What does steampunk mean?
Steampunk is a design style inspired by Victorian-era industrialism. Science fiction author K.W. Jeter is created the term steampunk in 1987 to describe a style of fantasy fiction that featured Victorian technology, especially technology powered by steam.
Steampunk crosses global boundaries – uniting fans and enthusiasts from all around the world who collaborate on everything from design and invention to stories. The fluidness of this sub-genre allows people to take an create whatever suits their city, background or interests and still create something legitimate.
Fantastical though it may be, steampunk makes sense. Machinery works in a way that often feels realer than our own world. Coupled with a strict, rule-based society such as the Victorian era this kind of technology sets up a world that even the newest reader instantly feels like they understand.
First, Steampunk inspiration comes from the Victorian Age, from 1837 to 1901. The movement “reaches directly into the pocket of Victorian England and predicts what the world would be like today had its inhabitants and inventors prevailed over modern technology.”
Steampunk, believe it or not, is a term that has been round since the late 1980s. It is usually defined as a sub-genre of science fiction and features a late 19th century or early 20th century setting, but with steam-powered and clockwork inventions and machines.
Notable in the steampunk repertoire are films like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Disney's Treasure Planet, which combine classic action/adventure tropes with inventive science fiction to create spellbinding stories in universes very unlike our own.
Related aesthetics
Steampunk aesthetics come from a sub-genre of science fiction of the same name that incorporates technology and designs inspired by 19th-century fashion and industrial machinery (including steam-powered machinery, hence the name).
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that combines futuristic technology with designs based on 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk is typically referred to as being retrofuturistic, which means that it blends old-fashioned styles with futuristic technology.
Atlanta — Atlanta's designation as the “most steampunk” city is open to debate, but it's clear that the region is a major hub for steampunk events, as well as geek culture events in general.
The term “steampunk” first appeared in 1987, in a letter sent to Locus Magazine by American writer Kevin Jeter. The author jokingly used the word steampunk to describe the Victorian fiction he was writing with his acolytes Tim Powers and James Blaylock.
Is steampunk still a thing?
So perhaps it is no surprise that nearly two decades after steampunk first became popular as a design movement, and more than a decade after it peaked as a response to the iPhone, steampunk has all but died off—this, despite the fact that technology is more inscrutable than ever.
A story set within a world using a real or imagined version of the technology of the 19th century. Technology and devices driven by steam power or counterweighted clockwork. Victorian-era class and economic structures. Implicit or explicit social critique.
Even though the genre did not become widely known until the late 20th century, steampunk and its fashion is said to have existed earlier. During the 1980s and 1990s, steampunk fashion grew along with the goth and punk movements in fashion.
The diversity of the bands is breath taking from industrial, Darkwave and goth to singalong punk, folk and Indian raga to vaudeville. The bands are loosely linked by their flamboyant Victoriana wardrobes and their fictional back stories where the reinvent themselves as characters in their own stories.
The term “steampunk” first appeared in 1987, in a letter sent to Locus Magazine by American writer Kevin Jeter. The author jokingly used the word steampunk to describe the Victorian fiction he was writing with his acolytes Tim Powers and James Blaylock.
Goggles serve many purposes in the world of steampunk such as keeping the wind on an airship from drying out your eyes, protection from dangerous chemicals for the mad scientist, and protection from sparks, and hot steam in the lab or boiler room.
This process is known as 'punking'. The man charged with this task was called the 'Steampunker'.
- Advanced technology of mechanical and/or steam power.
- Clockwork/mechanical devices and mechanisms.
- Air borne transport based on some kind of air technology.
- Victorian influences.
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that combines futuristic technology with designs based on 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk is typically referred to as being retrofuturistic, which means that it blends old-fashioned styles with futuristic technology.
Atlanta — Atlanta's designation as the “most steampunk” city is open to debate, but it's clear that the region is a major hub for steampunk events, as well as geek culture events in general.
When was steampunk popular?
Even though the genre did not become widely known until the late 20th century, steampunk and its fashion is said to have existed earlier. During the 1980s and 1990s, steampunk fashion grew along with the goth and punk movements in fashion.
Ladies Steampunk Clothing is often influenced by the Victorian and Edwardian styles with long skirts, bustles and corsets being popular. The Steampunk genre adds a Science Fiction and fantasy twist with clockwork and gears being a common theme.
Steampunk is not brown, or black, or white, or gray, or any other single tone. It can sometimes be misleading given that most of the photographic and film references for the 19th and early 20th centuries are either in sepia tone or grayscale, but in fact the Victorians and Edwardians were color-loving people.
