Larsen Idealog

Steampunk

I don’t know how long the steampunk aesthetic has been around (I’m counting on Captain of Culture Nick Zdon to have the answer), but I first came across it about a year ago. Steampunk is a look and attitude that applies pre-twentieth century machine building—brass plates, coils of tubing and numerous meters—to twenty-first century items. It’s like Jules Verne meets Michael Graves. You can find steampunk wristwatches, motorcycles, guitars, and, as above, a water-cooled PC. It’s art, craft, machine building and….punks? The editors of Steampunk Magazine explain it this way:

Before the age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.
     Even if we had to make it all up.

You can find a lot of examples of steampunk at boingboing.net