The New York Times published an article on Steampunk culture that’s getting a lot of buzz on the Internets. Steampunk originated as a term for science fiction based on Victorian-era themed concepts - and the literature has birthed a rich lifestyle culture with a unique fashion aesthetic and product modification styles (some references & cool stuff after the jump). Grant McCracken’s exploratory on what makes steampunk interesting and popular has resonance for anyone who believes in the mission of IWRI - or even if you aren’t down with us - those of you who believe that the ‘little’ guy or gal in the room might have a significant contribution to make. The Victorian period was the time of the tinker-er, the inventor, the progress-maker…The idea that an invention birthed in a small garden tool shed could change the world reminds me that the smallest act has great possibility. The age of the internet and the ‘prosumer’ seems a lot like this - exchange the tool shed for a couch and the soldering iron for a laptop, of course.

Victorians appeal to us in several ways, not only out of a faux nostalgia. These were people who were profoundly crafty, inclined to working on combustion engines in the tool shed at the end of the garden. It was a place where rank amateurs could make a contribution to knowledge in their spare time, a motive that is a great motivating hope here at This Blog. Several institutions of the Victorian period, including the Oxford English Dictionary, and great swathes of the periods of natural history came from amateurs working together in a thoroughly distributed way.

The anime freak in me has been into fantasy steampunk work like Galaxy Railways, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Full-Metal Alchemist. But work by William Gibson, Michael Moorcock and K.W. Jeter are closer to the origins of the genre, I think. If you’re interesting in 2008 Steampunk culture, check out the James Gang, an act that regularly performs at NYC hotspot The Box & who are opening up a shop in Nolita this year, with products under the design name TJG Engineering. Also, peep BoingBoing for a lot of news & projects of interest around steam-stuff.

via The New York Times, image of The Jones Gang via the New York Times by Robert Wright

Grant McCracken quote via This Blog Sits At The

Victorian Computer Mod Image via Boston.com via steampunkworkshop.com

Tags: Boingboing, cultureby.com, Full-Metal Alchemist, Galaxy Railways, Grant McCracken, Howl's Moving Castle, James Gang, KW Jeter, Michael Moorcock, Possibility, Science Fiction, Steampunk, The amazing amateur, The Box, TJG Engineering, Victorian-era, William Gibson