Cyberpunk Seoul: Seoul Urbanism on TBS eFM's Koreascape

Seoul Urbanism on TBS eFM's Koreascape

This month we talk about Seoul's chances of becoming the next great cyberpunk city, following the likes of the future Los Angeles imagined in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, Chiba City imagined in William Gibson's Neuromancer, and New Port City (or Hong Kong) imagined in Oshii Mamoru's Ghost in the Shell. Expatriate photographers have found much of cyberpunk's "high tech meets low life" sensibility in Seoul's cityscape, especially on rainy nights in the parts of town full of old neon, crumbling alleys, and visible technological infrastructure. We ask what else Seoul needs to achieve proper cyberpunk status, and whether certain other cities in Africa or India might get there first.