Steampunking
From Mod Mania
Steampunk culture evolved from a literary genre, from such works of H.G Wells and Jules Verne. The term steampunk itself refers to works where technological advancements are made when steam power is still widely used. Its basis is one of speculation of what would have happened if the information revolution had occurred a century earlier and is generally set in the Victorian era.
The idea behind steampunk is to reverse the mass production process, whereby the aim behind such modifications is to include appropriate materials, paired with the craftsmanship skills, into the design. The ability so see how an object functions, without all the ‘fake walls’ and subterfuge, is prized in a steampunk world. The idea comes from seeing a steam engine, and how one can follow the path of the power, till it is expended in kinetic energy.
Commonly what happens is that people take and object and change the exterior or modify the object around so that it functions differently, or to show the interior workings. On the other hand, there are some people who craft the entire object from scratch. Generally designs are stylised towards the Victorian era as well as mechanical aesthetics, sort of to keep within the idea of it being powered by steam.
Generally what people modify are household objects, or objects that have a functional use. But there are cases where people modify other things. An example of such things is action figures. There are modifications of action figures in steampunk style, which generally just means changing the costume or appearance of the character. There is even an entire site dedicated to steampunk action figures.
As a culture, the most obvious aspect of it would have to be the aesthetics. This is show through the people’s taste in decorations and fashion. Steampunk fashion styles lean towards Victorian style clothing with mechanical and engineering inspired accessories. Decorations occur in the form of modifications of everyday products to make them look mechanised and olden. These modifications generally consist of aesthetic or superficial changes. Some however, modify the functions of the object or create the desired object from scratch.
The boom of steampunk culture can be attributed to both the Internet and the reaction to mass production. The Internet allowed people to connect and to share methods of modification with each other. Also, indirectly the Internet allowed people to source out materials needed to modify, such as old typewriters and unwanted parts. This ability to source out materials paired with the desire to customise one’s objects allowed steampunk to flourish.
Community wise, there are many websites online that share methods for modifications and examples of people’s modifications. As for forums, there are surprisingly few dedicated steampunk forums. However, there is talk of steampunk inspired modifications in forums that are not associated with steampunk. This includes costumes forums and hardware forums.
The flow of information from steampunk online sources seems to be in one general direction, with most of the information consisting of tutorials on how to perform modifications and project examples being posted on the site. However, despite the numerous numbers of sites, many examples are also constantly repeated among many sites. The interactions between the community online seems to be mostly comments and thanks to posts from sites, with people from the community occasionally moving to become contributors to the sites.
Certain steampunk websites are also broken down in to specific areas of interest within steampunk. Most sites are a general overview of modification projects and examples. However, some sites specialise into modifications solely for household purposes, making Victorian style fashion and steampunk jewellery.
Aside from websites and forums, there are also steampunk enthusiasts on livejournal communities, which is more of a website or blog where everyone can post. The flow of information is still slightly one-sided but in this case posting of articles and tutorials depends on the members so the community is driven by what they are willing to share. This however, means that the content is somewhat random and sometimes not of use.
Besides online gatherings, events are held where steampunk enthusiasts can meet up. Examples of such are the 2008 steampunk convention in California and the “Maker Farie”. Such conventions are where people show off their inventions and dress up in full steampunk gear, complete with mechanisms and armaments. Besides steampunk-dedicated conventions, there are also other conventions such as pop-culture conventions where enthusiast meet up. Much of the time, such enthusiast are dressed up in steampunk attire.
Besides community development and culture, there are also many sites that are aiming to make a profit out of the cultural boom. This has resulted in many sites selling items of a steampunk nature, more so those that are selling steampunk jewellery.
In line with steampunk fashion more recently there has been expansions of the fringe of steampunk culture, with non-steampunk dedicated sites having steampunk related articles. One such example is the site “threadbangers”, with had a special on steampunk wear a while ago, teaching people how to make steampunk fashion and accessories. The magazine “Make: magazine” also recently did a special on steampunk, focusing on the olden technology and the technical side of the culture. DIY sites like “instructables” are also littered with steampunk tutorials.
In the aspect of mainstream, there are aspects of steampunk in the mass media, like such movies as “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (2003), “Wild Wild West” (1999) and “Steamboy” (2004). In the less mainstream there are online web comics like “Girl Genius” and tabletop game “Warmachines”
Personally I would say that within the community there is a sense of hierarchy. In terms of modification hierarchy, ones status can be defined by the complexity of ones project. Simply put someone who completely guts an object and completely rewires and modifies it will command more respect than someone who simple glues on gears and paints it bronze. Comparatively, in forums and online domains, the top of the hierarchy then becomes the site owners or the site moderators. In any case, such people are usually the more of the enthusiast.
Interestingly enough, despite the growth in steampunk culture and the rising increase in steampunk culture, there are some who say that steampunk is dying, or has died.
Sites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk http://steampunkworkshop.com/ http://www.steampunklab.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b75vrsoT8qM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5dJ1YLNC64 http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com/ http://steampunkpics.blogspot.com/ http://brassgoggles.co.uk/brassgoggles/ http://www.threadbanger.com/ http://community.livejournal.com/steamfashion/
