Humble Beginnings - Blade Runner (1982)

The project started with a science-fiction movie, for my group (consisting of Nanda Schulz, Elias Troyke, Hannes Woitas and Paulin Raue) it was Blade Runner, specifically the Final Cut. We spent many hours analyzing the movie, watching it again and again and creating new timelines and scenarios based off the story of both the movie and the original novel by Philip K. Dick.

The Stories

Based on the new timelines we created, we were then tasked with creating characters that could live in these possible futures. The characters weren't meant to be heroic figures, but instead total nobodies.

My name is Kodak and I’m a Nexus 7 replicant, the new, improved generation. 

My inception date was near the end of the special’s revolution, in 2032, after the replicants had figured out how to create a new generation of replicants that wouldn't naturally be retired after 4 years. This means I can grow nearly as old as many of my human peers, around 50 to 60 years. Sadly, many of us Nexus 7s didn’t manage to grow nearly that old, being used as cannon fodder by the human specials. 

I was there when we took over and sent the elites to flee earth with their tail between their legs. I managed to escape the war I was born to with my life, only losing an eye which had to be replaced with a camera lens due to a shortage of actual organic replacements. I was one of the luckier replicants, almost all the Nexus 6 had died before their natural expiration date and even the first 12 generations of Nexus 7 fell almost completely while fighting the elites.

Earth wasn’t worth much anymore at this point. We had destroyed the ecosystem with our nuclear and chemical weaponry.

The planet was in bad shape, so together we decided to instead find a planet similar to Mars and make it our own. We had all dreamt of the golden future that the advertisements for off-world colonies promised to us, so why shouldn’t we make them a reality? 

We banded together and in 2037 found a planet to make ours, Proxima Centauri B. It became our own sanctuary, a place for all those society had left behind and shunned. 

Many of the ill humans died soon after the revolution, so it was mainly us Nexus 7 replicants and the healthy humans that had been too poor to leave earth that started the colony.

The old elites wisely avoided us and our one tiny planet, if they even registered us leaving earth. In their eyes, we had already become irrelevant to their interests, after they decided to surrender and move on, now that the planet was destroyed anyways.

Here, everyone could finally express themselves however they wanted. Especially us replicants flourished and a large subculture of artists emerged, finally able to express individuality.

However, we never really found acceptance the way we would’ve wished. The remaining humans still saw us as less than them and they still seemed to believe they were superior to their sick peers. Now that the monetary question was out of the way, the ones that used to be poor believe themselves to be the new ruling class.

And so, 20 years later, the revolution starts anew, as if nothing ever happened…

My name is Nicks and I’m a total nobody. I worked as a low-level employee at the Tyrell Corporation, doing base-level genetic engineering, which means that I should’ve been rather well off, with a medium pay and regular work hours. I should’ve been able to move away into an off-world colony some day, which was hailed as a golden opportunity. Off-world colonies are the future! 

However, I was born with a condition known as dwarfism and because of this, no matter how much money I saved, I’d never be allowed to leave earth due to my condition.

When Roy Batty died a Martyr’s death in 2019, the story of his life, rebellion and death were all over the news. Many of us “specials” realized soon that to live as a replicant is not too different from our own situation and we started communicating to make this change. 

The many tiny resistance groups, most of them started as early as 2020, became united under one cause: to start a revolution and become the rulers of earth. The healthy, rich establishment had its time in the sun and now we wanted to take over!

I was a part of the troops that fought for independence in the civil war that started in 2025, after carefully working in the shadows for years. Though I wasn’t a leader by far, just a foot soldier for the true masterminds behind the revolution, I finally felt like I could actually accomplish something with my life.

The civil war waged for 10 years and the establishment held back with everything they had but after it was all said and done, the specials were superior. 

Our planet, however, was at its limits. A wasteland remained after we fought with chemical weaponry and even atomic bombs for so long.

However, nature soon found a way to adapt and so did we. We used our knowledge from our past working with genetic engineering to our advantage to find ways to survive in unity with nature and to create new plants and wildlife that could repopulate the planet.

Now I’m an old woman of almost eighty years and we live in a world where nature dictates every part of our life and true harmony exists between the people and the planet. I use my knowledge to teach our youth about the days before their birth and how to avoid our mistakes. Humanity has changed forever, our genetic problems persist and replicants still don’t have our lifespan, but we make the most of it and live happily without conflict and poverty.

A Day in the Life of our Nobodies

Character #1 - Kodak the replicant (he/they), 20 years old, Proxima Centauri B Colony

14:00 

I wake up at my modular apartment in the biggest city of the Proxima Centauri B Colony, 希望(pronounced Xīwàng), in Sector 3. It’s a rather large one room apartment with a built-in kitchenette and a bunch of magnetic room dividers used to change its layout whenever I want. I make myself a late lunch, some dried ramen noodles I can easily prepare even with the few pieces of kitchenware I possess. While I eat I watch the news and catch whatever is on TV at the moment on the screens built into the walls.

15:00

I do maintenance on my mechanical eye, which I have to clean every day to assure its functionality. It works like a camera lens that is set into my face and connected to my ocular nerve. I test its zoom function and night vision mode.

Afterwards, I choose my work outfit, something simple but breathable that I don’t mind getting dirty. Then, I have my first cigarette of the day, a habit from my days serving in the civil war right after my inception.

16:00

I get started on my work as a designer for Holofashion, a new phenomenon in Proxima Centauri B's fashion community that uses materials with built-in holographic surfaces to project different patterns every day. While Holofashion is very sustainable due to the clothing never going out of style, the technology is ever evolving and needs skilled programmers and creative designers to stay in business. Today I’m working on a new pixelated leopard pattern that is supposed to shift hues depending on the time of day. I use both my large voice controlled work station as well as the virtual interface of my camera eye. I also test the pattern on my own Holofashion clothing.

20:00

I take a break and go do my shopping. I go to the corner store only 3 streets away from my modular apartment, which is situated on the 974th floor of my apartment building. Taking the extra fast lift to the foyer gives me some time to put on my air filtration device, which even replicants need due to Proxima Centauri B’s toxic atmosphere. 

At the store I buy filtered water, energy drinks, unfiltered cigarettes and more dried foods such as curry, cup noodles and soup powder.

21:00

I return to my apartment and resume working on the Holofashion pattern.

22:00

I take another cigarette break.

23:00 

I finish my work for the day and make dinner, some dried Thai Curry.

Afterwards, I choose my outfit for the evening. I pick out my Holofashion fur coat to take my new pattern on a test drive, as well as fake leather pants and an undershirt made of artificial satin. I put an orange colored contact into my organic eye and do my makeup, some glittery blue eyeshadow and purple lipstick, which are the current trending colors in the fashion community of 希望.

Then, I leave for my evening activities.

00:30

First, I take the underground metro to go to the local replicant community house in Sector 3. There, conversation has been heating up lately, considering that replicants still have to fight some serious discrimination from our human neighbors. We talk for a while, swapping war stories and talking about how things would go if we were in charge. As it is right now, there’s only 26 of us rebellious replicants in the neighborhood, taking part in the weekly sessions we disguise as a replicant-focused group therapy. We estimate that in a years time we will have almost every replicant in the city sector joining our meetings or creating their own chapters of the movement.

2:00

I leave the community house to go clubbing with a few friends. We take the underground metro again to visit the so-called Neon Strip in Sector 6, named after the many neon signs littering the 10km long street that is almost entirely lined by clubs and brothels. My friends and I decide to visit the industrial metal club tonight. Together, we dance and drink and smoke and live life to the fullest.

6:00

I leave the club to go back to my apartment, today I am joined by a handsome replicant I picked up at the bar, who is planning to stay the night. We take the metro back to Sector 3.

When I wake up at 14:00 tomorrow, he will already have left.

Character #2 - Nicks the human special (she/her), 67 years old, Earth

5:00

I get woken up by my blinds opening automatically and letting in the first rays of sunlight. I sit up and watch the sunrise before I get up to start my daily routine. 

5:30

I start by using the communal pools of my small community, where 45 households live in a community of 3 five-storey buildings. Before getting in the water I shower and do stretches and a few physical exercises, such as jumping jacks. Afterwards I swim for half an hour.

6:00

I make myself breakfast, which consists of a lavender tea, mixed grain bread and peach jam. Then, I take my medication for my high blood pressure. After breakfast I get dressed in my work uniform made from soft, airy fabrics with natural colors and leave for my workplace, which is only 20 minutes away on foot.

I walk past the sprawling fields of lavender, genetically modified barley and the peach and apple orchards that the people in my community tend to together.

7:00

I arrive at work and go to my office, greeting my colleagues on the way in. There, I take care of all the plants in my office and then sit down at my computer terminal and get to work. Currently, I’m working on creating a new type of pollinator to make the harvests even more bountiful.

11:30

For lunch break I meet my colleagues in the facilitie’s campus grounds, a big circular meadow surrounded by orange trees. We eat the fresh lunches prepared by the staff, sandwiches with cucumbers and tomatoes, and talk about our current projects. My friend Elton has been working on a creature similar to a fox in appearance that is meant to patrol the barley fields and catch mice and other rodents that threaten the harvest. It’s a pretty important project and we exchange ideas on how to make the creature able to move as quietly as possible to achieve the best results. For dessert, we each pick an orange right from the tree.

12:30

I get back to work after lunch break.

14:30

I take a walk around the grounds and have a cup of peach tea before I return to my office. Elton joins me for a cup of coffee.

16:00

My work day is over and I return home, taking a brief detour to take some fresh apples from the orchard.

17:00

First, I switch my work clothes for a flowy skirt and tank top, both dyed with natural colors by my neighbor Annie and her kids. I take care of the many plants in my apartment and do some cleaning.

18:00

I have dinner which consists of a stew made from rice, carrots, beans and a new type of root vegetable that has recently been integrated, which contains a lot of iron and vitamin A.

For dinner, I also have a glass of Apple Juice.

19:00

Now that I’m done for the day I sit outside in the meadow that is shadowed by the three apartment buildings that make up my community. I get comfortable with my blanket and pillows I brought outside with me and enjoy a few chapters of the book I’ve been reading, which gets projected on the display in my sunglasses, so I can read hands free. When I get tired of that, I simply watch the families that live in the community play in the meadow.

20:30

I go back inside, get ready for bed and am asleep by 21:00.

The Plot

Once we had explored both of these scenarios, we each decided for the one we felt most inspired by and I chose Kodak's story. Our next task involved us mapping out an actual plot for our characters.

So I created Até, an AI program based on Kodak's habits and being shown to him through his mechanical eye, which is connected to his brain.

I looked up different mythological stories for inspiration, but the Wikipedia article for the Greek goddess Até caught my attention:

„In Greek mythology, Até was the goddess of mischief, delusion, ruin, and blind folly, rash action and reckless impulse who led men down the path of ruin. She also led both gods and men to rash and inconsiderate actions and to suffering.“ 

This inspiration lead to the story of Fatal Error 107.

Kodak is a Nexus 7 Replicant who lives in 希望, the biggest city in the Proxima Centauri B Colony. The colony was created only 20 years ago, inhabited by the ones that were poor or regarded as “special”, taken from the elites using the raw power of replicants. After everything they’ve done for humanity, replicants still aren’t accepted.

Kodak works as a designer for Holofashion, a new and exciting development in the bustling fashion scene of Proxima Centauri B. They start their day very late and spend most of their time alone in their apartment, listening to music and working on their fashion designs.

However, in the evenings they go out to the Neon Strip in Sector 6 to party the night away, often picking up strangers to spend the night with. It’s what Kodak calls “the rockstar lifestyle”: sex, drugs and drama galore. Nexus 7 Replicants can grow older than their Nexus 6 counterparts, but Kodak knows they won’t grow older than 50, maybe 60 years at most, so they’ve decided to live life to the fullest. 

Despite all of this they can’t help but feel unsatisfied, because many people still see themselves as being above the replicants by virtue of their “human souls”, as they say. This is why Kodak is a revolutionary, one of the few remaining veteran Nexus 7 that were created to help the humans fight the war against their own kind. Traumatized from what they’ve experienced and all the losses they’ve suffered, Kodak decided to join the effort of replicant liberation. 

The movement is growing and has started planning secret missions to overthrow the current ruling class. They’re spreading their message mainly through the arts: fashion, posters, graffiti and also hacked screens and adverts all around the city. Kodak has mainly been doing fashion design and smaller hacking jobs, being more well known as one of the six leaders of the movement and their best strategic head. 

One evening, at their favorite industrial metal club, Kodak runs into a beautiful young woman with bright yellow hair while they’re outside the club for a cigarette break. She introduces herself as Atè and Kodak soon learns that she’s also a replicant like him, something that most replicants don’t divulge easily to anyone they don’t know is like them for fear of judgement. They hit it off instantly, but when Kodak tries to kiss her, Até shies away, saying she can’t be touched because of a rare defect in her genetic coding that makes her bruise instantly. She promises that they will meet again, though, and gives Kodak her contact information.

Over the next few months Até and Kodak quickly grow closer, Kodak feels as though the two of them are something like soulmates. They talk about the war and the conversation quickly goes towards replicant liberation efforts. Upon realizing that Até is also anticipating a revolution, Kodak decides to clue her into what they’ve been doing. The liberation has been planning to stage a huge spectacle, hacking a news station and broadcasting their opinions and demands, hoping to change the public’s mind or at least get some more replicants on their side. 

Kodak  invites her to join one of their meetings, since operation “Headroom”, as they call it, is only a few days away and they could use her help. Até agrees. 

However, she doesn’t show up to the meeting, which makes Kodak very upset. They don’t have time to be too mad, though, as the preparations for the operation have begun. 

When they are about to start the broadcast, the door bursts open and the replicants are apprehended by the police. 

Kodak is taken for interrogation and when he’s sat down in the cell, Até suddenly appears out of thin air. She had been fake all along, an artificial intelligence trained on Kodak’s habits and presence on the net and shown to them through their artificial eye as if she’s really there. Kodak and Até’s entire relationship has been based on a ruse to finally apprehend the leaders of the replicant liberation and stop the revolution before it even begins. The story ends with Kodak ripping out their camera lens eye with bare hands, at least taking Até’s program with them as they succumb to their injuries.

The Scenario

Kodak lives in a grimy, polluted cyberpunk city. The drawing depicts the „Neon Strip“, an long road filled with nightclubs, peep shows and brothels.

I created the image by referencing photos of a street in japan and adding neon signs and cables to it, as well as the angel statue marking the end of the road. The graffiti and dirt were created with a mixed media approach, in which I printed the lineart out and doodled on it, then scanned and overlaid these doodles on the final image.

The Artifact

Our next task was to choose a piece of technology that is very important in the narrative of our future scenario and create a poster describing and illustrating it, possibly as a 3D model in Blender.

离娄 Qianliyan 107-P

Mit einem Qianliyan sehen Sie so klar, dass Sie selbst Ihre Zukunft sehen!* 

Das Qianliyan 107-P entstand ursprünglich in 2024 als provisorische Augenprothese für im Unabhängigkeitskrieg (2019-2032) erblindete Replikantensoldaten. Das Modell ist bis heute eine viel genutzte low budget Version des Qianliyan 109-R für tausende Bürger unseres wunderschönen Kolonialplaneten Proxima Centauri B.

Erwerb zusätzlicher Linsen kann Nachtsicht und das Sehen im Infrarotspektrum ermöglichen.

Bestehend aus nachhaltigem Polyvinyl Chloride, recycelten Kamerateilen und unserer patentierten Qianliyan-Legierung** ist das Qianliyan 107-P ressourcenschonend und zukunftsfähig.

Ein Auge für den umweltbewussten Replikanten von heute!

WARNUNG: 

Nicht bei menschlichen Bürgern unter 10 Jahren implantieren. Updates der Software und Firewall kosten 192928,96 ₽ monatlich. Sollten Sie dies nicht zahlen, kann es durch veraltete Software zu Kurzschlüssen, Übelkeit, Migräne, flackernder Sicht, visuellen Glitches, Verätzung des Sehnervs und Brainhacking kommen.

* Die Nutzung eines Qianliyan-Produktes verleiht nicht die Fähigkeit in die Zukunft zu sehen

** kann Blei, Cadmium, Arsen oder Spuren von Nüssen enthalten

The name of the fictional company, Qianliyan, is leant from the Chinese sea and door god of the same name. Literally, it can be translated as „He of the Thousand-Mile“ or „League Eyes“, but it's also used to mean „Clairvoyant“.

The 107 in both the product name as well as the movie title is taken from the real Fatal Error 107 when using C++ and the Win32 API, meaning „File Name(s) missing“. This alludes to Atè not actually being a real person but instead a computer program. 

The P refers to prototype, the eye simply being a prototype that was put on the market despite not being finalized.

The Poster

Finally, we had to create our own movie poster for our story, featuring both the scenario and artifact as well as the character.

I started by choosing actors for both Kodak and Até, specifically Ncuti Gatwa and Tilda Swinton, to use them as references for my drawings. I wanted to try a more painterly approach, inspired by the painted Blade Runner Cover on my DVD and the artstyle of the indie game Disco Elysium.

I knew from the start that I wanted to use this colorful, swirled pattern, which is supposed to protect your artwork from being used to train generative AI. I ended up using it in Até's nail art, making it's use even more ironic.

The poster had many different sketches and went through a lot of changes, some of which i want to show off below.

Personal Reflection

I'm honored to have been a part of this project and the final products and stories I produced are some of the work I'm proudest of in my time at HSA. 

I learnt a lot over the course of it and it inspired me a lot to approach design in a different, more playful way from now on and how to use future thinking to my advantage. I also truly loved to spend a whole semester talking about my favorite topic, the sci-fi genre.

Finally, I would like to thank Alejandro Lecuna and Maria Maciejko for creating this project and letting me be a part of it. I loved it and I'm very proud of everything we made.

Big thanks as well to Niklas, Nanda and Elias for helping me so much with the Blender model and also to the whole Blade Runner team for simply being really awesome ;) It was a pleasure to work with all of you!