and writes on science fiction and fantasy.
Mike Gunderloy is the former editor of Factsheet Five. He is currently writing a book on the zine publishing movement.
Steve Jackson is the president of Steve Jackson Games, an adventure game company.
Richard Kadrey is the author of the acclaimed science fiction novel Metrophage. He has also guest-edited several issues of Whole Earth Review.
Bruce Kotz is currently working on his doctoral dissertation at American University on "Cyberpunk as Radical Cultural Politics"
Marc Laidlaw is the author of Dad's Nuke and Neon Lotus.
Andrew Mayer writes science fiction and works as a consultant to the US Mint. (hey, no foolin'!)
Luke McGuff is a science fiction writer, a mail artist, and the former editor of Live from the Stagger Cafe and Ready-Made Exotic World.
Steve Roberts is a high guru of gizmology and the editor of The Journal of High-Tech Nomadness.
Rudy Rucker is a mathematician and an award-winning author in both science and science fiction.
Steve Steinberg is the editor of Intertek: The Cyberpunk Journal.
Stelarc is an Australian performance artist.
Bruce Sterling is one of the great science fiction writers of our time.
Robert Anton Wilson is the author of the cult classic Illuminatus! and a contributor to hundreds of avant garde publications.
Reva Basch
Barry Barrows
RuthAnne Bevier
Kevin Bloom
Gareth Branwyn
Glen Cox
Jeanne DeVoto
Carla Frauenfelder
Mark Frauenfelder
Emmanuel Goldstein
Kenneth Gutierrez
Steve Jackson
Richard Kadrey
Marc Laidlaw
Jon Lebkowsky
Phil Leggiere
Andrew Mayer
Frank Miles
Robin Moore
Luke McGuff
Peter Sugarman
Mark L. Van Name
Pam Bricker - for services above and beyond... for wee-hours editing, for proppin' Gareth up in front of a slave-drivin' monitor, for everything we forgot...
Kevin Rardin
Carolyn Hughes
Thanks to Luke McGuff for inspiring us with his "Statement Series" stack and thanks to Amendant Hardiker and his "Zaum Gadget" for changing the way we look at HyperTalk sound production and poetic dialog management.
Thanks also to our team of gallant Beta Test Team. In particular, the following went above and beyond the call of duty: Ronnie Sampson, Ted Evangelakis, Don Fitzwater, and Gerry Burnett of the Claris HyperCard Team.
The "Manifestos" background was "sampled" from the Emigre Font Stack.
The "Media" background was a public domain pattern from Graphics Volume 1, Belvedere.
The "Street Tech" background was digitized from the inside cover art of Digital Justice (DC Comics) .
The "CyberCulture" background is from a collage by R. Courtney which was "re-collaged" as a computer graphic.
The Utility Card background is a public domain pattern from Visual Elements #4.
We digitized our sounds from movies and TV shows covered in the stack. These productions included:
We also took audio samples from Whiplash Boychild by Chris Connelly (Wax Trax! Records).
Kata Sutra's voice was supplied by Pam Bricker.
The following hardware was used in the creation of Beyond Cyberpunk!
The following software was used in the creation of Beyond Cyberpunk!
E-mail:
garethbranwyn@mac.com
peters10@aol.com
Fax:
703-532-2486
Beyond Cyberpunk!: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to the Future is © 1996 by Gareth Branwyn and Peter B. Sugarman (d.b.a. The Computer Lab). All Rights Reserved. This work cannot be reproduced in part or in whole without the expressed written consent of its creators.
All articles are copyright 1991 by the individual authors. The works of Hakim Bey, Luke McGuff, and the Aggressive School of Cultural Workers are non-copyrighted and can be reproduced as long as the work is indicated as non-copyrightable. Please contact these authors anyway when reprinting their work.
All images and sounds not originating from The Computer Lab are copyrighted by their authors. We used these images and sounds with the understanding that doing so constituted fair use. The whole purpose of this stack was to review and provide direct access to this material to as many people as possible. Our use of sounds and images from the material under review was undertaken in this light.
Images used in the opening sequence include...
Richard Burton - from 1984, directed by Michael Bradford, U.S.A. Home Video, Inc. ©1984
Burning Reefer - by Michael Saenz from Semiotext(e) SF
Kathy Acker - photograph by Bart Nagel from Mondo 2000 #4
Big Eye - from Blade Runner, directed by R.Scott,The Ladd Company, ©1982
Drinking Man - from Doom Patrol, DC Comics
Christopher Walken - from The Dead Zone, directed by D. Cronenberg, Paramount
Two-headed Person - by Mark Landman from Buzz Comic
Malcolm McDowell - from Clockwork Orange, directed by S. Kubrick, Warner Brothers
Mutant Mickey - from Semiotext(e) USA
The opening page graphics for the Web version of BCP are by the incomparable John Bergin. They are based on artwork for a CD-ROM boxed version of BCP , as yet unreleased.
The image of Tetsuo: The Iron Man is used by permission.
