When I approach the self-proclaimed “evil of open source” CC for an interview, I’m pretty sure she’s emailing me from behind a pink mermaid purse.
“I’m just having so much fun,” he tells me of her shell cyberdeck. “It’s a Tamagotchi. It’s also an e-reader. It’s networked to my vault and my servers, so it has access to all my server data, which has all my PDFs, and books, and notes and everything… It’s also connected to my local AI setup at home.”
CC has no background in software engineering or computer science, but she’s good enough at building unconventional cyberdecks—small DIY computers—that she documents the process on her blog Bimbo Tech so that other women can follow her example, even if they don’t yet know what RAM is.
The idea of the cyberdeck came from William Gibson’s 1984 science fiction novel “Neuromancer” and when credit card sized computers like the Raspberry Pi appeared on the market in the 2010s, hardware enthusiasts began to create and share their own cyberdecks in niche online communities. But in recent months, these communities have exploded in popularity thanks to women on social media teaching each other to build artistic, hyper-feminine computers by documenting their construction processes.
“I have a running joke that there’s this misogyny in tech — because whenever they come out with a professional model or an elite model… I’m always like, let me guess, it’s black or silver,” CC said. “It’s never going to come out in pink.”
The process of customizing and designing a cyberdeck has become an art form in itself. On Instagram and TikTok, you can find one wood and moss cyberdeck which runs Game Boy Color games. a MP3 player inspired by the desert built inside a 3D printed fossil. a Barbie dollhouse which opens to reveal a working mini-computer. or a duck figurine which can be used to record voice memos.
“I don’t want Meta AI glasses. I want to pirate books in a tiny decorated shell,” said the creator Sarahbelle Kim on TikTok. “No one can track you there. You can get some basic parts at the thrift store or eBay and just customize them.”
There is obviously an aesthetic motivation for the rise of girl cyberdecks — why not use a hello kitty wallet to check your email? It’s fun for fun’s sake. But the women who build these towering, dazzling cyberdecks aren’t just about the glitz. This trend is reaching its peak at a time when people feel powerless in the face of the ubiquitous homogeneity of big technology.
“I think that’s so refreshing for people who were sold these devices that are like Apple’s … If you try to jailbreak it, if you try to do anything on that phone that you paid $1,000 for, that you own, it’s out of warranty,” CC said. “So I love seeing people take power back into their own hands, take control into their own hands, which obviously always means creativity when people are given the means to step outside of the black box.”
Maro Vardanyan doesn’t work with hardware as a blockchain developer, but has always enjoyed collecting and tinkering with old computer parts.
“A few months ago, I just started as a hobby making art and jewelry and wallets out of recycled or upcycled old computers that I had,” she said. “When I saw everyone doing cyberdecks, I thought, wait, why am I just doing recycled and recycled, when I can actually keep the pieces in something that’s wearable, that’s mobile?”
Vardanyan has taken a different approach to making web decks, choosing instead to highlight the historical relationship between fiber art and technology. Vardanyan refers to her work as “computer crochet” or “macramé motherboards,” deliberately highlighting the role of weaving—a practice often seen as domestic, women’s work—in the history of early computers.
Before silicon processors, some early computers operated with magnetic core memory, consisting of copper wiring that was precisely connected to encode the 1s and 0s of the binary code. For NASA to build the Apollo guidance computerFor example, specialized female textile workers were tasked with the meticulous weaving wires in painstakingly complex patterns, which powered the spacecraft that landed the first man on the moon.
“The original processor was hand-woven by seamstresses, not by mechanics or anyone else,” he said. “I feel like hand weaving, even technology meeting fashion… It’s such a full circle.”
Vardanyan started weaving pink Raspberry Pis to make purses and corsets, then posted photos of herself projects in progress in X.
“Of course, when macrame went viral, all the guys were like, ‘That’s such a waste of Raspberry Pi’… or ‘what about the rain?’ he said. “And then I have to be like, ‘Actually, it’s kept in an acrylic shell.’ And then they say, “This is so performative and the GPIO will waste power!” And I’m like, “Actually, I’m using a conductive thread, so it’s actually going to move and it’s going to be fully functional.”
CC has also encountered condescending men on the internet who balk at the idea that someone would use a Raspberry Pi to something as frivolous as a clamshell computer during a RAM crunch.
“This guy on Reddit was like, ‘You built your first computer a month ago, take it easy.’ Mind you, I’ve been building computers for years,” CC said. “So long story short, he ends up apologizing and buying me the circuit board for my next cyberdeck.”
From CC’s mermaid purse computer to Vardanyan’s Raspberry Pi corset, these cyberdecks are a direct rejection of Silicon Valley culture, and not just in their incredible embrace of the color pink. They are impractical and inefficient on purpose, which seems sacrilegious in a culture so obsessed with optimization that unregulated Chinese peptide injections it is modern. It’s a radical act to co-opt misguided, DIY tech experiences in order to forge a closer relationship with devices that feel so abstract despite their ubiquity.
“Ten years ago, I’d go to a convention, there’d be three girls, and people would literally be like, ‘Did they hire you for the marketing team?’ Vardanyan said. “I can’t even tell you how amazing it is to see so many girls all over social media and Instagram getting into hardware, getting into software, and then getting educated [each other]and that is certainly the energy we lack at every level of society.”
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