Imagine a world where mystery and discovery are taking a great part of your everyday life. Imagine a world where engineers and explorers walk along with duchess and madams; a world where courtesy, politeness and chivalry are just a normal behaviour. That’s how Steampunk people are living their life!
The term Steampunk emerged in the late 1980s, with the success of science fiction novels based in the pre-industrial and Victorian era – in the like of H.G Wells and Jules Vernes for example. As a derivation of the cyberpunk genre, sci-fi authors were rather bored of the “traditional” vision of a futur made of machines and science supremacy. In its postmodernist way, Steampunk brings together the references, style and ideas of the steam times (pre-industrial revolution / Victorian era) with the societal questioning and disruption culture of a youth wondering what its future is about.
What really attracted me to Steampunk culture is the fact that the people do actually dress up like in the 19th century! Think men in suits and hats, women in corset, dresses and ribbons. The only difference with traditional historical remake is that Steampunk allows a bit of sci-fi creativity. For example, Steampunkans veneer the cogs and other engineers symbols as objects of arts. One essential is to wear a pair of goggles (check out this nice tutorial for a quick fix cardboard goggles) or a timepiece. But most importantly, Steampunk is about DIY: from home-made costume to unique piece of jewelry, via the traditional (and very punkish) DIY fanzine – see steampunkworshop.com for incredible artisan work.
As you may guess, the World Wide Web is a great place for the Steampunk to share, present their artwork and organise meetups and conventions. For example the Brass Goggles website (British site with a much wider audience from US to Aussies and Kiwis) and plethora of independent/DIY shops.. . People sell and swap their items, exchange tips and tutorials, organise meetings etc…
As any subculture, Steampunk has also its music genre… which is simply called steampunk music. However it seems that the Steampunkan can’t really agree on what exactly this genre is! Therefore, it may vary from electro-goth to folk music. If you are curious enough, I would advise you to listen to the famous Abney Park (US) and the recently-created but excellent The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing (UK)
Keep your ears and eyes open! Steampunk culture is currently having a strong revival with the success of Guy Richie’s Sherlock Holmes movie and its impacts on many artistic trends..
A part of this new fashionable aspect, I think it’s an appealing subculture as it’s very respectful and brings lots of fun (interesting to see how the ‘disruptive’ part of this culture is more of a cheeky sense of humour rather than powerless criticism). It’s also a great opportunity to test your creativity and DIY skills and also to show off your best outfit – oh come on, I’m sure you’d love to wear that crinoline petticoat more often!
Links for more info and lecture..
Marion
