The slow cancellation of the future

Vaporwave as antipraxis

Instead of subverting the system, vaporwave creates alternative realities that coexist with our current system. It undermines the commodification of nostalgia in an age of global capitalism, and it is infiltrating popular culture like a virus. Is vaporwave a way out?

“Am Heimcomputer sitz’ ich hier und programmier die Zukunft mir”, Kraftwerk.

Teenager Wade Watts can’t wait to become Parzival. Every free minute he spends in OASIS, a virtual world where he can be and do whatever he wants. By using Virtual Reality (VR), he escapes hell on earth.
Watts is the protagonist in Ernest Cline’s science fiction novel ‘Ready Player One’ (2011). Since this year it’s also a movie, directed by Steven Spielberg. The story plays out in 2045. Climate change and the worldwide energy crisis brought famine, poverty, disease, and war. Watts lives in the slums of Columbus, Ohio: trailer parks stacked on top of each other. His only escape is becoming his virtual alter-ego Parzival and entering OASIS, a video game — made by programmer James Halliday — turned into a virtual world were millions escape their dystopian reality. OASIS is full of references to the past, especially the eighties, and creates an alternative reality where neither time or place play a significant role. Instead of isolating people, OASIS…