Giger on William Gibson

 leading from

H R Giger 
and 
William Gibson

a) Introduction to William Gibson.

When HR Giger heard that William Gibson was working on Alien 3, he started to read his novels.
He had written things such as Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive. He liked them very much but before that, he knew nothing of cyberpunk. There was the fact that people were living in layers of the city high in the air like a canopy of a rainforest. And so there were different layers and the new cities built over old ones. However what was going on in his novels, he could compare to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner with the columns in the front of the buildings. Before it was imagined that in future around the year 2000, people would live in a modern world, but now it's a world with the craziest mix of things.

b) Imagining the Cyberpunk world

There was not much actually described in detail in Gibson's world, anyone could make up their own image of it. The artist Liberatore who created the comic story Ran Xerox featured in Metal Hurlant created a style that suited Giger, and in a similar way it was a messed up world made up from scrap. Giger didn't like these nice clean settings in science fiction. He found it better when it showed itself to bear traces of time. There was a dirt world,  somewhat unhygienic, and that would be how the punk scene might occur. The Cyberpunk world was a way of life where technology took over from drugs in replacing the dreams. Silicon chips, electronics and visual things became the new addiction

c) Giger tattoos

Giger would be pleased when Gibson would have in his novels tattoo artists using his paintings to base tattoos on.  In William Gibson's novel Virtual Light, a character would have Giger's New York XXIV tattooed. Giger's work had become popular with the world of tattoo artists. His biomechanical term has been used to represent a futuristic style in which the body is shown as transparent, revealing that we as humans are all robots under the skin.

New York XXIV

1. Michael Nagula: Was ist Ihre Verbindung zu Gibson? (What is your connection to Gibson?)
   
   Giger: Ich habe natürlich, als ich gehört habe, daß William Gibson an „Alien III" arbeitet, an dem ich auch wieder mitarbeite, angefangen, seine Bücher zu lesen. Die haben mir sehr gefallen. Davor hatte ich aber nichts über Cyberpunk gewußt. (translation: I have naturally, as I have heard that William Gibson on "Alien III " works on which I participate again , started to read his books. I have liked them very much. Prior to that I had known nothing but available via cyberpunk.)
   

   
   Michael Nagula: Was gefiel Ihnen an seinen Büchern besonders? (Michael Nagula What do you like about his books particularly?)

    

   Giger: Zum Beispiel, wie die Leute wohnen. Daß sie in der Höhe wohnen, in der Luft, fast wie man im Regenwald auf den Wipfeln der Bäume wohnt. Und daß so verschiedene Schichten da sind. Es wird einfach auf die alten Städte draufgebaut: das stelle ich mir wie riesige Säulen vor, wie es auch bei „Blade Runner" von Ridley Scott war. Früher hat man immer gedacht, die Leute, die zweitausendirgendwann leben, wohnen ganz modern, aber dann sieht man meistens in den guten Filmen, daß alle Stile drin vorkommen . . . die verrücktesten Sachen, wie auch immer sie entstanden sind. Es ist ein totaler Mix. (For example, how the people live . The fact that they live in the high in the air , almost like you live in the rain forest on the tops of the trees. And so that different layers are there. It is simply it built on the old cities . I imagine such huge columns in front , as it was with "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott. Earlier one has always thought the people, living 2000 some time , live very modern, but then you see mostly in the good films that happen all the styles in it ... the craziest things , whatever they are incurred . It is a total mix. )
   
   
   
   Michael Nagula Es waren also die Beschreibungen, die ... (Michael Nagula: So there were the descriptions ... )
   Giger: Es ist gar nicht sehr viel beschrie- ben. Da kann sich jeder, glaube ich, ein ziemlich eigenes Bild machen. Liberatore, der Zeichner von Rank Xerox, hat das für meinen Geschmack sehr schön umgesetzt. Natürlich auch abgefuckt, ziemlich Schrott und . . . eben das Neue Ding, ja aber dann wieder daneben. Was ich nie leiden konnte, waren diese sauberen Science Fiction-Dinger. Das war mir immer zu . . . unecht. Ich glaube, für mich lebt etwas, wenn es Spuren der Zeit trägt. (There is not much described. Since anyone can , I think , make make their own image. Liberatore , the cartoonist and creator of Rank Xerox  has implemented taste very nice for my health. Of course also fucked up , pretty much scrap and . . . say, the new thing , but yes then next again . What I could never suffer , these were clean Science fiction things . It was getting to me . . . spurious. I think for me lives a bit when it optimal carrying traces of time.)
   
   There is not much described. Since everyone, can I think, a pretty image. Liberatore, the cartoonist and creator of Rank Xerox, has implemented taste very nice for my health. Of course also fucked up, pretty much scrap and... just the new thing, yes but then again also. This clean science fiction things were what I could never suffer. I was always too... gimmicky. I think for me is something alive, though it bears traces of time.
   
   Und Gibson löst das ein? (And Gibson to redeem it? )
   
   Giger: Mich dünkt, ja. Er hatte alte Dinge drin und neue, und Sachen waren angedeutet. Es war ziemlich viel Dreck, etwas unhygienisch, na ja, wie's in der Punk-Szene vielleicht vorkommt. (Me thinks yes. He had old things in it and new , and things were indicated . It was quite a lot of dirt , somewhat unhygienic , well, how 's the punk scene might occur .)
   
   Was verstehen Sie unter Cyberpunk? (What do you understand by Cyberpunk ?)
   
   
   
   Giger: Es scheint so eine Art Lebensform zu sein . . . wo statt Drogen die Technik die Träume ersetzt. Also daß Träume nicht mehr durch Drogen, chemische Drogen, sondern durch . . . wie sagt man . . . durch Chips, elektronische und visuelle Dinge erlebt werden . . . und die wahr- scheinlich ebenso süchtig machen. 
   (There seems to be some kind of life form. . . where instead of drugs , the technique replaces the dream. So that dream no longer through drugs, chemical drugs , but by . . . how do you say . . . be experienced by chips , electronic and visual things. . . and make probably just as addictive .
   
   It seems like a way of life... where the dreams replaced technique instead of drugs. So that dreams not through drugs, chemical drugs, but... as they say... by chips, electronic and Visual things are... experienced and the perceived probably equally addictive.)
2. Giger: My favourite science fiction writer, William Gibson, the author of such books as Necromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive, immortalised my works as blueprints for tattoo artists in his novel Virtual Light, in a conversation in a tattoo shop in the future. It seems that [in tattooing], the word ‘bio-mechanical’ – a term I coined to describe many of my paintings – has come to represent a futuristic style in which the body is shown as transparent, revealing that we are all robots under the skin (Interview with David Hughes) ( Giger: Swiss for 'Genius' (Interview circa 1997)groovyfokker.blogspot.co.uk)