steampunk rising

one of the more fascinating features of our time is the willingness of people to drag an apparently dead-and-gone idea into the present and give it enough cool and cache that it becomes current and sometimes even desirable all over again. this is exemplified by the lengthy but steady rise to the forefront of cool culture of the steampunk world.

steampunk as a term is attributed to several authors but it is generally accepted that author kevin jeter coined it as a tongue-in-cheek response to the then emerging genre of cyberpunk. (see stuff on william gibson on this blog) steampunk as a genre has passed through several phases initially being somewhat like cyberpunk in its depiction of a dystopian world but with victorian overtones. the “punk” element is much like that in cyberpunk, more of an attitudinal approach to authority than a link to the music and social movement of the late seventies and early eighties.

steampunk is heavily influenced by the writing of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Mark Twain and Mary Shelley. typically, the plots incorporate steam-era technology particularly (and obviously) steam engines, clockwork machines and difference engines .

in my searching there doesn’t appear to be a centre to the steampunk universe, but there are nexus points where the genre takes form, comes to life and enters the world of the real while keeping its feet firmly planted in the phantasmagorical.
the steampunk workshop is the place where i recognize the features of genuine passion and the sort of crazed energy that can take a really good idea and make it work - at all costs! when you get to the workshop take some time to scroll around and read through the experiments, proposals, conversions and whatnot. it’s brilliant, creative, mad stuff. a real thrill in an age of ipod homogeneity.

speaking of computers. this is my favourite object in the steampunk workshop. a flat panel monitor revibrated a la steampunk!

the good folks at deviant art have a similar offering albeit somewhat smaller. a very cool fifth column sort of approach to applying the steampunk appearance and attitude to a purposeful reconfiguring of an environment. have a look at the ambience enhancer .