When I approach self-proclaimed “open source baddie” CC for an interview, I’m pretty sure she’ll email me back from a pink mermaid purse.
“I’m just having so much fun,” she says of her seashell cyber deck. “It’s a Tamagotchi. It’s also an e-reader. It’s connected to my box 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 gotten good enough at building unconventional cyberdecks—small DIY computers—that she documents the process on her blog, Bimbo Tech, so other women can follow her lead even if they don’t yet know what RAM is.
The idea of the cyberdeck originated in William Gibson’s 1984 sci-fi novel “Neuromancer,” and when credit-card-sized computers like the Raspberry Pi hit the market in the 2010s, hardware enthusiasts began building and sharing their own cyberdecks in niche online communities. But over the past few months, these communities have exploded in popularity thanks to women on social media teaching each other how to build artistic, hyper-feminine computers by documenting their building processes.
“I have a running joke that there’s this underlying misogyny in tech — because every time they release a pro model or an elite model … I’m always like, let me guess, it’s black or silver,” CC said. “It never comes in pink.”
The process of customizing and designing a cyber deck has become an art form in itself. On Instagram and TikTok, you can find a cyber deck made of wood and moss that runs Game Boy Color games; a desert-inspired MP3 player built inside a 3D-printed fossil; a Barbie dollhouse that opens to reveal a functional minicomputer; or a duck figure that can be used to record voice notes.
“I don’t want Meta AI glasses. I want to pirate books in a little ornate shell,” creator Sarahbelle Kim said on TikTok. “Nobody can monitor you there. You can get some basic parts at the thrift store or eBay and just customize it.”
There is obviously an aesthetic motivation for the rise of girly cyber decks – why not use a Hello Kitty wallet to check your email? It’s fun for fun’s sake. But the women who build these over-the-top, bedazzled cyber decks aren’t in it for the glitz alone. This trend is peaking at a time when people feel powerless in the face of the ubiquitous homogeneity of big tech.
“I think it’s such a refreshing thing for people who were sold these devices that look like Apple’s… If you try to jailbreak it, if you try to do anything to this phone that you paid $1,000 for that you own, it’s out of warranty,” CC said. “So I just love to see people take power back into their hands, take control back into their hands, which of course always means creativity when people get the means to go outside the black box.”
Maro Vandanyan doesn’t work with hardware as a blockchain developer, but she 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 purses with recycled or recycled old computers that I had,” she said. “When I saw everyone making cyberdecks, I thought, wait, why am I just making recycled and upcycled ones when I can actually preserve the pieces on something that’s portable, that’s portable?”
Vandanyan has taken a different approach to building cyber decks, choosing instead to emphasize the historical relationship between fiber art and technology. Vandanyan refers to her work as “crocheting with computers” or “macrame motherboards,” a deliberate nod to the role of weaving—a practice often considered domestic, women’s work—in the early history of computing.
Before silicon processors, some early computers ran on magnetic core memory, consisting of copper wires precisely threaded to encode the 1s and 0s of binary code. In order for NASA to build the Apollo Guidance Computer, for example, expert female textile workers were tasked with painstakingly weaving wires into intricate patterns that powered the spacecraft that landed the first man on the moon.
“The original processor was handwoven by seamstresses, not by engineers or anyone else,” she said. “I feel like hand weaving, and even fashion meets technology… It’s so full circle.”
Vandanyan began weaving pink Raspberry Pis to make purses and corsets, then posted photos of her work-in-progress on X.
“Of course, when the macrame went viral, all the men said, ‘This is such a waste of Raspberry Pi’ … or ‘what about the rain?'” she said. “And then I have to say, ‘It’s actually preserved in an acrylic shell.’ And then they say, ‘This is so performative and the GPIO will lose power!’ And I’m thinking, “Actually, I’m using a conductive thread so it will actually move and function fully.”
CC has also encountered condescending men on the internet who balk at the idea that anyone would use a Raspberry Pi for something as frivolous as a clamshell bag during a RAM shortage.
“This guy on Reddit said, ‘You built your first computer a month ago, take it easy.’ Remember, I’ve been building PCs for years,” CC said. “So, long story short, he ends up apologizing and buying me the circuit board for my next cyber deck.”
From CC’s mermaid purse computer to Vandanyan’s Raspberry Pi cross, these cyber decks are a direct rejection of Silicon Valley culture, and not just in their fierce embrace of the color pink. They are impractical and ineffective on purpose, which seems sacrilegious in a culture so obsessed with optimization that unregulated Chinese peptide injections are trendy. It’s a radical act to opt for hacky, do-it-yourself tech experiences to forge a closer relationship with the devices that feel so abstract despite their ubiquity.
“Ten years ago, I’d walk into a conference there would be three girls and people would literally just say, ‘Did you get hired on the marketing team?'” Vandanyan said. “I can’t even tell you how amazing it is to see so many girls all over my social media and Instagram being in hardware, being in software and then educating [each other]and that is certainly the energy we lack at all levels of society.”
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