This publication is a project I made at the University of Art and Design Braunschweig in 2008/09, and it’s about both ›cyberpunk‹, as well as ›cryptography & steganography‹. The magazine can be read, interpreted and understood in two different ways, once the reader gets to know the concept. While »cyberpunk« on the first sight seems to be the actual theme of the magazine, it is just a façade to cover the actual theme: cryptography and steganography.

Cyberpunk is a science fiction subgenre noted for its focus on »high tech and low life«. Cyberpunk plots often center on a conflict among hackers, artificial intelligences, and megacorporations, and tend to be set in a near-future Earth – usually post-industrial dystopias –, rather than the far-future settings.

When it came to create the layout, I tried to avoid using cyberpunk-stereotypes and find a new and unconventional way to present this theme. I had several different attempts and concepts but I finally decided to use forms as an inspirational guideline, that allowed me to hide small bits of secret information on the different pages of the magazine, without the reader to question their meaning or to feel to curious about them. But in reality it’s those little peaces that once they are deciphered and connected, who tell the real story. Throughout the whole magazine there is different encrypted or enciphered parts of a long text that can only be read in full, once every cipher has been solved. I added a full solution at the end of the magazine, explaining each encryption step by step. But you are very welcome to give it a try in beforehand. The ciphers are some pretty old and common ones, and are all ordered chronologically. Some of them are quite famous and others are more obscure. I strongly suggest not to use them to encrypt sensible data. If you really want to hide your information behind a strong cipher you should take a look at PGP or something similar.  

 

 Here you have the chance to read the whole magazine online. This service is provided by issuu.

 

The name of this genre is a portmanteau word of cybernetics and punk and was originally created by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story ›Cyberpunk‹, which can be found in my magazine. Bruce was so kind to let me use it for this project.

 

 

 

Here are some of the illustration series I made about famous cyberpunk-movies. There is some more of them, that you can see in the magazine above. I was amazed when I found out, how many famous actors where actually taking part in those movies. They are barely known and usually not so successful, even though I have to admit, that some of them are really worth watching.

 

 

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, I decided to use forms as a creative guideline. This idea resulted out of the fact, that most cyberpunk stories are situated in dystopic worlds with an autocratic regime reigning over the population. That gave me the idea of creating my own logotype for a fictitious political party. The logotype had to look futuristic yet traditional, timeless and powerful. It’s three arrows represent the three powers of a state (judiciary, executive & legislative) united by a ribbon. This idea resulted out of the symbol fasces, which nowadays is a synonym for fascism. The upper part of the logo is a stylized trident; a typical weapon of gods (e.g. Poseidon), the lower is an emblematic coat of arms. ›Acta non verba‹ (Deeds, not words) is actually the slogan of the United States Merchant Marine Academy. I found it appropriate for my political party and adopted it.

 

The photographies were taken by a friend of mine (Ana Pais Neves) who is an extraordinary photographer and I’m glad that I had a chance to work with her. The girl with this huge eyes is a mutual friend (Eva Ravasz) who helped us out posing for the camera. You can find Ana when you take a closer look, holding the camera in some of the pictures. We all met at the University of Art and Design in Budapest, when we were making our Erasmus-stay abroad. I liked these pictures so much, that I asked Ana if I could add them to my magazine.

 

 

 

The title of the magazine is actually the name of the district I was living in Budapest. The 8th district is famous for having loads of bars and nice places to go out, but also for being the main residential neighborhood of the gypsy population there.

 

 

 

 

TECHNICAL DATA

  • TITLE: ›8th‹
  • MEDIUM: magazine // concept, typographie, editorialdesign & illustrations
  • TECH. SPECS.: paperback, digital laserprint, 140 pages, DIN A4 (29,7 cm x 21 cm)
  • EXTRAS: poster 
  • SPACE OF TIME: 2008/09
  • MENTORING: Prof. Klaus Paul & Prof. Gosbert Adler
  • UNIVERSITIES: HBK Braunschweig & MOME Budapest
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  • http://issuu.com/kreisone/docs/8th

 
PICTURE- AND TEXTCREDITS

 

© Copyright by Klaas van Kreis. All rights reserved.