A while ago I posted a Steampunk tutorial which mostly dealt with various aspects of Steampunk attire.  I've decided to write about the other side of the coin this time, the ideology of Steampunk; we'll discover the answer to the question, "What is Steampunk, and why is it so awesome?"

I've been in an ongoing in-depth discussion on the nature of Steampunk.  A lot of people think it's dressing in Victorian fashion and donning goggles.  They're right.  Others think it's a literary genre that imagines a world of Victorian Futurism such as the kind Jules Verne wrote.  They are also right.  Still others think it's a revival of the art of craftsmanship, a return to functional pieces of art.  These people are wrong.

Right.  Sorry, they're right too.  I meant to say right.

The roots of Steampunk dig back into the 1980s (and depending on who you ask even earlier) and despite constant claims of its imminent demise (or demise in the recent past) it appears to be taking hold in mainstream culture.  There was a recent New York Times article on Steampunk (which was woefully underreported as this humble web designer was unmentioned) which is about as mainstream as it gets.  There are bands who sing about Steampunk themes, artists who paint Zeppelins and writers who write about clockwork mechanisms running governing the motion of the Earth.

So what is Steampunk?  Is it a literary genre, a costuming fad, part of the Maker Movement, or what?

Well, why can't it be all those things?  

Steampunk is Victorian Futurism, sure.  At least that's how it started out.  Then activists got ahold of it and added bits involving rejecting (or repurposing) a mass-produced culture in favor of a beautifully handcrafted one.  Then people decided that goggles looked cool and started wearing top hats.  And according to some people, it is an expression of post-imperial post-colonialism where the Victorian adventurers stop subjugating distant cultures (the lifeblood of imperial industry) and start heading home to urban spaces to fight the power structure.

Ideologically Steampunk is interesting because the literary sources from which it draws its inspiration are stories about the Outsider in Victorian culture, the Captain Nemos and Sherlock Holmses who fight on behalf of those who can't; the modern movement contains elements of this as well through activism and literature like the Pullman "Dark Materials" series using Sci Fi in general and Steampunk specifically to lambast organized religion.  A piece of this are the costumes, which almost always emulate the avant-garde (and Outside) of Victorian culture: the scientists, inventors, adventurers, the aviators.  Very few dress as upper-middle class Victorians, and fewer still as upper class or royalty.  Most are everyday people (though usually well-dressed), and goggles feature prominently.  It's the thinkers and creative types we are idolizing (the 'punk' in Steampunk), from an era where so much of the world was awaiting discovery that nearly anyone with gumption could discover it.

However, there's another approach to Steampunk: practically speaking Steampunk involves a love of craftsmanship and DIY esthetic, creating unique objects and working with Victorian-era materials and technology (brass, leather, glass, bone, wood) to adorn functional objects, and very little looks new.  Even new things are given a patina of age and authenticity.  It praises working with your hands and beautiful functionality, like Jake von Slatt's computer encased in brass with a typewriter-key keyboard.  It's making the ordinary into something extraordinary; it is a rejection of minimalism. It is at the same time an exploration of authenticity, because these objects are rarely made to look new but are given a patina of use, an inauthentic process used to create the illusion of authenticity and age.  We're idolizing the Victorian-era antiques and era, but not visualizing those objects as they would have appeared in their time but in ours.  Living the future that the Victorians could only imagine.

This has little to do with the Outsider, but still seems inseparably related thematically.  This is my side of the genre, as I work to include not just a stereotypical 'Steampunk' visual style to my work, but to my work ethic as well.  It's a state of mind where you treat your work and the clients you work for as sacrosanct; the mechanisms I create are intricate and almost always look well-used, and all are one-of-a-kind, unique to their purpose.   Nothing is  created in a sweat shop or an assembly-line. 

Idealogically I've described the post-colonial aspect of Steampunk, how imperialism subjugated outsiders to 'tame' the world which feeds their industry; and the DIY and costume side, which appear to be manifestations of the ideals of Victorians as we perceive them, namely beauty and adventure. The two sides of the coin intersect when you realize that the modern Steampunk artisans and makers rely heavily on mass-produced items which they then customize. In literature you can see post-colonialism in stories like 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' where the wilds have been tamed and they've headed back into London. 

So this isn't much of a tutorial.  Sorry.  Maybe next time I'll discuss how to fake some goggles using toilet paper and rubber bands.