Futuristic cities inside your PC
These three striking (and giant) macrofocus photos of PC motherboards (taken by Anne of the delightfully named Cette Merde Est Folle blog) reveal the hidden futuristic cities inside our computer.
Paysages Futuristes (Thanks, Baptiste!)
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There was something like this in the title sequence of the laughably inaccurate film Hackers.
This clip goes well with the post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75WFTHpOw8Y
So says Björk, anyway.
Orbital's Halcyon+On+On is still cool though.A similar fade transition was also used for the end credits in Tron.
The UK's TV Licensing body used a very similar set of images for a recent TV and poster campaign:
http://www.advertolog.com/paedia/reels/2008/4/15/511518/
A rather counter-productively heavyhanded bit of bullying, but beautifully shot.
Anyone at the agency got Leni Riefenstahl's number?
Oops. Paywalled. Try this:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/mediaandcommunity/mediatvcs.jsp
woaaaah dude, its like 'Futuristic Cities' man, look at the tiny buildings, man
Its a blurry photo of a dusty old mobo
@ ZuZu
Fantasitic tune - Orbital are great live too.
Shame any film i've heard the tune in chop it poorly!
@ ChrisM
More worrying, is they talk about their 'computers' and 'database' through the shots - which includes:
Transformers inserted into CPU ZIF's, 30 and 72 pin RAM, 74-type logic boards, various controllers inserted into or balanced on top of relays and transformers.
What next? "Please hold while I load your details"
As for the pics, there's much more of an organic 'city scene' in the older, larger logic boards or large machinery pcb's, where the tracks swirl like paths on analogue sections, and digital parts merge with a sharper 70/80's city look, but also had more of a horizon due to the size. (modern boards are a lot smaller, so requires a lot closer shot to compensate)
God45 "There was something like this in the title sequence of the laughably inaccurate film Hackers."
Lies! All systems allow three letter passwords, security people all work in the same room as their really pretty servers, and hacking programs have heavy emphasis on pretty graphics (including the Mac-style dialogue boxes) over actually having to type (and real hackers type code quickly and bug free). That you disbelieve merely shows that you know nothing about hackers and their hackery. Obviously.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm about to "hackerize" an "internets" with my "computer" to gain the attention of, and attract, the stunning Angelina Jolie-style hacker (and there are so many impossibly hot female hackers just like her in the world of computing that it's widely considered by hackers to be virtually a cliche) to my own male hacker handsome buff handsomeness (also so terribly common as to be a cliche). All I have to do first is call the company that owns the "internets" to find out the "phone number" for their "modem", because there is literally no way to find out such a thing otherwise.
This post brings to mind the opposite condition. Here we see motherboards that create the ambiance of the cityscape, when, in fact, the opposite is true.
Think about it...
The Internets, all of them, bits and pieces housed on PCs, servers, macs and dells, tucked away in rooms and closets all over Gotham. Each piece contributes a page here, a video there, an image, a sound.
Instead of our motherboards becoming our cities, our cities have become our motherboards.
@zuzu :
Don't get me wrong, I love the movie.
@ #5 - Exactly. My first thought was "Are there *really* people out there who have never even cracked open their case?"
Props on the pics/idea, but I would assume for BBers, views of the green landscape are nothing new.
Except for all the Apple guys. ;)
@zymeck
The dust makes it a Steampunk city.
Nobody's going to mention Reboot?
Yeah, so how long until TR2N?
@ Kingofcats:
There's a retro-futuristic steampunk skyscraper in every vacuum tube.
That's funny, I always thought that, viewed from a plane, real cities looked much like circuit boards.
@Psymiley:
Pics or it didn't happen.
Gibert Anonymous here: Cool. Reminds me of Albert Speer's planswealth let's for the capitol of Germania.
I always thought motherboards looked like cities as a kid when my dad took apart computers.
Showing my age here!
Czech artist Jakub Nepraš made an impressive similar-themed video called Generator p-730.
Stills here (couldn't find a link to the video):
http://artlist.cz/?id=3604&lang=1
My den/computer room is paneled in circuit boards from old minis, PC's, etc. Used Liquid Nails and covered up the grass-mat wall covering. Nice dark green with gold and silver accents. I need to add some leds to twinkle a bit.
I think a scaled up (no pun intended) chip sitting on a circuit board rug would be a great coffee table.
Everbody @ yahoo.com
@13: I loved that show! That and Sailor Moon made my afternoon complete. Oh, and grown-up Enzo from the 3rd season: woof!
yeah, when I was little (and still) I love pretending that they are cities, but didn't everyone?
Maybe it is the influence of reading all these pieces on Boing Boing and make, but I just dissected my old G4 laptop. It had various power issues and was DOA, but I wanted to get at the hard drive to retrieve some of the goodies I had neglected to back up.
Looking at the motherboard, all I could think of was SimCity. Yes, yes, yes, a city scape as seen from an airplane! I'm keeping just because it is such a beautiful object.
I realize I am pretty much at the level of a kid, taking this thing apart. I guess I should learn how to put one together one of these days.