I realize the readers of CreativePro.com are hip and on top of current design trends, so I may be coming to this topic embarrassingly late. But since I get my trend news from the New York Times, I’m hardly ever cutting edge. Although for a few brief years I was reasonably well informed because I worked across the street from Wired magazine when it was a start-up. You couldn’t get a cup of coffee or a burrito without rubbing elbows with the “digerati.”
But the whole Steampunk movement is new to me. It’s a design and fashion style, apparently around for a couple of decades, that combines the ultra-mechanized, fantasy imagery from Victorian-era science fiction (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells) and mixes it with a cyber-punk modern sensibility. As a big-time fan of the Terry Gilliam movie Brazil, I love the idea of applying complex mechanics to the promises of futuristic technology. If you haven’t seen Brazil, be sure to do so. Here are a couple of stills to whet your appetite.
Steampunk practitioners are not Luddites; in fact, just the opposite. They embrace and use modern technology, only adapt it to incorporate the fantastic looks and mechanical functionality of the past. Here, for example, are a couple of fantastic computer design (fully functioning, of course) from Steampunk practitioner Jake Von Slatt.
And while those projects are one-of-a-kind, you can actually buy the custom Steampunk keyboards below from Richard Nagy at his Web site Datamancer.
Nagy also build whole Steampunk computers and peripherals (along with other art projects), such as these examples of a customized iMac and a wood-and-brass encrusted laptop.
And check out this fantastic scanner, customized to look like a leather-bound book.
Dave Veloz painted this Mac Mini as part of a highly customized computer system he gave to his fiancé.
And 20-year-old mechanical design student going by the name Jake of All Trades made this working computer mouse out of various found parts.
Not all Steampunk objects are computers. The design trend has affected everything from architecture to fashion. Here are two Steampunk items, an iPod skin from Colin Thompson in Australia, and a lamp from artist Art Donovan.
And if you are as out of it as I am, you may want to read the New York Times article that started me down the Steampunk road. It’s a journey I’m glad I took. Now If I can just save up $1,000 for one of those custom keyboards.
This article was last modified on May 18, 2023
This article was first published on May 9, 2008
Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!
Leave a Reply
I’m not a game player but I’ll check out Myst, and I appreciate the suggestion of the Difference Engine, which has been on my list for a while. At the Maker Fair going on right now in San Mateo, a number of the people featured in this blog have items on display!
… some of the gadgets and interiors of the Myst game series. That was the best part.
Gene, if you are an SF reader, and interested in steampunk, then pick up a copy of William Gibson’s and Bruce Sterling’s novel “The DIfference Engine”. It’s a great introduction into the tropes of that genre.
You are right, Jonathan. It is always difficult to put labels on trends, and I hesitated to embrace this movement as if it is completely unique. I’m also a big Max Headroom fan, etc., so I like your definitions and realize this is one variation on a theme. I think you should write a Wiki page on it. Definitions often get made and credit given inappropriately just because someone (like a reporter for the NYTimes) has to come up with a label!
This article looks just like my bookmarks on my browser. Look also to shows like Max Headroom, Terry Gilliam’s work, Brisco County Jr, The Wild, Wild West, the movie Dune (more the Lynch version than the Sci-Fi Channel version), Dinotopia (the books and the TV movie), the works of HR Giger, et al. They fall under a category of artwork I call “Techno Obscura” or “Modern Noir” which includes film, TV, and illustrative artworks marked by ad hoc technological developments which utilize deprecated or archaic devices and implements to accomplish current and more advanced technologies. For example, ancient typewriters used as keyboards crudely attached to loose computer equipment in Max Headroom or the mish-mash of technologies in the Millennium Falcon. It’s like a world full of Rube Goldberg-type machines. Maybe i should write a wiki page on it…hmmm.