What is Steampunk to you?

[demic...@inbox.com]

I've only just recently discovered Steampunk, and I'm very drawn to
it, but also a little confused. It seems like Steampunk is maybe a
little hard to pin down. Some people seem to be Steampunk because they
like the genre and the cosplay. Some seem to like the fashion. Others
seem to like the art. Many seem to like the aesthetic philosophy of
combining technology and beauty, and making things to last rather than
participating in an economy of designed obsolescence. Sometimes
Steampunk seems like the optimistic, humanistic, colorful version of
goth.

But I am still looking at it from an outsider's perspective. Maybe it
is all of the above. Maybe it is different for every person. I'd love
to know: what is Steampunk to you, and why are you part of the
community?

Also, I'm curious how much bands like Abney Park are really a part of
the Steampunk identity or culture. What I've heard of "steampunk
music" so far I haven't been so impressed with, nor could I tell *why*
the bands were supposed to be Steampunk, other than the way they
dressed - but then my tastes run more classical. Considering that
Steampunk seems to cross the generations a lot more than, say, goth or
emo, do you find that majority of people in the Steampunk community
really listen to the same type of music, or is the claim that Abney
Park is Steampunk just a band trying to corner a market by dressing
like their target audience? (Or explain to me why Abney Park *is*
Steampunk! A cross between classical and electronic would seem more
Steampunk to me, from the little I know.)

And out of curiosity: how many of you dress Steampunk or Steampunk-ish
everyday? (Tell me I'm not the only one! I love wearing corsets and
clothes with victorian or neo victorian flare, though many of them are
more jewel tones rather than the earthy tones I see most of you
wearing.) Or do you just dress up for events?

[Erica Roberts]

Hi

Ok so steampunk to me, and I've spent alot of time thinking about this, since our band The Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society considers ourselves steampunk, and we were founded by old members of Abney Park. For us, we love the clothing and the asthetic, the creative and diy aspects as well as the literature, (Frankenstien, Jules Verne epics, Leauge of extroidenary gentlemen, Byron, Shelley, all things Victorian.) We dress steampunk and we have songs about mad scientists, and broken clockwork robots begging for their creators to repair them. Abney Park dresses steampunk and does the whole airship pirate thing, and has lots of lyrics that touch on those ideas.

However, the whole genre is growing and evolving, I think steampunk mixes the best aspects of the Victorian era, with the best aspects of the modern day. I don't do the steampunk thing everyday, but I typically like a more vintage cut to my clothing, or I slip in some bit of clockworky or victorian jewelry, ( I love cameos)

The steampunk music question is a source of constant debate not only within the community but the bands themselves. I figure, the music is steampunk if any of these or true, It has an orchestral or vintage feeling, or the lyrics and subject matter is concerned with steampunk ideas. other then that, it's all about what you think it is, because hardly anyone can agree on exactly what that means, and thank goodness because all this creative chaos is really yummy!

Dizzy

[dz80...@yahoo.com]

I awoke to Steampunk just a few months ago (at Norwescon, an SF convention) and, for me, the first of Steampunk's virtues is that I feel it gives me license to engage in extravagant linguistic expression.  (I've never actually said "Zounds" aloud but I can begin to imagine feeling welcome to.  If it was good enough for Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Jekyll, Count Dracula, and/or Jack the Ripper, it's Steampunk enough for me.) Then there's the broad and deep Steampunk appreciation of intricate whimsy.  Vastly complicated, or, perhaps, elegantly simple, doodads, whatsits, and doohickeys.  A case could be made that no one needs a Steampunk snowboard, but now that one's been made I, for one, feel that the world's a better place. http://steampunkworkshop.com/steampunk-snowboard Also, I'm enormously relieved to find a certain a lot of latitude in the general conventions that define, but don't constrain (except in the case of corsets), Steampunk dress.  I attended the Highland Games in Mount Vernon today and have begun to ponder mixing  brass goggles and Clan MacLean tartan.  No reason not to.  Could be downright dashing.  Just imagine a Steampunk sporran!  Or, last night I watched Pirates of the Caribbean and began mentally cataloging the few articles of clothing I might need to acquire so as to run away to the high seas as a Steampunk pirate. (Note:  A few of us are going ballooning in mid-August and who better to climb into a balloon basket than a Steampunk?  Anyone is welcome to come.  The entire responsibility for making/paying for reservations for our float day/time [sunrise, August 16th] rests with the individual participant[s].  I imagine we might we like to meet one another before the date but, if we don't, we'll meet then.  So far, we're a small collection of total strangers united by a desire to float in mid-air.  Steampunk makes me happy.) --- On Sun, 7/12/09, demic...@inbox.com <demic...@inbox.com> wrote:

[Erynn Rowan Laurie]

Personally, I've always had a taste for frock coats and kilts. Aside from Utilikilts (which seem pretty popular in the movement locally) there are those of us who wear the more traditional tartan kilts for our steamery as well.

On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 8:51 PM, <dz80...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Also, I'm enormously relieved to find a certain a lot of latitude in the general conventions that define, but don't constrain (except in the case of corsets), Steampunk dress.  I attended the Highland Games in Mount Vernon today and have begun to ponder mixing  brass goggles and Clan MacLean tartan.  No reason not to.  Could be downright dashing.  Just imagine a Steampunk sporran!  Or, last night I watched Pirates of the Caribbean and began mentally cataloging the few articles of clothing I might need to acquire so as to run away to the high seas as a Steampunk pirate.

--
Erynn
Poet-terrorist for a better society
Articulating the unspeakable since 1961:http://www.seanet.com/~inisglas

[Randolph]

It's a design or art movement, I would say. The works themselves are
the movement, and there's no way, yet, to know what work will turn out
to be definitive, or how influential, in the long run, Steampunk will
be.

[Mike Lathrop]

Part of your confusion seems to me to stem from the fact that what is currently being called Steampunk is actually multiple genres kind mashed together.  For instance weird west has a distinctly American old west base, where as Victorian fantastic is based on the Science fiction of that era so everyone worth mentioning is either noble wealth or there dedicated manservant mistress etc (because it's just not worth mentioning the forty orphans shoveling coal sixteen hours a day in the boiler room to keep your air ship running and living off thin gruel.  To further complicate thins is (as you mentioned) the late fascination of the DIY movement with clockwork and pseudo Victorian aesthetics.  So in short your confusion is quit understandable as your outsiders perspective is not too far off the mark.

[Molly Friedrich]

hrm.

well I suppose I became interested in it after having about 20 people
tell me my mechanical looking art reminded them of steampunk a few
years back. Then, while working with a friend on some fashion ideas,
she mentioned wanting to include a neo victorian or steampunk feel to
it, and so I started to do some research and saw a lot of the
wonderful high fashion that was coming out at the time and decided it
would be fun to bring it more down to earth and rub its face in the
grit of the machinery a bit.

Then. I met some well meaning optimists online and felt some odd kind
of kinship with them, and we all pondered what had brough us to this
place at the same time and why we had all felt drawn to it our whole
lives. I think the answer is mainly just that we had personally
rejected a lot of what popular culture had served up and steampunk
seemed the right tonic for us.

Then I watched the goths rush into the scene and a lot of the
anarchists rebel, and the crafters start to crank out anything and
everything they could and label it steampunk. I have watched
individuals in the scene try to ride steampunk into pop culture, or
into the ground, depending on what angle you see it from. I have
watched the same few debates happen over and over and the same
questions asked over and over. And I have met a couple people that
have been watching those ideas repeat for 5 or 8 more years than I.
lol.

Its a beautiful thing. this collision of art, culture, enlightenment,
and of course the baser aspects of the human soul. I felt myself
being pulled down by my dreams and hopes crashing last year, for I had
dared to invest myself in a fundamentally personal way when I began to
publically share the art I make and also to associate it with the
steampunk scene. In reaction to being hurt in such a deep way, I
lashed out at everyone I cared about, perhaps as a cry for help? I
ended up realizing I was on a path towards dying and needed to go on a
vision quest lest I spiraled out of control before my passing left me
in a terrible post life situation yet again.

I have never been able to communicate what it was exactly that I
experienced at the culmination of my quest, but I have tried so many
words and all of them fail to express it. So I will leave it at that.
However, I did reach something that I can comfortably call An Answer,
and it works for me. So I hold it dear to my heart and It does the
same with me... and I now do my best to live correctly and fully for
both of us.

I returned to making art earlier this year, and have been working on
learning how to make a living as someone who makes arts and crafts. I
have always been a creative type, never concerned much with anything
but the expression, so making money is something I have to force
myself to do now that I am attempting to be self reliant.

Steampunk to me is what the world looks like when I close my eyes. I
have been trying with some level of success to bring that world into
existence in my immediate surroundings. I imagine that should I be
blessed enough to continue this for a long enough time, I will enjoy
the process quite a bit.

Steampunk has also attracted a number of people I regard highly for
their intellect, talent, and kindness... and who I continue to wish to
know for many years. Some of them are people who have contacted me
online, but most of them are The Steamrats.

<3 for real.

Molly

On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 8:16 PM,
demic...@inbox.com<demic...@inbox.com> wrote:
>

--
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http://porkshanks.deviantart.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5331622

Waking Antiquity: Freelance Dimensional Imports and Chronographic Explorations.

[Carol P]

Something about what Molly says strikes me as not only beautiful, but also Essentially Steampunk. I am old.  I was all over punk rock in the early 80s.  It eventually embittered and frustrated and hurt my feelings:  the debates about who's Real, the sense that you couldn't be Real if you weren't actively on the way to your coffin, the whole damn thing.  Sometimes when I drive I still snarl a good, "The problem is YOU," but that's a different matter. I retain a distaste for crowds, belief systems, music-defines-self and all the rest of it to this day. But there's a big dollop of nice in Steampunk and I, for one, wouldn't even read this list without it. --- On Mon, 7/13/09, Molly Friedrich <liquids...@gmail.com> wrote:

[rischa.l...@gmail.com]

Funny thing for me is that Ive always been steampunk, I just didnt
have a term that felt right. In the 80 grunge was close I guess, but
while everyone was wearing doc martins and plaid, I wore victorian
gowns and recycled lace petticoats in layers with high lace up
tapestry boots, and militaryesque caps, and later I made awesome brown
corduroy pants with suspenders and nice little welted pockets and wore
them with black boots. I guess im in it for the fashion, I love
having an excuse to wear tails and a tiny top hat to the grocery
store.

As for Music, He is never mentioned in the steampunk music subject,
but I think Tom Waits is the original steampunk, musicwise. Some of
the "steampunk" music Ive heard I like, some maybe not so much, but
that is about how I feel about every genere. when its good and sounds
right right now, its good.(Owl city anyone?)

I love being me now and dressing this way, not so much me pretending
to be someone and channeling some mad time traveling scientist. I am
already living the mad time traveling designer life. :) But I am
liking the Steamy people Ive met so far. Steampunk helps me define me
now, and Im loving it. there is so much creative inspiration!

thanks for letting me chime in- Rischa Leinweber
www.baddoghats.com

[izzit]

On Jul 13, 8:49 pm, "rischa.leinwe...@gmail.com"

<rischa.leinwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Funny thing for me is that Ive always been steampunk, I just didnt

> have a term that felt right. ... As for Music, He is never mentioned in the steampunk music subject,

> but I think Tom Waits is the original steampunk, musicwise.

have to agree with you on Tom Waits! ... personally the Decemberists
past albums seem to fit too.

I was fond of Jules Verne movies, Brazil, and even some of the 1980's
postapocalyptic ones... and liked frock coats but with shitkicking
boots.

for me personally, when windpower and solar heat are the "latest"
technologies, I revel in making history contemporary...
recently it seems that with technology you can make anything, so why
not make your ipod a work of art.. print 3D filigree onto your
cellphone...

I wear some "classic" clothes (in military/tweed/leather/victorian
styles that lend to steampunk) but instead of a raygun I hope to
eventually carry an everyday multipurpose viewing/communication
device, clad in a mahogany case.

now what I'm interested in has a name. and everyone in steampunk is
interested in many areas, and creative, and nonjudgemental.

(and when we carry a raygun, we really can't be too particular about
the company we keep... ?)