I must say that I find myself intrigued by this "Steampunk" Aesthetic.

[pepperbear]

I started to notice it around 2007. It seems like a natural progression of "Goth" churned through the culture of the Harry Potter generation, who are now entering college.

[NYC_SKP]

1. There's more to it than fashion, there's a renaissance in tinkering and inventing and making...

Google Maker Faire...

I just spent the day with the founder of Maker Magazine and a group of teachers.

Steam Punk celebrates the intersection of art and science, of Victorian era industrial design and modern electronic technologies.

The Detroit Maker Faire is this weekend.

The Silicon Valley Maker Faire was in May.

[chalky]

2. There is a site I've had saved for a couple of years

that has the gorgeous steampunk inspired computer rebuilds:



I go there periodically and drool over the designs.

http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/ergo1/ergo1.htm

[hunter]

8. The generic Windows desktop on that lovely machine is so wrong...

... it's crying for ubuntu and a steampunk theme.

My fantasy steam-punk computer has two screens on adjustable arms -- one an electronic paper screen like an e-book reader, and the other a color LCD. It can be folded and unfolded in a variety of configurations. It's powered by a methanol fuel cell.

[hifiguy]

17. That is cool beyond cool.

I want one.

[HarveyDarkey]

20. If you need a flash drive for it

[frogmarch]

3. So am I

One of my favorites is this self-propelled steampunk Victorian-style mobile home named Neverwas Haul.

[HopeHoops]

7. Looks a bit like Howl's Moving Castle

[progressoid]

4. I am too. I think I would be more into it if I were younger.

Now I'm too tired to put the effort into anything like that.

[Lysystrata]

5. Steampunk also has

a fantasy feel. It's Jules Vernish, harking back to steam engine days, Victorian Era clothing and instruments made of brass. There is even a literary genre called Steampunk.

[hifiguy]

18. Literature is where it all started,

with William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's seminal novel "The Difference Engine."

[sarge43]

6. The film, The Golden Compass, had a steampunk vibe and look n/t

[kayakjohnny]

34. As well as "Brazil" the movie.

Which is also recognized as helping to influence steampunk to begin with.

[Glorfindel]

9. Me, too...

Here's a rather wonderful music video:

&feature=related

[HughBeaumont]

10. Watch "City of Lost Children".

It's a steampunk work of awesomeness by the guys who brought you Ameile.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. I think it looks like fun. So woulda done that when I was younger.

[nolabear]

12. I'm a fan too. Are there any subgroups of style?

I can imagine Chicago Steampunk, New Orleans Steampunk, Indian Steampunk, etc.

[haele]

13. Try the San Diego musical group "Steam Powered Giraffe" -

They started out as a busking group that created a steampunk "backstory" to stand out when they played in Balboa park. They've expanded out and are major attractions at the various local gaming and makers conventions.
They have a version of "Big Rock Candy Mountain" that's wonderful to hear.

http://www.steampoweredgiraffe.com/

BTW, Steampunk as an esthetic has been around for a while - usually in the art world or in fantasy film as a pastiche on Jules Verne and HG Wells novels or as an homage to silent movies, but really took off with William Gibson's (oops, and Bruce Sterling!)1990 novel "The Difference Engine".

Haele

[onager]

14. My own Weird Hobby has interesting steampunks...

I build scale models. Steampunk subjects are pretty popular.

I know one modeler who is building a ginormous "Victorian Steam-Powered Tracked Artillery Landcrawler." Sort of a giant tank with a big gun. (Fortunately, he's building in 1/35 scale, so it should still fit thru most doorways.)

His scenario for the model - the Martians from War of the Worlds come back to Earth with a vengeance, and Earthlings have to build weapons to fight them.

Check out this steam-powered 1949 Mercury in 1/25 scale...complete with detachable pipe organ! Amazing work. No, I didn't build it, but I wish I had:



More about that model in a UK forum, Brass Goggles: http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=16471.0

A Japanese company, WAVE, did a 1/24 model kit of Capt. Nemo's steam-powered (?) car from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. If you see this kit, grab it - it is out of production and fetches BIG bucks on eBay:

[Andy J]

43. Is it this thing? (build in progress)

Hello

First post on here, prompted by a google hit for steampunk landcrawler. Couldn't help notice that this...

I know one modeler who is building a ginormous "Victorian Steam-Powered Tracked Artillery Landcrawler." Sort of a giant tank with a big gun. (Fortunately, he's building in 1/35 scale, so it should still fit thru most doorways.)

His scenario for the model - the Martians from War of the Worlds come back to Earth with a vengeance, and Earthlings have to build weapons to fight them.

...didn't half read like the thing I've been working on for about two years (took a hiatus due to career and house moves)

[link:[url=http://www.servimg.com/image_preview.php?i=4&u=17796611][img][/img][/url]|]

Of course if it isn't this thing, I'd be intrigued to see it and be rather pleased that this meme/idea/trope has had a pangenesis.

[harmonicon]

15. I think it's despicable or pitiful, depending on how you look at it.

One thing's for sure; there's nothing at all punk about it. It relies almost entirely on material culture; it's all aesthetics.

The simultaneous love of a glorified past with desire for present material comforts is what I find disturbing. It reminds me of the fictionalized, conservative desire for "back in the day" neighbourhoods, and "main street USA."

I also just think it's sad when people get wrapped up in fantasy.

[hunter]

16. It's all aesthetics, even anti-aesthetics.

I'm a person less concerned about aesthetics than most anyone on the planet.

I drive around in an old car that hasn't been washed in decades.

That's my personal "I don't give a fuck about cars" aesthetic.

Modernism, functionalism, etc., those are other aesthetics.

Steam punks know they are creating a world that never was. The common world we all share in this moment is a similar fiction. Is this a democracy? Are we free? Hell no. We suffer under a corrupt government, in a corrupt dysfunctional society.

I have a lot more respect for those who choose the fantasy they want to live under than those who pretend the ugly common aesthetic imposed upon us is any kind of reality.

Every fucking dollar in your wallet, in your bank, in your portfolio is a representation of the cruelest aesthetic around, a "fantasy" that kills and tortures real people.

You can't begin to live until you step outside of this "real world" aesthetic that's been forcibly imposed upon us.

You don't like aesthetics that are materialistic? Create one for yourself that's not.

Look around. What humans do, what humans make, it's all art. Even science is a human art. Make some art.

[harmonicon]

19. Well, I am an artist of sorts.

I'm a musician. Back in my teen years, I was a goth, but I think that stuff's really silly now. I can't imagine now respecting any sort of music that's based around an image, especially one as over-arching and commercial as steam "punk".

[hunter]

29. I escaped high school for college in the mid-seventies.

I remember a few "goths" before there was "goth."

Wikipedia claims "It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre..." but I'm not buying that... My girlfriend at the time was a "mistress of the dark" before Cassandra Peterson was Elvira, before "gothic rock," even before I knew she was my girlfriend really...

Me, I was an ordinary socially awkward science-computer geek being led around by the balls. She was a deeply closeted lesbian who needed a boyfriend to convince herself and her fundamentalist family she wasn't gay.

Are you making a living as a musician? I wish we could design a society where bankers and financial managers had to take second jobs to support themselves while artists and musicians made a comfortable living. My dad's an artist who supported our family teaching.

It's a rare kid who creates their own aesthetic in a culture permeated with them, the loudest aesthetics of course, being the commercial.

[harmonicon]

32. I guess I'd say I'm semi-pro.

Rarely do I actually get paid well for my work, but I've been in and out of academia forever. I'm about to finish my PhD once all of the paperwork goes through (though I'm guilty of not doing my bit in that process as well).

I was paid well for the first few years of my doctoral research, but then had to rely on charity after the contract ran out with the occasional good-paying gig thrown in.

I've got a five-month gig coming up in Switzerland that should pay well, but the finances (all involving grants) aren't finalized yet, so it could fall through.

Making a living as an artist is HARD, but so is all real work. I was working the door at some gigs as a favour for friends this week, and I couldn't believe how much just a few hours of that took out of me.

[pepperbear]

28. I understand your point, but remember, like all fads....

that must involve material culture, it probably started with a small group of imaginative people who basically had no other way to get the things they needed other than to manufacture them themselves. as far as I can tell, this aesthetic has been brewing for the better part of 20 years, and only now has it reached full on zeitgeist status (meaning it's already yesterday's news) and it's name is now known.

This started out as an organic phenomenon, just like the Beatles or any other pop culture explosion.

[harmonicon]

31. Except it didn't...

The Beatles were a band. The image came after the music, and there was never one image for them.

This whole steampunk things seems to be all about material goods, and I find that to be off-putting.

The genesis of the fad in fiction is something I'm fine with. There are probably books that I like which could be described as fitting with the genre, but - as you point out - now that it is a genre, it's dead and cliché. I like sci-fi, but I don't walk around with ray guns and light sabers or non-functioning future computers.

[HelenaHandbasket]

21. You Just Got Hip To Steampunk?

Last edited Sat Jul 28, 2012, 01:24 AM - Edit history (1)

Whaaattt? LOL

[Fumesucker]

22. Your mount, gentle sir..

[Bigleaf]

23. I'm partial to this Steampunk inspired masterpiece

Neil Peart's Time Machine Tour Kit. Beautiful!

[pepperbear]

24. A Rush freak myself, here.

I just finished an article in "M" magazine about them and the new album and tour, and the fact that they also embrace the "Steampunk" thing.

[Bigleaf]

27. Nice. Would you happen to have a link or scan of the article?

I'd love to read it.

[pepperbear]

30. ...

http://mmusicmag.com/m/

[Bigleaf]

33. Great read. Thanks! The new album is awesome! I bought Clockwork Angels Tour tickets

for Toronto, LA, and Vegas. Saw the Time Machine Tour in San Diego, LA, and Toronto and I was lucky enough to catch a t-shirt Alex threw out in Toronto. I'm also a huge fan and have seen them multiple times every tour since 1979 (Permanent Waves Warm-Up Tour at Varsity Stadium in Toronto). I'll never forget sitting in the living room in 1979 as a young kid and a promo came on the TV with the guys playing Xanadu and I was blown away. My friend and I bought tickets and it was my first concert and I've been hooked since.

[hifiguy]

25. Ye gads, that's worthy of being in a museum.

Exquisite! At least it's in the hands of a drummer who can do it justice.

[HughBeaumont]

42. The drums he used on the Counterparts tour were on display at the RRHOF.

Our work had a party there in 2002 and I got to see the kit without having to tiptoe over crowds of people. Amazing to see that up close, and the Time Machine kit should definitely make it's way to the Smithsonian when it's retired.

[Bucky]

26. I'm more of a diesel punk fan

Think the Herkimer Battle Jitney from Mystery Men. Diesel punk involves things like beating up a robot Mussolini. Can't do that with steam, baby

[Initech]

35. Check out some cool Steampunk computer modifications:

http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/596-steampunk-pc-mod.html

I really like the Romantic Mac Mini and the Archbishop.

[GCP]

36. Nobody mentioned Myst

That was the beginning for me.

[malthaussen]

37. Several interesting Steampunk areas in Second Life

Stop into Caledon or New Babbage some day...

-- Mal

[blaze]

38. Steampunk Wedding!

You reminded me of this set of photos I saw awhile back:

http://ruffledblog.com/victorian-steampunk-wedding/

[hunter]

39. My rocket scientist grandpa was steampunk fifty years ago.

The stuff he built had brass fittings, vacuum tubes, and "magic eyes."



His home workshop smelled like gold metallic paint, burnt rosin core solder, and rubber cement.

People called him eccentric, but he was ahead of his time and fortunate enough to be indispensable at least twice in his life, first during the Second World War, and then for Apollo moon program.

My dad, myself and my siblings have some of his treasure, bits of metal that have orbited the moon, etc., but I wish now we'd kept some of the crazier stuff.

[eShirl]

40. ...

[Mopar151]

41. The "Steampunk" esthetic is one evolutionary path

I grew up around hardcore race cars - the esthetic ends up being very similar.

Vic Miller, dean of "supermodified" builders/mechanics, prepares his 900hp, 1800# missle

And, yes, I read "Difference Engine" - in many ways a celebration of early mechanical automation. In my career as a machinist, Ive built quite a bit of modern automation. The main things that look different are plumbing, and materials - Today's ubiquitous aluminium alloys were fantastically expensive, or nonexistent in the 1800's, and we have good alternatives to expensive and fragile copper tubing - like the stainless hardlines on this N2O - fed "Pro-Mod" engine.

html&docid=HJiyPbU5wFPazM&imgurl=&w=1600&h=1200&ei=IbcTUOC6DuPm0QHlmYCgCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=734&vpy=281&dur=7250&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=146&ty=182&sig=111093970835859275911&page=1&tbnh=125&tbnw=155&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:19,s:0,i:129&biw=1280&bih=588