I'm quite surprised to see that Steampunk warrants a post on Design Observer. I suggest reading it before this in the interests of making sense of this post. I remember thinking two years back that it was going to big, but not DO big. But I don't see how the author equates a few boing boing articles percolating up to the New York Times as the Next Big Thing. Internet Memetics aside, some earnest and well aimed criticism made in the general direction of steam punk and the irony of harking back to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution as the antithesis to a lush iMac. The origins of steampunk (to my knowledge) came about through two brilliant cyberpunk writers William Gibson and Bruce Sterling - The Difference Engine. Of which the above letterpress page was quoted from (it was one of my first posts on this blog and I thought I'd – shock – use the same image again). The problem with steampunk is that there is very little of the anti-establishment ethos of cyberpunk, and has merely become a visual shorthand that grew too quickly. It lacks an overall political framework and worldview. One can hardly take the buttoned up, repressive and dickensian attitude to life and claim to be punk. Gibson mildly disowned his term steampunk (maybe for fear of spawning another movement), but recently mentioned his love for the DIY and aesthetics of it (something that Steampunk has in spades).
But I think what really let this piece down is the aggressiveness in which he attacked the craftsmen who take simple joy in creating gorgeous contraptions. Naturally, the community has risen up to defend the movement and the accusations the author has made. There's nothing wrong with reveling in post post modernity, even if it is to make an awesome looking keyboard. More time should have been spent attacking the lazy news reporters for basing an article on nothing more than misread noise than mercilessly attacking a group of people willing to learn how things work and to tinker with objects that most people too easily and blindly take for granted.
Colophon: This is an edited comment I made on Design Observer, and in the interests of saving time I thought I'd put it up here as well.
For those interested in this sort of thing, I highly recommend checking out a video of a working Difference Engine (the worlds first computing machine), something its creator – Charles Babbage – never got to see. Alternatively, if you're into more than just moving pictures, head on over to the Computer History Museum where they have the machine and learn all about it. Including the sumptuous Ada Lovelace; the first programmer (a woman, who'd have thunk?), known for her drinking and gambling debts.
Comments