Do you know "steampunk"?

[Patrick Mackle]

I happened across a new term, new to me at least. Maybe some of you already know about it, but for those how don't
it may take a while to see examples and learn about it. Wikipedia has definitions on the meaning. And here is a website that will
give you a taste. Check out the acid etching and copper plating of Altoid boxes. The de-modernized computer keyboard will
give you an idea of the time and ingenuity that some people invest into creating steampunk items. Follow some of the links
including steampunk fashions. There could be an opportunity to develop a product line for the steampunk follower.
I'd be interested in how many here already are acquainted with this movement.
check out: www.steampunkworkshop.com
Pat

[Aaron Taylor]

Pat I few guys around here were trying to produce the 'steampunk' art style for awhile. No good though just crappie thrown together stuff. I have been following it, I like alot of what is being made. I was on a site the other day that had some real cool looking pieces i will try and locate it.



You think the Wacom tablets next for us. LOL

[Andrew Grundon]

I've just looked up steampunk,and my mind is blown. I'm not quite sure what I've seen. Will have to regroup my braincells and try again.
A

[Robare M. Novou]

"Steampunk? Why, yes—the long-lived trend of combining the best of Victorian England with technological advances that didn't actually take place until a hundred years later."

I saw the above statement on a fashion website.
And it occurred to me that we letterheads have been doing this mix of modern substrates and computer tech with turn of the century techniques for the past 20 years or so.

So it just might be that we have been steampunking it before there was a steam punking movement.

What say you all to that!?

RMN

[Robare M. Novou]

The following is another website statement on the subject of steampunk.


Steampunk

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality.

The aesthetic movement Steampunk wants to bring the wonder back into our relationship with machines. Its tack is to fully embrace (and affect) an Edwardian orientation to the world. Though Steampunk has been a growing cultural trend for a few decades, it really came into its own in the aughts and is now a full-fledged phenomenon. Steampunks dress like the Wright Brothers and Arctic explorers. They write alternate history fantasies in which alien clones ride around in dirigibles by the light of gas lamps. Steampunks are fascinated by mechanics, and Steampunk art, jewelry, and fashion often involve gears, wheels, pulleys, and, of course, steam: a laptop computer fused with a rickety typewriter; an arcade game redesigned to look like a mini-submarine. What most defines Steampunk as a culture, however, is attitude. The “punk” in Steampunk confronts technology’s alienating qualities with messy DIY defiance. The “steam” (besides its literal connotations) is almost like another word for magic: brute, utilitarian contraptions powered by clouds, and breath — ephemeral energy.

[Kelly Thorson]

Ok Pat, I know it isn't quite the same, but this reminds me of 4 networked laptops around a 4 square foot table in a circa 50s apartment with a gravity flush toilet, a washing machine hooked to the bathtub and a stove with a secret code .

[Patrick Mackle]

Haha Kelly,
Was there any snoring goin' on??
ZZzzzzzz,
'Patey Bor'. aka Pat

[erik winkler]

No Pat, because there where some high-end anti-snoring pillows flying around.

Erik

[Kelly Thorson]

"Patey Bor" - PRICELESS!
Erik, I'm wishing I had bought some of those high end anti snoring pillows back with me.
Now just so I don't get in trouble for being frivolous, here is a steampunkový web