Alternative futures: Nostalgia can be a driver to branch from an earlier place in time

[Captain]

I still have a Sony DCR-TRV17 that I take on vacation. I bought it new in 2001 and have kept it running ever since. I find that I am intentional with the video and then go back later and edit it into something for the family. With iPhone videos I never do that. So there is something to vintage gear and vintage workflows that force you to do something with them or be lost forever. I scale up its resolution to HD with Apple's Compressor and it has that strange vintage vibe. There is something special about the 640x480 video and its limitations that make the memory more real when you look back. Your mind gets to fill in the blanks. Unlike modern phones that just record every detail, almost every moment, and leave nothing to leave your imagination to. It's the same with having limitations on a still camera. My family never had a camcorder growing up and I have nothing to look back on. I think it's neat I am able to use modern and retro equipment together to give my kids the experience I should have had back in the 80's & 90's.

I think I was born too late. I would have loved being 18 and just going into 1990. Being able to be the adult in the situation instead of the kid. Now that I am at the age I am at, I find I want to just do whatever I want with whatever equipment I want. I find myself wanting to incorporate the old ways into the here and now. It's like I didn't get the chance to do this stuff when the tech was new so now I am going to make it happen.

I think the root of this kind of nostalgia is we were shown what adulthood would look like and then technology moved so fast our brain can't really fully wrap around the concept. It still wants to follow the known path of our parents that was the example.

 

[Brapuccino]

Yeah, gross.

I'm looking for that slightly silvery texture of old digital. It's got an almost insect-wing like prismatic quality. After reading the manual yesterday this might actually be too good of a camera. We'll see I guess!

Have you already used your super8? Do you have anything you can show?

Consider going on /p/, they usually have an old school digital photography thread where they show off photos taken with those old digital cameras, you might find the look you want and what model will give that to you.

And, hell yeah, I got one video up, and one that is sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to figure out what to do with it lol. I might use it next thing I do, now.

View: https://youtu.be/3KLOwN2brOw?si=v_2PIrh-NPcN2ykY

First time shooting on film here, so still figuring things out.

 

[Jodo_Fan]

And, hell yeah, I got one video up, and one that is sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to figure out what to do with it lol. I might use it next thing I do, now.

Hey, that looks great. The contrast between the Super 8 film and the woman's modern styling creates a strange dissonance. Like when WWI or II film gets digitally coloured, it's as if the distance between eras is collapsed. Nice tune, too.

 

[Brapuccino]

@Jodo_Fan
I know exactly what you mean. I've seen really old pictures of my city in great quality that sort of allow you to put yourself in the scene, it's a fun thought experiment.

 

[Ross_Я]

It's a bit off the topic, I guess, but there is something about floppies that I really like. I can't help but drool all over the pictures of Panasonic LK-RF240UZ drive. I wish one day I will finally be able to buy it and some 240 MB floppies. Will probably burn some little video games or something along those lines onto them...

 

[Punp]

It's a bit off the topic, I guess, but there is something about floppies that I really like. I can't help but drool all over the pictures of Panasonic LK-RF240UZ drive. I wish one day I will finally be able to buy it and some 240 MB floppies. Will probably burn some little video games or something along those lines onto them...

That is a NICE piece of hardware. I love floppy disks. I really enjoy the demoscene approach of trying to fit as much into 1.44Mb as possible. I shared them with friends last year, but in spite of them initiating the idea they didn't seem that interested, and it was a lot of effort to go through to source the hardware, make the compilation and compression and mail it out for them to say "oh, I forgot to look at it". People. What a bunch of bastards.

Consider going on /p/, they usually have an old school digital photography thread where they show off photos taken with those old digital cameras, you might find the look you want and what model will give that to you.

And, hell yeah, I got one video up, and one that is sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to figure out what to do with it lol. I might use it next thing I do, now.

View: https://youtu.be/3KLOwN2brOw?si=v_2PIrh-NPcN2ykY

First time shooting on film here, so still figuring things out.

I liked this - like @Jodo_Fan says it's got that anachronistic aesthetic. I like that the images were muddy and I had to pay attention to them.

What's the thing climbing in the tree at 0:55?

 

[vulonkaaz]

i live in a retrofuturistic world where physical media and owning stuff never died, where portable consoles are still a thing, where "social" networks never took over the cyberspace and where electronics evolved to the point where you can run triple A games on a device that can fit in your pocket and where you can download entire series in less than ten minutes (best of both world really)

i wish i could build a future where people weren't looking at their phones even when i'm near them but i'm afraid that will require me to ditch some people out of my life

---

I guess my aesthetic kind of is a continuation of 2000s aesthetic, like modernized in a good way

my GPD Win 4 almost feel out of place in this current era, it has personality and features, kind of goes in the opposite direction compared to most tech nowadays which is just flat design and minimalism and lack of features

i basically build my retro future with modern aliexpress tech

---

I need to get more digital cameras, i have some but they're kinda too inconvenient to use (one of them i always loose the charger and the other one is very big) so i end up using the phone most of the time

---

modding new tech with features we want seems like the plausible way to reclaim the future we wish we had.

thats basically what i do i guess

 

[Captain]

i live in a retrofuturistic world where physical media and owning stuff never died, where portable consoles are still a thing, where "social" networks never took over the cyberspace and where electronics evolved to the point where you can run triple A games on a device that can fit in your pocket and where you can download entire series in less than ten minutes (best of both world really)

i wish i could build a future where people weren't looking at their phones even when i'm near them but i'm afraid that will require me to ditch some people out of my life

---

I guess my aesthetic kind of is a continuation of 2000s aesthetic, like modernized in a good way

my GPD Win 4 almost feel out of place in this current era, it has personality and features, kind of goes in the opposite direction compared to most tech nowadays which is just flat design and minimalism and lack of features

i basically build my retro future with modern aliexpress tech

---

I need to get more digital cameras, i have some but they're kinda too inconvenient to use (one of them i always loose the charger and the other one is very big) so i end up using the phone most of the time

---

thats basically what i do i guess

It's really hard to live the retro modernism dream when people are surrounding you with iPhones. It breaks the reality wall.

 

[McGovern '72!]

I think with nostalgia it's good to be careful because no matter how esoteric it is nostalgia can always be commodified and used as a weapon against you. Mark Fisher wrote about this in the funny book but also in his Ghosts of my Life, how the aesthetics of the 80s were eating up the creative landscape and now that nostalgia's become mixed with nostalgia about the 2000s and that era's emulation of the 80s. Hell you can even see this shit in history textbooks in how every past massacre is framed as a glorious sacrificed to get to le glorious current day. What I'm trying to say is that in a few years time corpo faggot bastards will be shilling the "wasn't it nice to own things" line and psyopping away the actual sentiment, even if that goes against the wishes of the demiurge Klaus Straub.

 

[Jodo_Fan]

Then there's continuing to use older tech because it never stopped meeting your needs: I've only recently had to ditch my 1999 copy of Photoshop and embrace the UI joys of GIMP. The transition feels comparable to sticking my head in a bag of weasels. In a bad way.

Anyway, posting the below for general interest.

Flop rock: inside the underground floppy disk music scene
https://www.theverge.com/24034551/floppy-disk-music-scene-underground-diy

Where I come from, only 8 and 5 1/4 inch disks were known as floppies. The smaller, denser 3 1/2 inch diskettes were stiffies. (No snickering at the back, please.)

I'd also second whoever mentioned the demoscene up thread. It's a perfect example of doing something interesting within constraints.

 

[james32123]

I bought a Nishika N8000 at a yard sale for a couple bucks last year. I have never used a film camera, but I would love to try it some time. Havent bought film for it yet. expensive. I'm honestly kinda scared that if I do it, I'm gonna fuck up ALL the photos, and none of them are gonna turn out right. But you reminded me of that, and the fact that I still need to do it. I'm probably gonna explore new places in the next few years of my life, so maybe I should take this as an opportunity to make better memories.

 

[GENOSAD]

I just wonder what this kind of "alt-future" is that I'm doing.

It honestly sounds like piracy to me, although I might be thinking too much in the lens of corporations vs. people. The DIY nature of it all makes me think of the term "cyberpunk," but then you're looking at an overused sci-fi aesthetic that isn't even "punk" anymore.
Maybe just call it "tech reclamation" or "punk engineering" (the latter of which is pretty cliché, but goes too hard for me to not suggest it).

 

[handoferis]

Yeah, gross.

I'm looking for that slightly silvery texture of old digital. It's got an almost insect-wing like prismatic quality. After reading the manual yesterday this might actually be too good of a camera. We'll see I guess!

Have you already used your super8? Do you have anything you can show?

you should get a quicktake, chromatic aberration and fucking weirdness comes standard.

 

[Punp]

you should get a quicktake, chromatic aberration and fucking weirdness comes standard.

Apple QuickTake - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Yeah, that's the vibe I'm talking about. Looks like a nightmare to transfer off the hardware though.

 

[Punp]

I bought a Nishika N8000 at a yard sale for a couple bucks last year. I have never used a film camera, but I would love to try it some time. Havent bought film for it yet. expensive. I'm honestly kinda scared that if I do it, I'm gonna fuck up ALL the photos, and none of them are gonna turn out right. But you reminded me of that, and the fact that I still need to do it. I'm probably gonna explore new places in the next few years of my life, so maybe I should take this as an opportunity to make better memories.

Fucking up is part of the learning process. Accept that you will need to make (somewhat expensive) mistakes in order to get good with ammo-based technology like film and polaroid.

It honestly sounds like piracy to me, although I might be thinking too much in the lens of corporations vs. people. The DIY nature of it all makes me think of the term "cyberpunk," but then you're looking at an overused sci-fi aesthetic that isn't even "punk" anymore.
Maybe just call it "tech reclamation" or "punk engineering" (the latter of which is pretty cliché, but goes too hard for me to not suggest it).

Imagine not being a cyberdemonologist by choice.

I think with nostalgia it's good to be careful because no matter how esoteric it is nostalgia can always be commodified and used as a weapon against you. Mark Fisher wrote about this in the funny book but also in his Ghosts of my Life, how the aesthetics of the 80s were eating up the creative landscape and now that nostalgia's become mixed with nostalgia about the 2000s and that era's emulation of the 80s. Hell you can even see this shit in history textbooks in how every past massacre is framed as a glorious sacrificed to get to le glorious current day. What I'm trying to say is that in a few years time corpo faggot bastards will be shilling the "wasn't it nice to own things" line and psyopping away the actual sentiment, even if that goes against the wishes of the demiurge Klaus Straub.

I don't think this is much of an issue when you're buying old tech off ebay, but affecting market trends by making them appeal to the things we like sounds like a win.

"Oh nooo the corporate elite are selling us things we can own noooo"

That said, there are a lot of things which come under the guise of being the things we want but aren't really. When we want sturdy products there's always a sneaky element of planned obsolescence. Modern converse shoes are a great example of that. Same classic design but fall apart within a year.

Nintendo keep trying to sell us emulated gameboy games, but they're not selling us gameboys or gameboy parts. Seems like a massive missed opportunity until you realise that they can make more money by selling the emulated games for every new platform they make.

 

[handoferis]

Nintendo keep trying to sell us emulated gameboy games, but they're not selling us gameboys or gameboy parts. Seems like a massive missed opportunity until you realise that they can make more money by selling the emulated games for every new platform they make.

I would like to point you in the direction of the Funny Playing FP-GBC, a cheap FPGA remake of the GBC that has good batteries, an IPS display, and plays original carts no problem.

 

[Punp]

I would like to point you in the direction of the Funny Playing FP-GBC, a cheap FPGA remake of the GBC that has good batteries, an IPS display, and plays original carts no problem.

Got it, installed it. Excellent for night time playing.

 

[Crumpet8406]

It honestly sounds like piracy to me, although I might be thinking too much in the lens of corporations vs. people. The DIY nature of it all makes me think of the term "cyberpunk," but then you're looking at an overused sci-fi aesthetic that isn't even "punk" anymore.
Maybe just call it "tech reclamation" or "punk engineering" (the latter of which is pretty cliché, but goes too hard for me to not suggest it).

sorry, newb here. web searching is failing me, but what is the cliche behind 'punk engineering'? My best guess is a cyberpunk aesthetic with the punk culture sucked out, and that's probably wrong.

 

[GENOSAD]

sorry, newb here. web searching is failing me, but what is the cliche behind 'punk engineering'? My best guess is a cyberpunk aesthetic with the punk culture sucked out, and that's probably wrong.

The fact that every aesthetic nowadays either ends in "-core" or "-punk."

 

[Punp]

The fact that every aesthetic nowadays either ends in "-core" or "-punk."

That's so observantcore of you.

sorry, newb here. web searching is failing me, but what is the cliche behind 'punk engineering'? My best guess is a cyberpunk aesthetic with the punk culture sucked out, and that's probably wrong.

Generally speaking "punk" is so anti-mainstream that it actively struggles to swim against it like a salmon. I imagine punk engineering is very DIY, with safety pins and chains holding the circuitboards together.