CYBR/2020/Interview

* **Interview**
* Photoshoot

Cyberpunk 2077 is finally being released into our lives in November. A game world that many of you have waited for, for the best part of a decade. This world is rich, complex and inherently Cyberpunk. Its own creator calls it a warning, but with a glimpse into a future that would be surrounded in cyberware, artificial intelligence, robotics and futurist tendencies, consider us hooked.

The universe that Cyberpunk 2077 lives in has some of the most simultaneously utopian and dystopian visions for our future. From the utilitarian concept of Trauma Team International, to the existence of mind altering media like Brain Dance and physical implants with cyberware upgrades.

There is a plethora of interconnecting characters within the Cyberpunk universe, but one individual stood out to us as inherently CYBR. That character is 'Rockergirl' Lizzy Wizzy, a socially and politically active musician who is renowned for performing what some call 'the greatest show of all time' after she died on stage and was treated by medics, completing the concert as a cyborg. She went on to replace her entire body with cyberware, enabling a wealth of upgrades to her body, and in the process becoming entirely chrome.

Who better to voice the part of a socially conscious futuristic Rockergirl implanted from head to toe with cyberware than Grimes, a musician who explores the future of superior artificial intelligence, the digitization of ourselves, and the far-off future regularly in her music.

If anyone takes the mantle of a Rockergirl in our reality it's Grimes, her feeds are full of social and political action, and even a poem from Miss Anthropocene, Grimes' self proclaimed Goddess of Climate Change, that in an overtly tongue in cheek reference asks us as a race to continue making climate change worse, to eradicate ourselves, a clear message to turn the tide on our environmental impact or face the consequences.

Of course this isn't the first time that Grimes has stepped into the digital void, earlier this year for her new album Miss Anthropocene, Grimes released her own digital avatar WarNymph into the world. We often talk of simulation theory and whether we live within base reality. However perhaps when we already live in an existence where we have the ability to be immortalised within a simulation as a chrome cyborg, and meanwhile have a digital avatar at our side, the conversation becomes somewhat moot.

We caught up with Grimes to discuss her part in Cyberpunk 2077, the future of technology and even artificial wombs.

**For your new album you released War Nymph. How do you see the digital versions of ourselves expanding IRL in the future?**

We're all digital already anyway, and often in video games. But if you're using FaceTune and filters it's all the same. We're just curious about being literal. A Ready Player One type future seems inevitable where you'll be able to use your avatar across platforms so we were curious about vibing into that idea creatively ahead of time!

**If you could upgrade any part of your body with cyberware like Lizzy Wizzy, what part would it be and why?**

Def my brain and get neural implants. I'd like to be smarter and faster. Technology is essentially magic. I'd want to plug right into the source. If not that probably upgrading my hands to avoid arthritis and enable enhanced combat.

**Cyberpunk 2077 has rockerboys/ girls who use their music to draw attention to, and protest against social injustice. How do you think we can use music and technology over the next 100 years to help contribute to change and support movements like #BLM?**

Artists have some of the biggest platforms in general and therefore probably have a moral imperative to try to educate on these matters. Hmmm. But I think more so, we need to move on from prejudice and racism before we get deeper into the technological rabbit hole because otherwise technologies will be designed and implemented with racist undertones and create further injustice. The speed at which technology is developing should be a wake up call to fix ourselves.

**What technology are you dying to see become reality by 2077?**

Electric jets and planes. All packaging to be biodegradable. Solutions to food waste. Online voting. Wombs outside the body for women who don't want to go through the physical burden and dangers of childbirth. Re-usable rockets and extra terrestrial farming. The cure to ageing (although this might be a bad idea), and neural implants. [END]

GRIMES VOICES LIZZY WIZZY IN CYBERPUNK 2077.

1. ↑ https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0053/6602/2259/products/CYBR-MAG-06-LIZZY-WIZZY-12.jpg?v=1669215945&width=4950