Cyberpunk examines the global impact and lasting influence of the science fiction subgenre on cinema culture. Featuring near-future scenarios that are earthbound rather than in outer space, Cyberpunk films juxtapose technological advances with social disorder, envisioning a future characterized by alienation, totalitarianism, and urban decay.

At the exhibition’s core, an immersive installation illustrate the genre’s 20th-century origins and the new, global directions it has taken in the 21st century as Cyberpunk has expanded and merged with Afrofuturism, Indigenous Futurism, and other genres. Through these films, the exhibition confronts the ongoing challenges of climate change, capitalism, and colonialism and offer visions of possible futures.

Charles Ross’s Spectrum 14 is a calibrated array of prisms that cast a dazzling display of luminous color across the Museum’s rotunda. Bands of spectral lighttraverse the space in relation to the sun, which follows a slightly different arc through the sky every day. Over time, the work changes in response to Earth’s rotational orbit, connecting us to the premodern experience of astronomical observation and calculation that defined cycles of days, seasons, and rituals. This project was commissioned for PST ART as part of the Getty exhibition Lumen: The Art and Science of Light.