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Steampunk

Another film recommendation - Jeunet et Cano's 'City of Lost Children'. This has a Mad Scientist, clones, a talking brain in a fishtank and a bunch of guys who look like the Borg's less-well-off cousins.
 
i dont think anyones mentioned this one yet but

"the difference engine" by william gibson and bruce sterling might be worth a read.
 
People always said the Romans had it in them to build steam engines, etc. but I thought I'd start a thread for real life steam punk type oddities like this (I know the site has come up before but :

Mr. Perkins` Extraordinary Steam Gun of 1824:

www.lateralscience.co.uk/perkgun/
 
Not sure how appropriate this is to point out here... but GE (General Electric- a major energy company here in the States) has recently run an ad 'sexing up' the idea of coal mining and coal as a viable energy source. They use an urban-beat update of the song 'Sixteen Tons,' and feature scantily clad, artfully begrimed coal miners (both male and female-how egalitarian :roll:) hard at work in some Disneyfied mine. 'Dark as a Dungeon,' another mining-related folk song, and one more tragic (and honest) springs immediately to mind.

Anyhow, being poor and always on the lookout for dangerous (but well paying) work, I may indeed seek my fortune in a dark, dreary mine in the near future. Retrofuturistic job opportunities are few and far between! :D
 
What is steampunk? A sci fi culture or something?
 
Steampunk

Can anyone recommend any good steam punk novels at all? Its not a genre I know anything about.
 
Sorry I should really have done a search before posting :oops:

Thanks for the merge and the link :)
 
No worries - its always good to give this thread a bump.


Esp. as I'd forgotten to chase this up:

King Sprout~ said:
Another film recommendation - Jeunet et Cano's 'City of Lost Children'. This has a Mad Scientist, clones, a talking brain in a fishtank and a bunch of guys who look like the Borg's less-well-off cousins.
Click to expand...

www.imdb.com/title/tt0112682/

It sounds great and has a storming rating on IMDB.

Out on R1 DVD:

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000 ... ntmagaz-21
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000K ... enantmc-20

Also available from Amazon.fr but no English subs:

www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001JZQ9K/
www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001JZQ9K/

2 disc:
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005NJ31/

Comparisons:
www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=1661

------
I might as well throw in the mention of Steamboy:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0348121/

Although I've not watched it yet.
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
King Sprout~ said:
Another film recommendation - Jeunet et Cano's 'City of Lost Children'. This has a Mad Scientist, clones, a talking brain in a fishtank and a bunch of guys who look like the Borg's less-well-off cousins.
Click to expand...

www.imdb.com/title/tt0112682/

It sounds great and has a storming rating on IMDB.
Click to expand...

I really liked this film although the people I watched it with gave me hell (it had been my turn to choose at the video shop that day) - which I thought was a shame, Ron Perlman is great in it and the sets were fantastic.
 
Wednesday, 1 November 2006
Andreas Petzoldt's Steampunk Jetpack

Resembling a cast-iron uterus with whirring, razor-sharp dentata more than a jetpack proper, Andreas Petzoldt has spent the last decade perfecting every rocket lad's dream on his own dime.

Of course, Petzoldt's Monocopter is hardly the bronze, flame-belching backpack of the Rocketeer. It's a monstrous thing, weighing over 120 kilograms. It's what H.G. Wells might have envisioned the Kaiser's army using to invade England. It's a jet engine strapped to a fragile, easily crushed human torso.

It hasn't been tested yet, but Petzoldt promises that it will be better than the "rocket belt" system of human gravity-defiance, since a full tank of fuel will let a single person fly around for over thirty minutes. A proper jetpack has apparently never been created.

Of course, it's hard not to imagine the test flight. With great ebullience, Andreas soars into the heavens. He sneers at gravity with contempt, a spurned mistress who embraces all but him. But suddenly he hears a horrifying choke and shudder and a sickening vertigo creeping up into his bowels as he plummets back down to the ground, strapped to over 200 pounds of highly-explosive rocket fuel and whirring metal blades.

Andreas’ Personal Flying Suit (“Monocopter”) Project [Technologie Entwicklung]
www.technologie-entwicklung.de/Gasturbi ... opter.html


http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontent ... tzold.html
Click to expand...
 
Has anyone else seen this guy's work? It's brilliant!

Images of Star Wars in a steampunk style, I especially like Darth Vader.

http://tinyurl.com/3b2h7x

Scroll down to March 20th for the images!
 
Me and my thirteen year old son thought the pictures and the robots were brilliant, especially the C3PO.

Much better than the original designs. :lol:
 
he's quite reminiscent of the jabberwock from american mcgee's alice...

...i like them... i can almost imagine the steam coming out in time to his laboured breathing as it runs the suit's life support :)
 
First release of a song on wax cylinder in a century... kind of 8)

I suspect a lot better as a concept than in actuality, but i kind of like the ethos...

Tech Know: A journey into sound

LJ Rich builds a machine to play 19th century recordings after a band released a wax cylinder single

The BBC Technology index has been writing about makers, hackers and other assorted tinkerers for over a year. Time, then, to see if any of the skills and crafts we have filmed and written about have rubbed off.

All we needed was a project.

As if on cue, an e-mail fell into the inbox from Allegra Hawksmoor who told us about a band called The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. One track of their next album, called Now That's What I Call Steampunk - Volume One, will be available on a wax cylinder. The CD album and single wax cylinder track will be available from 1 June.

"As far as we're aware, it's the first album to be sold with (at least a partial) wax cylinder release for the best part of a century," she said.

Anyone buying one of the 40 copies of the track on wax will also get instructions for building a phonograph to play the cylinder.

Would we be interested in finding out more, she asked?
The BBC phonograph, BBC Getting the phonograph to work proved tricky

Yes, we said, we would. Just try stopping us.

The idea to put one track on a wax cylinder came from band member Andy Heintz.

"The second I heard him say it, I knew we had to do it," said Ms Hawksmoor. However, she added, she had no idea whether it was even possible.

The internet helped Ms Hawksmoor find Adrian Tuddenham of Poppy Records, one of the few souls in the land that can put digital recordings onto wax cylinders.

Finding Mr Tuddenham solved one problem. The other, bigger, task was to draw up plans for a home-brew phonograph that would cost about £20 to make.

But she already knew someone who could help with that.

Professor Offlogic, aka Sam Kimery, is a veteran maker. "Making things has always been a necessity for me," he told the BBC.

"Nobody made good Star Trek props, or toy Geiger counters or any of the neat stuff I wanted to play with," he said. "This led, naturally, to blowing stuff up with a chemistry set, which led to electricity (hey, some of those exploding things needed a remote trigger) and general inventing and tinkering with things."

He adds: "If you don't want what everyone else wants you have to make your own, the market just doesn't serve you very well if you are at all strange."

This led him to a career in hi-tech and a lifelong interest in making stuff. As a result creating a phonograph from scratch was no stretch, even though he had never actually done it before.

"I remember playing an Andy Williams LP using a paper cone and sewing needle as a kid," he said. "That's about as close as I got to this project before."

The Prof sent along the plans and we set about getting all the parts together. We scoured DIY shops, craft stores, hobby shops and the cookery aisles of lots of supermarkets. Some bits were easier to find than others. Inspiration struck when we found a cone-shaped metal measuring jug that became our sound horn.

The internet helped with other parts, particularly the little motors and pulleys needed to get the cylinder turning.

Once we had the bits piled up, the work started. At that point we handed over to Jason Palmer who, as a doctor of physical chemistry, has far more experience with building stuff than anyone else. He takes up the story.
Tinker time

It is the simplest mechanical means to record and reproduce sound - hence the rich history stretching back to one of history's great inventors.

But how about making one, today, with bits you can easily get your hands on? In principle, it's easy, but we were provided nothing more than a schematic with no dimensions, so some careful planning and improvisation were both required through the day.

We had our greatest trouble getting a smooth movement of the cylinder.

Partly that was down to getting the O-ringed motor shaft centred and stable between the rails on which the cylinder sat. But more than that, the trouble was the sliding friction against those rails.
Thomas Edison, AP Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph and patron saint of many a maker.

From a design point of view, there are no constraints on these, so take the time to find the right rails and ideally some bearings that they can turn in, or bearings that fit on the rails themselves and can be fitted with O-rings.

Our attempts with O-ringed plastic wheels and then with plain rubber grommets were woefully inadequate to keep the cylinder from bouncing all over the shop.

One thing to keep in mind throughout is the tiny size of your signal.

Even if mechanically everything turns and moves as it should, the phonograph needs to carry a minuscule vibration from the stylus through to a resonator and then out a tube and into a horn.

Every connection is another place where sound can effectively be lost, so aim for the shortest path between needle and ear, trying to mechanically isolate anything that's carrying sound.

Our first stylus, a carefully cut section of aluminium can, served more to scratch the cylinder than play anything from it; in the end we fitted the player with a length of wire that did the job far better.
Sound lessons

So, we did it and got it working, after a fashion. Even if it took Poppy Records to help refine the design and improve the sound output.

But as has often been said of anything that is hand-made, be it a work of art, a tiled bathroom or a phonograph built from bits; these things are never finished, they are more or less abandoned.

Why? Because you know the corners that were cut when the work was being done; the unfinished parts that are obvious to you and no-one else; and all those ideas you had about improving it while making it are clamouring for attention. Even if it works, and works well, you know it could work better.

Despite that, there is comfort in knowing that being a hacker or a maker is a journey not a destination, and that no matter how high the shoulders you stand on, you'll never see over the horizon. It is consoling to realise that you, at least, have raised your eyes to the sky and are looking in the right direction.
Click to expand...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10171206.stm
 
Steaming back to a retro future
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fea ... 33240.html
Mon, Feb 14, 2011

Once a minor sub-genre of science fiction concerned with Victorian-era technology, Steampunk has transcended its origins to become a fully fledged subculture, with its own fashion, art, films and music, writes GARETH L POWELL

OVER THE PAST decade, a quiet revolution has been taking place amongst the fans of speculative fiction. Ladies have been squeezing into corsets, petticoats and bustles; gentlemen have been ditching their black T-shirts and jeans in favour of military uniforms, waistcoats, top hats and aviator goggles; and once-shiny gadgets, such as laptops and mobile phones, have been resplendently decked-out with antique-looking mahogany and copper cases. The cause of all this has, of course, been the rise in popularity of Steampunk.

Steampunk first came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, with the publication of books such as The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling; Victoria by Paul Di Filippo; and Alan Moore’s comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen . As a literary genre, it draws inspiration from the work of writers such as HG Wells, Jules Verne, Conan Doyle, WE Johns and Mary Shelley, and its stories often feature the use of Victorian era technology, such as steam engines and airships.

Some Steampunk tales take part in an alternate history where Victorian scientists have improvised modern devices using 19th- century tools. For instance, in The Difference Engine , the construction of Charles Babbage’s steam-powered mechanical computer ushers in the information age a century before its time; and in Stephen Baxter’s Anti-Ice , the discovery of anti-matter gives Britain nuclear power and space travel in the 1850s.

Tales, such as Kim Lakin-Smith’s short story Johnny and Emmie-Lou Get Married , a 1950s retelling of Romeo and Juliet , take place later but posit a world where petrol and diesel were either never discovered or somehow fell out of favour. In a similar vein, further stories portray a post-apocalyptic landscape, where our modern technologies have been lost and the survivors are forced to rely on brute-force steam-powered engineering solutions to their problems.

This DIY aesthetic plays a strong role in both Steampunk’s literary and cultural manifestations. Many fans of the genre devote huge effort to “modding” everyday objects, such as computers, musical instruments, and pocket watches, embellishing them with a Neo-Victorian mechanical style, often represented by the addition of brass cogs and glass valves. They even make and improvise their own costumes, harking back to the days when men and women could spend the day grappling with iron and engine grease, and yet still find the time to dress for dinner. In our modern world, where it’s easier to junk a piece of mass-produced electronic technology than it is to fix it, the idea of being able to build, maintain and repair your own bespoke machinery seems somehow subversive.

In cinema, this hands-on approach has been expressed through films such as the Oscar-nominated 2004 Japanese animated fantasy Howl’s Moving Castle; Wild, Wild West , starring Kenneth Branagh and Will Smith; and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen starring Sean Connery and based on Moore’s comic book series, and influenced by older films such as From The Earth To The Moon; The Time Machine ; and even Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

At heart, the Steampunk ethos seems to be one of self-reliance and personal freedom. Steampunk bands take to the stage in homemade costumes, sporting heavily customised instruments; amateur jewellery designers produce their own ornate Steampunk finery; artists proudly display their paintings and sculptures at exhibitions and conventions; and fans swap modding and costume tips online.

Yet despite this apparent community spirit, some critics have attacked the genre for its empire worship and its focus on adventure and derring-do rather than the hard realities of life in the 19th century, such as slavery, child labour, lack of women’s suffrage, starvation and widespread disease.

Such criticisms, though, seem to be missing the point. While Steampunk’s roots are deeply sunk in history, it is not in and of itself an historical genre. It deals in ripping yarns rather than social commentary and, like much Victorian literature, it has more than a whiff of the fantastical about it.

In many Steampunk stories, such as Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker , this manifests in the form of gothic eruptions of vampirism or zombification which challenge the fortitude and resourcefulness of the main characters. In others, such as China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station and Stephen Hunt’s The Court of The Air, the action takes place in baroque fantasy settings, where magic and technology sit side-by-side and mythical creatures roam the landscape.

While hard and fast definitions of Steampunk vary, there’s no denying its commercial success, even if some of its tropes, such as Zeppelins and brass goggles, are already well on the way to becoming clichés. As well as the aforementioned books and movies, there are now young adult Steampunk novels, role-playing games, computer games and graphic novels. Steampunk even thrives as a musical genre, with bands such as Abney Park, Rasputina and Vernian Process bringing the glamour of the Victorian age to their albums and stage shows.

As with most things in life, what you get out of Steampunk depends on what you put into it. If the dressing up and DIY don’t appeal to you, you can still enjoy the adventure stories, which superficially at least, share some of the same sense of wonder and excitement as the ripping yarns and romances once read by our great-grandparents.

Gareth L Powell is a British science-fiction author. His second novel, The Recollection , will be published by Solaris Books next year.

Steampunk milestones :

1. The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson

In the novel which first brought Steampunk to a wider audience, the two masters of Cyberpunk collaborate to produce a story imagining what the effects on world history would have been had Charles Babbage been able to complete construction of his mechanical computer, the titular Difference Engine.

2. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

When inventor Leviticus Blue activates his mining device, the Boneshaker of the title, he unwittingly releases an underground gas which transforms many of the inhabitants of Seattle into zombies. Sixteen years later, Blue’s widow is forced to enter the infected zone when her teenage son disappears in an attempt to clear the inventor’s name.

3. Infernal Devices by KW Jeter

In Victorian London, George inherits a repair shop from his father, a gifted watchmaker skilled in the building of all sorts of clockwork devices. Over the course of the book, George comes across several devices constructed by his father, including a time machine and a lifelike clockwork replica of himself.
Click to expand...
 
Powell appears totally ignorant of Michael Moorcock's books such as Warlord of the Air, The Land Leviathan and The Steel Tsar, together compiled as:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nomad_of ... me_Streams

As it happens I've just finished bryan Talbot's graphic novel "The Heart of Empire", a follow-up to The Adventures of Luther Arkwright" shades of steampunk in those.

(Dr Who connection David Tennant played Luther Arkwright in the 3-CD adaptation - only just found out that it was made!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Advent ... _Arkwright
 
I'd like to put a word for Christopher Priest's The Space Machine as well
 
Timble2 said:
I'd like to put a word for Christopher Priest's The Space Machine as well
Click to expand...

Really? I've had that book on my shelves since I was a boy and I've never read it, just dug it out and it does indeed look interesting...it's gone on "The Pile".
 
CarlosTheDJ said:
Timble2 said:
I'd like to put a word for Christopher Priest's The Space Machine as well
Click to expand...

Really? I've had that book on my shelves since I was a boy and I've never read it, just dug it out and it does indeed look interesting...it's gone on "The Pile".
Click to expand...

Long time since I read it but I recall lots of it, fondly.
 
Backstage Pass
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/mag ... 28802.html
Sat, Mar 12, 2011

Tara Brady meets a master of “Steampunk”. Now read on . . .

BONSOIR BURLESQUE. So long salsa. This year, it’s Steampunk or nothing. Bang-on-trend scene stealers, if not otherwise occupied with the relevant fictions of Michael Moorcock, Alan Moore and William Gibson, are currently making haste for the Sugar Club, the venue for Dublin’s new wave of Steampunk-themed evenings. Interested hipsters may also be located at the capital’s monthly Ferocious Mingle Meet, a fabulous dress-up bazaar for anyone who has ever wanted to live in a Victorian future directed by Tim Burton.

Down at the Mingle, even the least ostentatious fashionista will find plenty to admire around the Josie Baggley Company concession stand. These fine purveyors of gorgeous Steampunk jewellery have been producing conversation-starting miniatures for six years.

Rainey J Wilson, the artist behind the collection, is not too shocked to find herself in the middle of an unexpectedly thriving subculture.

“I’m not at all surprised that Steampunk has taken off in the way it has,” she says. “It’s been big in the States and France for years. But I am amazed by how many members of the Irish public arrive dressed up for the Mingle. It’s such a good buzz. Everybody is there to have a good time.”

She was, she says, already working in a Steampunk style before she was even familiar with the term. “I got bored with straight portraiture,” she says. “I was just deep into old things, taking them apart and reassembling them. I loved old materials and the craft involved and the character they have. I didn’t know what I was doing was Steampunk but I’m happy with the label. What I’m doing now is either Steampunk Chunk or Steampunk Fantasia, depending on my mood.”

Wilson soon waves us into a workspace that makes Aladdin’s Cave seem like Ikea minimalism. We’re not sure what the collective noun for a vast collection of Victoriana is, but whatever it may be, it’s pretty damned impressive.

Ancient bows, buckles, books, buttons and bolts occupy every available space. Over here, there’s a top hat decked out with flowers and back-to-front goggles for the discerning customer in need of eyes at the back of their head. Other there, a pocket watch has been rearranged in the shape of a bird of paradise.

“There’s nothing like opening an old watch and letting the little springs fly,” says Wilson, who cites director Terry Gilliam, Czech animator Jan Švankmajer and Alice in Wonderland as primary artistic influences. “There’s nothing like rust. Look at this lovely rusty screw: twice a month I buy a batch of old screws and old watches and old bits, usually from France. Some things are hard to get. The little dolls I use are Frozen Charlottes and they’re quite rare.” She holds out a teeny ceramic figurine no bigger than a child’s fingernail. “They’re over a 100 years old,” says Rainey. “The Victorians used these little ladies for cooling down tea. They’re a favourite of mine. They pop up on lots of pieces.”

Each Josie Baggley piece, variously assembled from authentic period scrap, is unique. Each painting incorporates ancient fonts, forgotten playbills, Gothic flair and a little story. That rabbit fellow hanging in Wilson’s kitchen, for example, is Alfred, an alcoholic Viennese magician whose career was destroyed by his propensity for falling off the stage.

“I think Alfred looks a little like John Malkovich around the mouth,” says Wilson. “His act used to involve pulling a child from a hat. My rabbits are not to everyone’s tastes. But some people love them. I have customers in America who keep coming back for rabbits.”

Californian artist Joanna Spinks owns a Wilson rabbit original. Regular customers have even commissioned Josie Baggley wedding jewellery in lieu of diamond rings.

“There’s only so much you can do with beads and stones,” says Wilson. “I like the idea that people who own a piece can spot each other in a crowd but when they look up close, their pieces will be completely different. Even if I wanted to replicate it myself I couldn’t: no old lace cut-off is ever exactly the same as another, no pocket watch comes apart in exactly the same way. It’s magic.”

The Ferocious Mingle Market takes place on the second Sunday of every month at the Dublin Co-Op Market, Dublin 8; thejosiebaggleycompany.com
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