Steampunk Invasion
[Suggestions/additions welcome but only until 1 November 2009, after which I will stop updating this post]
[Exhibition spoilerage warning : Don't follow the following link or look at his other photos til after you've seen the exhibition or after it finishes.]
Amazing hat from Tom Banwell's Flickr Stream.
Further to New Art of the Old on the Steampunk exhibition at Oxford University's Museum of the History of Science I really loved that exhibition of imaginative and beautifully engineered craftsmanship and particularly recommend Tom Banwell and Haruo Suekichi's clocks (see also the Watchismo Times).
The setting is a particular plus; you can compare the objects of the time with today's retro-futurist view of the directions we might have travelled. Also the museum has regular demonstrations of some of their machines at weekends and I was lucky enough accidentally time my visit so I saw a staffmember (Chris) demonstrate their beautiful brass Wimshust machine, explaining early electricity experiments and the use of the machine for after-dinner parlour tricks in the nineteenth century. As a university staffmember and Oxford resident, I thought I knew the museum well but the exhibition and the demonstration (suitable for primary-schoolchildren) surprised and delighted me.
Be warned that the exhibition will make you yearn for high-craftsmanship objets du désir of your own - if not the exhibits, then like period or contemporary work (see further below).
The main picture on the exhibition site is of a sculpture - these are the maker's thoughts on it. You can imagine a floating swarm of these would make a terrifying perimeter defence.
Exhibition Posters
Poster 1
Poster 2
[spoiler warning] Exhibition broadsheet
Exhibition blog - spoilered only if you follow the review links [end warning].
Alternatively, if you're a LinkedIn member involved in Steampunk and have feedback on the exhibition, curator Art Donovan created a discussion page here
We missed out on Thomas Willeford's monacle because some *^%&^& stole it. (Never mind that the artist got the museum wrong). As you'll see from the link, if you see someone with it and help it be returned, Willeford will do you a custom piece.
Accompanying video of engine in action(Youtube) by Mr Jos de Wink.
Events
Further exhibition-linked events in Oxford PDF.
You may want to toy with the idea of attending The Second Steampunk Soiree in Oxford - Sunday 13th and (ticket holders only) Monday 14th December 2009 Dancing Lessons (2.30pm)- a waltz, a polka, and Regency dancing (see a Steampunker's Guide to Period Dancing) followed by the Soiree itself (7:30pm The Cellar). (the Second Steampunk Soiree: MHS exhibition mentioned in the promo post).
Another (nearby-ish )Steampunk event is the Victorian Steampunk Society's exhibition of steampunk art, contraptions and sculptures and clothing - London 24 October 2009 but is sadly SOLD OUT.
For those who have seen and liked the exhibition but know little of the background, the following musings aren't finished but I didn't want to wait another week to get round to posting this.
Given that in 1996 verlaine and friends ran a Steampunk roleplaying game they'd written for the OU RPG Soc (excellent, around 55 players incorporating magic, mythology, aliens, clockwork, and some great costumes and the theft of the city of Amsterdam... ), this isn't as new to me as it might be, however the current popularity and creative output of this latest wave of interest in steampunk is pretty new. In fact, it must have almost sold out now that I've got to hear about it again.
Steampunk offers immersion in a simpler world full of inventive potential, achievable in potting sheds without multi-million dollar corporate backing, and where the place of the USA, UK and Western Europe was at the forefront, guiding the world to a new technological civilisation where man would have tamed his inner beasts, embodied by the emotionless engineering perfection they could achieve with clockwork. Victoriana stripped of the smog and child prostitution.
On the clothing/dressing-up/aesthetic front, though it has similar aesthetic sensibilities to some branches of goth, for the most part it hasn't quite got to the level of mass-manufactured ever-present global corporation sponsored merchandising vehicles for music and bands which now pervades much of the goth aesthetic subculture. [Rant over - summary is goth may be out of steam... ] There are aspects of 'uniform' - common aesthetic: brown leather and brass replace the goth's black pvc/leather and silver but it still allows much creative and expressive freedom - a sense of real exploring your individuality and imagination.
Part of this stems from the almost Morris-movement crafts aspects. Craftsmen, some working to produce movie props, some just inspired by the ideas of backroom technology and beautiful craftsmanship (Morris-Brunel symbiosis?) have been creating very beautiful artefacts, some useful, some purely ornamental, for their own pleasure for years, and discovering a market for their visions. Well-made objects where form and function meet beauty and sensuality, using quality materials but insisting on ornamentation to flag and increase the value placed on both the object and the craft going into it (an idea the Maoris seemed keen on too).
Generated within books1, then graphic novels2 and sci-fantasy film world3, typified by the look of the HellBoy movies and the book (not the film) of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the latter an offshoot of the contemporary & futurist Invisibles comic series.
CF Neo-Victoriana without the sci-fantasy elements and retro-Victoriana vampire groups.Literature etc
Reviews:
Opening night slideshow
Wired's Steampunk article and slideshow on the MHS show
Exhibition review
Blog review of exhibition
Also referred to here - where you can get your amazing 2D goggles - and at Voyages of Dr Fabre/The Heliograph.
Photographer's Flickr album and Flickr Groups (for the exhibition and for the museum)- none as good as a visit. Artists
Museum Exhibition Artist's links:
Von Slatts' Steampunk Workshop site is lovely Being what it is, of course they have their own how-to for a Wimhurst-like machine - in four parts and an operation manual.
I'd like one of these lovelies. At least the Telectroscope is impractical for domestic installation but the Segway here is intriguing and the various casings beautiful (geekology detail, Datamancer's glory, one of Jake von Slatt's efforts). Dave Veloz's is marked for the fantastic Mac mini.
Love this other ring - also by Daniel Proulx A.K.A : CatherinetteRings
More to follow in later edits to this post.
Nota Bene:
Bookstuff
Steampunk.com
Steampunk Magazine
Other Steampunk magazines
Vagrants among ruins - recent editions are available for purchase in the UK
Steampunk tales on Facebook
TOR.com on Steampunk (the site covers many publishing genres).
The Style
Aether Emporium's style guide - recommended.
Brute Force Leather's astounding accessories
The Golden Compass featurette on YouTube
[YouTube videos - MUTE first, if you like]2008 US Steampunk Convention California costumes or the more fashion than gadget orientated style guide [Mute off safe now] More home-produced but with easier audio is the cute slideshow here
Steampunk and Steampunk aesthetics entry here with links to Steampunk in Germany (seems big over there for some reason...)
On the non-sartorial design side, this house is good and this animation of a city is rather fine.
Blogs
Useful definition and examples of Steampunk
The Steampunk Home - recommended blog by Sara Brumfield.
Strange Dreams - recommended blog.
Misapplied Technology recommended blog
The Heliograph
Datamancer's Blog
Daily Steampunk
Some posters on this blog.
aBrassgoggles and Sparegoggles - recommended blog(s).
Ripping Yarns fic/fanfic
Steamsmoke - London steampunk's news/blog.
UK steampunk news/blog. [Apparent Oxford connection explains the fantastic steampunk outfits seen at Intrusion in July/August but no viable light for photos at the time, sadly.]
best steampunk news art and blogs video on G4tv - lose the sound though
Gadgets
Allegedly the Best steampunk gadgets to date.
Games
Free MMPORG steampunk game NEO STEAM at http://neosteam.gamigo.com/ - [try at own risk]
Board games of various complexions, particularly the endlessly customisable Arhkam Horror
Castle Falkenstein
Online Shops - largely US
Alleged fashion tutorials on Livejournal.
Parts sourcing in London
People to know
London Steampunk bands and hangers on (for the US this Abney Park video is a good introduction to the band and to Steampunk fashion).
Londoner August Wahnsinger.
Any of the artists or bloggers listed above.
Worldwide Steampunk
A far more comprehensive (and audited) set of links with no attempt to partly restrict relevance to the UK is available at the (gothic) Dark Side of the Net's Steampunk Links page - recommended
The link to Steampunk Games lacks the experimental 'Steamgunners'
Random
The Grandiloquent dictionary - a superb resource for writers
http://wondermark.com/ Collective nouns sheet
There is appreciation that this is not a new development - for example a decent short rebuttal of claims that Steampunk is recent (with some nice contemporary links to MTV stuff) on the vintage of Steampunk 'Steampunk new oh please - 1985's Brazil' but sadly the timeline link is broken † and perhaps they should double check 'zeitgeist'; just becase the core aspects of the Steampunk phenomenon emerged at an earlier stage, doesn't mean that the gathering strength of the subculture synthesised from those earlier strands isn't itself of our time. (Futuristic nostalgia seems appropriate for the decades around the turn of the millenium.) ('Twelve Monkeys' could also be referenced but is obviously too recent to be considered a precursor, but Gilliam's imagination seems Steampunk-infused through today's lenses).
In 1996, for those who don't remember, there was Inferno (1 and 2), advertised in the Trinity termcard as :
INFERNO!
Tuesdays 7:30 every week. Keble Pusey Room
New Year's Eve, 1866 and the upper rooms of Vienna's notorious Inferno Club play host to a meeting of Illuminates intent on shaping the course of history. The most promising military, political, scientific and magickal minds of their time vie with each other for personal power and prestige while attempting to save Bavaria from the depredations of the Prussinal warmonger Bismarck and the chaos caused by the abduction on King Ludwig, by perpetrators unknown...
Inferno is an intrigue-packed Victorian melodrama in eight acts loosely based on the steampunk-and-sorcery Castle Falkenstein roleplaying game and the sinister workings of the Bavarian Illuminati. It will be held, barring enemy sabotage, in Keble's Pusey Room. For more information and character generation, contact Matt Marcus.
I'm so glad all the webstuff for it is still up - so much work went into it.
All squee'd out now. (Part of my head keeps on playing Jesus Jones without all the irony.)
[Exhibition spoilerage warning : Don't follow the following link or look at his other photos til after you've seen the exhibition or after it finishes.]
Amazing hat from Tom Banwell's Flickr Stream.
Further to New Art of the Old on the Steampunk exhibition at Oxford University's Museum of the History of Science I really loved that exhibition of imaginative and beautifully engineered craftsmanship and particularly recommend Tom Banwell and Haruo Suekichi's clocks (see also the Watchismo Times).
The setting is a particular plus; you can compare the objects of the time with today's retro-futurist view of the directions we might have travelled. Also the museum has regular demonstrations of some of their machines at weekends and I was lucky enough accidentally time my visit so I saw a staffmember (Chris) demonstrate their beautiful brass Wimshust machine, explaining early electricity experiments and the use of the machine for after-dinner parlour tricks in the nineteenth century. As a university staffmember and Oxford resident, I thought I knew the museum well but the exhibition and the demonstration (suitable for primary-schoolchildren) surprised and delighted me.
Be warned that the exhibition will make you yearn for high-craftsmanship objets du désir of your own - if not the exhibits, then like period or contemporary work (see further below).
The main picture on the exhibition site is of a sculpture - these are the maker's thoughts on it. You can imagine a floating swarm of these would make a terrifying perimeter defence.
Exhibition Posters
Poster 1
Poster 2
[spoiler warning] Exhibition broadsheet
Exhibition blog - spoilered only if you follow the review links [end warning].
Alternatively, if you're a LinkedIn member involved in Steampunk and have feedback on the exhibition, curator Art Donovan created a discussion page here
We missed out on Thomas Willeford's monacle because some *^%&^& stole it. (Never mind that the artist got the museum wrong). As you'll see from the link, if you see someone with it and help it be returned, Willeford will do you a custom piece.
Accompanying video of engine in action(Youtube) by Mr Jos de Wink.
Events
Further exhibition-linked events in Oxford PDF.
You may want to toy with the idea of attending The Second Steampunk Soiree in Oxford - Sunday 13th and (ticket holders only) Monday 14th December 2009 Dancing Lessons (2.30pm)- a waltz, a polka, and Regency dancing (see a Steampunker's Guide to Period Dancing) followed by the Soiree itself (7:30pm The Cellar). (the Second Steampunk Soiree: MHS exhibition mentioned in the promo post).
Another (nearby-ish )Steampunk event is the Victorian Steampunk Society's exhibition of steampunk art, contraptions and sculptures and clothing - London 24 October 2009 but is sadly SOLD OUT.
For those who have seen and liked the exhibition but know little of the background, the following musings aren't finished but I didn't want to wait another week to get round to posting this.
Given that in 1996 verlaine and friends ran a Steampunk roleplaying game they'd written for the OU RPG Soc (excellent, around 55 players incorporating magic, mythology, aliens, clockwork, and some great costumes and the theft of the city of Amsterdam... ), this isn't as new to me as it might be, however the current popularity and creative output of this latest wave of interest in steampunk is pretty new. In fact, it must have almost sold out now that I've got to hear about it again.
Steampunk offers immersion in a simpler world full of inventive potential, achievable in potting sheds without multi-million dollar corporate backing, and where the place of the USA, UK and Western Europe was at the forefront, guiding the world to a new technological civilisation where man would have tamed his inner beasts, embodied by the emotionless engineering perfection they could achieve with clockwork. Victoriana stripped of the smog and child prostitution.
On the clothing/dressing-up/aesthetic front, though it has similar aesthetic sensibilities to some branches of goth, for the most part it hasn't quite got to the level of mass-manufactured ever-present global corporation sponsored merchandising vehicles for music and bands which now pervades much of the goth aesthetic subculture. [Rant over - summary is goth may be out of steam... ] There are aspects of 'uniform' - common aesthetic: brown leather and brass replace the goth's black pvc/leather and silver but it still allows much creative and expressive freedom - a sense of real exploring your individuality and imagination.
Part of this stems from the almost Morris-movement crafts aspects. Craftsmen, some working to produce movie props, some just inspired by the ideas of backroom technology and beautiful craftsmanship (Morris-Brunel symbiosis?) have been creating very beautiful artefacts, some useful, some purely ornamental, for their own pleasure for years, and discovering a market for their visions. Well-made objects where form and function meet beauty and sensuality, using quality materials but insisting on ornamentation to flag and increase the value placed on both the object and the craft going into it (an idea the Maoris seemed keen on too).
Generated within books1, then graphic novels2 and sci-fantasy film world3, typified by the look of the HellBoy movies and the book (not the film) of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the latter an offshoot of the contemporary & futurist Invisibles comic series.
CF Neo-Victoriana without the sci-fantasy elements and retro-Victoriana vampire groups.Literature etc
- Books - Tim Powers' 'The Anubis Gates' etc, The Golden Compass, The Diamond Age (click here for one 'top-ten' list)
More recently - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Mr and Mr
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (not recommended) - Graphic Novels - League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Neverwhere, Steampunk Tales, Steampunk Magazine
, (click here for more fiction, period and contemporary, beloved by the movement.) - Films - such as Hellboy, The Golden Compass etc (and tv shows such as Neverwhere). Largely spawned from the graphic novels or the books but realising their vision in detail. However, the Studio Ghibli anime films from Hayao Miyazaki, from the early Nausicaa (1984) and Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) to the studio's more recent post-Hayao output could be seen as more legitimate visual forebears of a style spread overseas in the anime fever of the 1990s (e.g. the late 90s series 'Hellsing', produced by Gonzo). Imbued with a love of gadgetry and the ongoing Japanese obsession with its European cultural imports of the late C19th and early C20th, particularly fashion, these appear a blueprint for contemporary Steampunk.
Reviews:
Opening night slideshow
Wired's Steampunk article and slideshow on the MHS show
Exhibition review
Blog review of exhibition
Also referred to here - where you can get your amazing 2D goggles - and at Voyages of Dr Fabre/The Heliograph.
Photographer's Flickr album and Flickr Groups (for the exhibition and for the museum)- none as good as a visit. Artists
Museum Exhibition Artist's links:
- Stephane Halleux- Belgium
- Molly "Porkshanks" Friedrich- U.S.
- Datamancer- U.S.
- Doctor Grymm- U.S.
- Daniel Proulx- Canada
- Eric Freitas- U.S.
- Haruo Suekichi- Japan
- Herr Doktor- U.K.
- Thomas D. Willeford- U.S.
- Amanda Scrivener- U.K.
- James Richardson Brown- U.K.Jesse Newhouse- U.S.
- Jos De Vink- Netherlands
- Kris Kuksi- U.S.
- Mad Uncle Cliff- Australia
- Vianney Halter- Switzerland
- Art Donovan- U.S. - Curator
Von Slatts' Steampunk Workshop site is lovely Being what it is, of course they have their own how-to for a Wimhurst-like machine - in four parts and an operation manual.
I'd like one of these lovelies. At least the Telectroscope is impractical for domestic installation but the Segway here is intriguing and the various casings beautiful (geekology detail, Datamancer's glory, one of Jake von Slatt's efforts). Dave Veloz's is marked for the fantastic Mac mini.
Love this other ring - also by Daniel Proulx A.K.A : CatherinetteRings
More to follow in later edits to this post.
Nota Bene:
Bookstuff
Steampunk.com
Steampunk Magazine
Other Steampunk magazines
Vagrants among ruins - recent editions are available for purchase in the UK
Steampunk tales on Facebook
TOR.com on Steampunk (the site covers many publishing genres).
The Style
Aether Emporium's style guide - recommended.
Brute Force Leather's astounding accessories
The Golden Compass featurette on YouTube
[YouTube videos - MUTE first, if you like]2008 US Steampunk Convention California costumes or the more fashion than gadget orientated style guide [Mute off safe now] More home-produced but with easier audio is the cute slideshow here
Steampunk and Steampunk aesthetics entry here with links to Steampunk in Germany (seems big over there for some reason...)
On the non-sartorial design side, this house is good and this animation of a city is rather fine.
Blogs
Useful definition and examples of Steampunk
The Steampunk Home - recommended blog by Sara Brumfield.
Strange Dreams - recommended blog.
Misapplied Technology recommended blog
The Heliograph
Datamancer's Blog
Daily Steampunk
Some posters on this blog.
aBrassgoggles and Sparegoggles - recommended blog(s).
Ripping Yarns fic/fanfic
Steamsmoke - London steampunk's news/blog.
UK steampunk news/blog. [Apparent Oxford connection explains the fantastic steampunk outfits seen at Intrusion in July/August but no viable light for photos at the time, sadly.]
best steampunk news art and blogs video on G4tv - lose the sound though
Gadgets
Allegedly the Best steampunk gadgets to date.
Games
Free MMPORG steampunk game NEO STEAM at http://neosteam.gamigo.com/ - [try at own risk]
Board games of various complexions, particularly the endlessly customisable Arhkam Horror
Castle Falkenstein
Online Shops - largely US
- Steampunk Emporium a little mass produced, perhaps, but this is the age of industry
- Clockwork Couture - shiny
- Etsy clothes for sylphs
- Jewellery on Etsy, in particular jewellery from London Particulars (also followable on Facebook, twitter etc and the London Particulars blog) and livejournal at runningdeer
- walk-in store somewhere in Nolita New York
Alleged fashion tutorials on Livejournal.
Parts sourcing in London
People to know
London Steampunk bands and hangers on (for the US this Abney Park video is a good introduction to the band and to Steampunk fashion).
Londoner August Wahnsinger.
Any of the artists or bloggers listed above.
Worldwide Steampunk
A far more comprehensive (and audited) set of links with no attempt to partly restrict relevance to the UK is available at the (gothic) Dark Side of the Net's Steampunk Links page - recommended
The link to Steampunk Games lacks the experimental 'Steamgunners'
Random
The Grandiloquent dictionary - a superb resource for writers
http://wondermark.com/ Collective nouns sheet
There is appreciation that this is not a new development - for example a decent short rebuttal of claims that Steampunk is recent (with some nice contemporary links to MTV stuff) on the vintage of Steampunk 'Steampunk new oh please - 1985's Brazil' but sadly the timeline link is broken † and perhaps they should double check 'zeitgeist'; just becase the core aspects of the Steampunk phenomenon emerged at an earlier stage, doesn't mean that the gathering strength of the subculture synthesised from those earlier strands isn't itself of our time. (Futuristic nostalgia seems appropriate for the decades around the turn of the millenium.) ('Twelve Monkeys' could also be referenced but is obviously too recent to be considered a precursor, but Gilliam's imagination seems Steampunk-infused through today's lenses).
In 1996, for those who don't remember, there was Inferno (1 and 2), advertised in the Trinity termcard as :
INFERNO!
Tuesdays 7:30 every week. Keble Pusey Room
New Year's Eve, 1866 and the upper rooms of Vienna's notorious Inferno Club play host to a meeting of Illuminates intent on shaping the course of history. The most promising military, political, scientific and magickal minds of their time vie with each other for personal power and prestige while attempting to save Bavaria from the depredations of the Prussinal warmonger Bismarck and the chaos caused by the abduction on King Ludwig, by perpetrators unknown...
Inferno is an intrigue-packed Victorian melodrama in eight acts loosely based on the steampunk-and-sorcery Castle Falkenstein roleplaying game and the sinister workings of the Bavarian Illuminati. It will be held, barring enemy sabotage, in Keble's Pusey Room. For more information and character generation, contact Matt Marcus.
I'm so glad all the webstuff for it is still up - so much work went into it.
All squee'd out now. (Part of my head keeps on playing Jesus Jones without all the irony.)