Steampunk

[mags]

Anyone else enjoy this ummm,,"philosophy"?
I'm fascinated by some of the ideas that folks have come up with- the Mac computer and keyboard and the Steampunk Stratocaster especially:

http://steampunkworkshop.com/steampunk-strat.shtml

http://steampunkworkshop.com/victorian-all-one-pc

One can't help but think that Syd would approve.

[Duckboy]

Syd would approve if what?
It is very cool though.
And this reminds me... does anyone have a fender telecaster template by any chance? ive been meening to do one up.

[Damn!t]

One can't help but think that Syd would approve.

Sydious would approve something made by Lego, Dali or Picasso probably.

This looks kewl tho. I love what bloke did with monitor.
My brother is buying a nice 22 inch screen but still cant decide what to buy, so I'll send him this link.

[wiped]

I love the way people think they "know how somebody would think" cos they've listened to a few of that persons songs ... get a fuckin grip.

[mags]

I love the way people think they "know how somebody would think" cos they've listened to a few of that persons songs ... get a fuckin grip.

Thanks.

[my breakfast.]

Wiped has a point, even if he put it rather bluntly! I think its dangerous and unhealthy to assume anything Syd would or would not have liked. Nobody here really knows what his personality was like. Those perverts over at Astral Piper thought that secretly filming him and knocking on his door was what Syd wanted. A lot of people get delusional about these things, and its a shame Syd attracted so many unhinged people, much as Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain did.

[wiped]

Wiped has a point, even if he put it rather bluntly!

Apologies for the bluntness ... but as far as Im concerned comments like "I think Syd would have approved" is an example of just how "Celebrified" people have become - thinking you know somebody through their work (art, music, literature etc) .. its borderline psychotic and at a minimum, absolutely delusional

[nosaj]

I think Neil Pert would approve...because he has stated it is an influence on the concept behind their next album.

[danielcaux]

All I know is that Internet Explorer 7 doesn't approve that page.

[Hudini]

Internet Explorer is so steampunk.

[nosaj]

I think Steampunk is kind of cool. It probably has to do with how you have a sense of what is going on by the very nature of mechanical systems. The digital age is so mysterious, it makes little logical sense to the plain eye.

[Enish]

I've never been able to get a good grasp on any of the "-punk" movements that have been arising (punk rock doesn't count), but Steampunk is definitely the most popular of them. Having gone to a local anime convention and downtown Halloween gatherings for several years, I've seen a lot of original Steampunk costumes as well as Steampunk renderings of various characters, yet I've never been able to understand the philosophy of it. It might be some kind of branch of Anglophilia, but I'm not too sure. I just think it looks cool.

[J Ed]

I think SteamPunk was a variant on the literary movement of CyberPunk
CyberPunk was a label applied to William Gibson and similar writers, who wrote about lowlife streethustlers living in an era of ubiquitous far-advanced computer technology (similar to Philip K Dicks protagonists, except Gibson was much more into the details of how the technology would work and what its social implications might be)
Gibson then wrote a book called The Difference Engine, set in Victorian England, where anachronistic computer systems were powered by steam and other then current greasy heavy machinery, hence SteamPunk (Steam driven CyberPunk)

[my breakfast.]

Steampunk is a cool aesthetic but pretty much everybody I know who likes it to the extent that they identify themselves as steampunk has been a total dickhead.

[danielcaux]

I understand steampunk "philosophy" as some sort of victorian/industrial revolution retrofuturism. other than that I'm not aware of any other particular "philosopical" issue explored by the genre. Well, to be honest the only think I know about steampunk is that anime movie called Steamboy. Are there any other major must watch/read steampunk works? Has anyone ever tried Steampunk as a musical genre? That would be interesting actually...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI7-bx8QqZ8

This is also kinda steampunkish:

So I guess Nick would approve.

So Gibson is also the creator/instigator of the Steampunk genre? Interesting. I really loved Neuromancer, total mind blower and I'm still waiting for a good movie to be made out of it, because although the Matrix were cool to some extent, being a complete rip off of the characters and concepts from the book, it really never aproached the level of intelectual awesomeness you find in Neuromancer. Things like Wintermute and The Dixie Flatline, how cool was that.