The future began in September of 1999 with an urban cartography experiment by designer, global nomad, and culture connoisseur Wayne Berkowitz. Superfuture.com, an interactive online travel and shopping guide to over 150 (and counting) urban epicentres around the world, was spurred by an interactive map of Tokyo. Initially made to capture the saturated commercial chaos and congestion of the metropolis, visiting culture buffs saw a raw experience of the concrete jungle. “I have decided for you what to see, and in Tokyo, that usually means the streets,” said Berkowitz, introducing me to the site. The former industrial and magazine designer decided to abandon print for Internet hyperspace, creating urban sprawl built on simulacra. Visitors can contribute up-to-date information and review stores, galleries, cafes, and hotels that accompany each Supermap. The shape of Superfuture parallels the fluidity of a growing cityscape, while absorbing every progressive cultural trend along the way.
The participation from other expert global consumers of the Web 2.0 generation has affected a growing consciousness. You can purchase Superfuture Tshirts online (printed on the most expensive Japanese T-shirts in the world), and book custom-tailored Supervacations, with concierge service and hotel accommodations. Or, if you’re just staying in your own city, chances are Superfuture still knows more about what’s going on than you do. Its discursive global identity grew with the birth of an online community— supertalk. superfuture.com—in 2004.
At first, Supertalk functioned as a way of allowing cultivated shopping experts to trade secrets. Berkowitz’s own avatar is a self-designed map of “Tokyo in 2040…after the tsunami of 2019, which wipes out everything except the Prada building.” Over the years, it has mutated into many subforums, including Superjetset, Superculture, and, of course, Superdenim and Superfashion. In 2006, user-increase generated a map of its own: a global Googlemap hyper-linked to Supertalk, showing the locations of every online Supertalker.
Like every cyber-community, Ssuperfuture rests on inclusion and exclusion. Suspended in an inverse-Warholian universe, even the most basic consumer items are rarified: T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers transforming into a Raf Simons shirt, Dior Homme denim, and Lanvin high-tops. The new Masamichi Katayama-designed Daikanyama store, Colette parties in Paris, a new boutique tucked away in a basement of a Shinjuku street with Star Trek-esque sliding doors, and the unbuilt seven- star Serrenia Hotel on the coast of the Red Sea, are amongst recent discussion. Some forum threads create short-lived buzz about a new label with the shelf life of a Comme des Garçons guerilla store, before vanishing in cyberspace, while others have become virtual shrines to the community. The “What are you wearing today?” thread— where members religiously post pictures of their daily outfits, and list the labels of each article of clothing— and “Recent Purchase” highlight an obsession with designer consumerism. Such posts have reverberated into the world outside the site’s walls, unconsciously spawning consumer trends almost as if they were collective dreams. “Some threads have turned into a Superslaughter…I think Supertalk might have even ruined certain brands,” says Wayne in an interview with thebrilliance.com.
Just as the boundary of a city is permeable, there is no clear distinction between what is inside or outside this community. A bizarre obsession with denim cultivation showcases Ssuperfuture’s porousness. A phenomenon that first emerged from the Japanese appropriation and reproduction of discontinued American models of Levis, Wranglers, and Lee, denim cultivation has re-assimilated into North America. Users post on the daily on progress of each pair of raw denims, according to materials, exposure to the elements, and how they are worn and treated. Their subtle cross-cultural, trans-global nature correlates with the prescribed Ssuperfuture DNA.
In 2005, denim obsession overload led to a superdenim sub-forum, containing discussion of production details, different fits, to the molecular differences between each type of indigo dye. According to an Emediawire press release, Google search patterns for “selvedge denim” skyrocketed in 2006, one year after Ssuperdenim’s birth. In 2007, Kiya, a Supertalk member and owner of denim store Self Edge in San Francisco, was interviewed by the New York Times about his take on denim culture. Another Supertalker immediately recognized him, and posted the piece. Such is the confluential relationship between Supertalk and other forms of media.
This recognition of individual members outside the forum speaks to the community’s increasing social dimensions. Supertalk’s “reputation system” allows members to add or subtract each others’ score, while commenting and critiquing posts. Supertrash has been created for people to gossip, spill personal secrets, and hook up. Posts are infested with Internet memes and YouTube references ,latent with self-reflexity. A relatively new movement of group meet-ups has brought Supertalk out of cyberspace to where it first began: the streets.
Supertalk member, Self Edge denim model, and NYU photography student Spidey has decided to turn his experiences into a personal project. A current work in progress documents the model standing in the same background every day for a year, without cutting his hair or changing his jeans, is cross-posted on the forum. “It’s my relationship to the Web 2.0 culture and the Supertalk community. Jeans show the passage of time…it says a lot about how far our communication has come since the utilization of mass communication.” This all relates to another exhibit, inspired by Spidey’s participation since 2005. “Taking portraits of the people who participate on Supertalk…it speaks to the hyperculture we’re in, where you can be in bumblefuck wherever and still be in on the latest niche trend in Europe or skatewear in Los Angeles.”
Spidey’s reputation skyrocketed when one portrait was silkscreened in limited numbers onto T-shirts, sold on Supertalk world-wide. In his recent trip to Singapore, he was surprised to encounter active lurkers of Supertalk. “ Two weeks ago, some random folks overheard me and some Singaporean users talking about Superfuture. One guy asked about westside (the now iconic Supertalker on those T-shirts) and promptly did the westside pose. It kind of blew my mind!” Sidney will show his “What are you wearing today?” project in an upcoming gallery opening in New York, in conjunction with a meet-up for the website. As for the portraits, he plans to save them for a collaborative project with Berkowitz in the near (super) future
