Psyberpunk and Immersive Audio-Visual Art
On Creating Immersive Worlds in Unreal Engine, Virtual Reality and more with Audio-Visual Artist SuperCyberTown
Race Krehel A.K.A SuperCyberTown has a passion that’s right there in his alias- all things super and cyber. and also towns. Or cities, to be more precise as he spent years crafting a navigational version of the city of Singapore as it would exist in the neon-lit cyberpunk future.
SuperCyberTown has developed a keen visual aesthetic personal to him that evokes Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell in its outlook. Terming it ‘Psyberpunk’, his audio-visual art is a mix of generative glitches, delightful characters, cinematic cityscapes and some scenes that seem straight out of sci-fi anime. And he builds it all in Unreal Engine, a real-time 3d creation software developed as a game engine.
I first came across his work in the incredible music video ‘The Answer’ by O$P$ ft. Vandetta which is the culmination of all his visual styles in one video.
I had the pleasure to chat with him recently as part of Quarantine Arts Club on his background, inspirations, foray into interactive art, virtual reality, projection mapping, unreal engine, creative process and some of his projects. His creativity is boundless and there’s a ton of upcoming stuff to look forward to from him. Notably, his new creative collective titled METAMO Industries which spans high end visual effects, digital art, immersive media and audio production.
Check out the full session on my IGTV below, packed with more visual treats from his works, and use the timestamps below to navigate what you’re interested on!
Timestamps
00:14:29 — Race gives an introduction on himself
03:59:00 — Race describes the kind of work and projects he’s doing now
05:45:00 — On ‘Geylang Crunk’ and working in New Media in Singapore
06:45:00 — On his key experience in Lucasfilm Singapore
09:40:00 — Deep diving into all things Unreal Engine
12:30:00 — On his strongest VR project ‘Oceans We Make’
13:30:00 — On the importance of narrative and value of building an experience in VR
15:10:00 — On some of the challenges working in VR
16:20:00 — On making VR games
18:30:00 — Chatting about the genesis of O$P$ (Owe Money Pay Money) an audio-visual collective based on his passion for Geylang street culture
21:14:29 — How he got into projection mapping, using Resolume and other hack methods
23:15:00 — On ‘Psyberpunk’, his particular visual style and how it developed
25:40:00 — On ‘The Answer’ music video, a complete Psyberpunk Singapore virtual city using face-tracking in the pre-filter era, all within Unreal engine
29:30:00 — On his current pipeline and another music video project building on his style
30:19:00 — On Notch and vvvv systems for generative art
31:35:00 — On his learning curve through all these systems
32:50:00 — Race’s advice for beginners jumping into New Media and Unreal engine
34:44:00 — On the differences in thinking and creative approaches between graphic design, VFX, visual arts and New Media
36:30:00 — SuperCyberTown on his thoughts on the future of New Media in this decade
