Opposite Upcycle Aesthetic – Cyberprep

My upcycle project is being made to fit the Old Western aesthetic. This aesthetic highlights dry arid environments, colors like brown and orange, old wooden buildings, and open desert terrain. While I am focused more on the cowboy aspect of the aesthetic for my project, I feel that when looking for the opposing aesthetic to Old Western, I am focusing more on the environment than the characters. I believe that a good aesthetic to oppose the Old Western would be Cyberprep. This aesthetic is all about tall futuristic buildings, and while they are not much more futuristic than you could find in a city today, they are in large contrast to the small old and rundown buildings seen in Old Western.

Samsung Newsroom – Super Skyscrapers

The oranges and browns of Old Western clash with the blues, silvers, and greens of Cyberprep. This aesthetic has reflective buildings, blue highlights, and some rare greenery, The only wood seen in this futuristic aesthetic is still growing. Cyberpunk images show clean and planned environments, unbothered by weather or time, and often highlighted with colorful lights.

Woodi – Rosetti

This staircase is cut from clean white stone, and is adorned by glass and blue lights. It is sparkly clean and looks like it has never been walked on. Any staircase I would imagine in the Old Western aesthetic would be dark, lit by orange-yellow light if any, and would look like it creaks if you stepped on it.

Shutterstock – Fantastic City

Lastly the thing that set Cyberprep away from a more common stream aesthetic such as Cyberpunk is the fact that Cyberprep draws its future as more of a utopia, opposed to the dystopian environments that Cyberpunk highlights.  Old Western does not necessarily highlight a very dystopian world, but I would not say it is a safe one. Cyberpunk highlights structure, urban life, and community. While the Old Western aesthetic is much more lonely, everyone is carrying a gun, and wealth or prosperity are not to be seen.

If I were to design my project around the Cyberprep aesthetic rather than the Old Western I would be making a very different statue. My project focuses on making the features of the standout character in the Old Western world: a cowboy. But if I were to try and make a scrap metal statue with this futuristic aesthetic I believe I would make it much more simple than that. The clean silver-blue aesthetic would ask for clean smooth surfaces. I would probably be making a statue with few defining features, and would instead focus on making sure the reflective side of the metal can scrap was always facing outwards.

Sources:

Futuret photos, Images & Pictures. Shutterstock. (n.d.). https://www.shutterstock.com/search/futuret

Россети – Ленэнерго С-Петербург: Портфолио / Wooddi Design. Россети – Ленэнерго С-Петербург | Портфолио / Wooddi Design. (n.d.). https://www.wooddi.design/portfolio/album/34