Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction
or science fantasy that incorporates technology
and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century
industrial steam-powered machinery. Although
its literary origins are sometimes associated
with the cyberpunk genre, steampunk works
are often set in an alternative history of
the 19th century's British Victorian era or
American "Wild West", in a future during which
steam power has maintained mainstream usage,
or in a fantasy world that similarly employs
steam power. However, steampunk and Neo-Victorian
are different in that the Neo-Victorian movement
does not extrapolate on technology while technology
is a key aspect of steampunk.Steampunk most
recognizably features anachronistic technologies
or retrofuturistic inventions as people in
the 19th century might have envisioned them,
and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective
on fashion, culture, architectural style,
and art. Such technology may include fictional
machines like those found in the works of
H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or of the modern
authors Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfeld,
Stephen Hunt, and China Miéville. Other examples
of steampunk contain alternative-history-style
presentations of such technology as steam
cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analogue
computers, or such digital mechanical computers
as Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.Steampunk
may also incorporate additional elements from
the genres of fantasy, horror, historical
fiction, alternate history, or other branches
of speculative fiction, making it often a
hybrid genre. The first known appearance of
the term steampunk was in 1987, though it
now retroactively refers to many works of
fiction created as far back as the 1950s or
1960s.Steampunk also refers to any of the
artistic styles, clothing fashions, or subcultures
that have developed from the aesthetics of
steampunk fiction, Victorian-era fiction,
art nouveau design, and films from the mid-20th
century. Various modern utilitarian objects
have been modded by individual artisans into
a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk"
style, and a number of visual and musical
artists have been described as steampunk.
== History ==
=== 
Precursors ===
Steampunk is influenced by and often adopts
the style of the 19th-century scientific romances
of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Mary Shelley,
and Edward S. Ellis's The Steam Man of the
Prairies. Several more modern works of art
and fiction significant to the development
of the genre were produced before the genre
had a name. Titus Alone (1959), by Mervyn
Peake, is widely regarded by scholars as the
first novel in the genre proper, while others
point to Michael Moorcock's 1971 novel The
Warlord of the Air, which was heavily influenced
by Peake's work. The film Brazil (1985) was
an important early cinematic influence that
helped codify the aesthetics of the genre.
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright was an
early (1970s) comic version of the Moorcock-style
mover between timestreams.In fine art, Remedios
Varo's paintings combine elements of Victorian
dress, fantasy, and technofantasy imagery.
In television, one of the earliest manifestations
of the steampunk ethos in the mainstream media
was the CBS television series The Wild Wild
West (1965–1969), which inspired the later
film.
=== Origin of the term ===
Although many works now considered seminal
to the genre were published in the 1960s and
1970s, the term steampunk originated in the
late 1980s as a tongue-in-cheek variant of
cyberpunk. It was coined by science fiction
author K. W. Jeter, who was trying to find
a general term for works by Tim Powers (The
Anubis Gates, 1983), James Blaylock (Homunculus,
1986), and himself (Morlock Night, 1979, and
Infernal Devices, 1987)—all of which took
place in a 19th-century (usually Victorian)
setting and imitated conventions of such actual
Victorian speculative fiction as H. G. Wells'
The Time Machine. In a letter to science fiction
magazine Locus, printed in the April 1987
issue, Jeter wrote:
Dear Locus,
Enclosed is a copy of my 1979 novel Morlock
Night; I'd appreciate your being so good as
to route it to Faren Miller, as it's a prime
piece of evidence in the great debate as to
who in "the Powers/Blaylock/Jeter fantasy
triumvirate" was writing in the "gonzo-historical
manner" first. Though of course, I did find
her review in the March Locus to be quite
flattering.
Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are
going to be the next big thing, as long as
we can come up with a fitting collective term
for Powers, Blaylock and myself. Something
based on the appropriate technology of the
era; like "steam-punks," perhaps....
=== 
Modern steampunk ===
While Jeter's Morlock Night and Infernal Devices,
Powers' The Anubis Gates, and Blaylock's Lord
Kelvin's Machine were the first novels to
which Jeter's neologism would be applied,
the three authors gave the term little thought
at the time. They were far from the first
modern science fiction writers to speculate
on the development of steam-based technology
or alternative histories. Keith Laumer's Worlds
of the Imperium (1962) and Ronald W. Clark's
Queen Victoria's Bomb (1967) apply modern
speculation to past-age technology and society.
Michael Moorcock's Warlord of the Air (1971)
is another early example. Harry Harrison's
novel A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! (1973)
portrays a British Empire of an alternative
year 1973, full of atomic locomotives, coal-powered
flying boats, ornate submarines, and Victorian
dialogue. The Adventures of Luther Arkwright
(mid-1970s) was the first steampunk comic.
In February 1980, Richard A. Lupoff and Steve
Stiles published the first "chapter" of their
10-part comic strip The Adventures of Professor
Thintwhistle and His Incredible Aether Flyer.The
first use of the word in a title was in Paul
Di Filippo's 1995 Steampunk Trilogy, consisting
of three short novels: "Victoria", "Hottentots",
and "Walt and Emily", which, respectively,
imagine the replacement of Queen Victoria
by a human/newt clone, an invasion of Massachusetts
by Lovecraftian monsters, and a love affair
between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.
=== Relationships to retrofuturism, DIY craft
and making ===
Superficially, steampunk may resemble retrofuturism.
Indeed, both sensibilities recall "the older
but still modern eras in which technological
change seemed to anticipate a better world,
one remembered as relatively innocent of industrial
decline."One of steampunk's most significant
contributions is the way in which it mixes
digital media with traditional handmade art
forms. As scholars Rachel Bowser and Brian
Croxall put it, "the tinkering and tinker-able
technologies within steampunk invite us to
roll up our sleeves and get to work re-shaping
our contemporary world." In this respect,
steampunk bears more in common with DIY craft
and making.
== Art, entertainment, and media ==
=== 
Art and design ===
Many of the visualisations of steampunk have
their origins with, among others, Walt Disney's
film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954),
including the design of the story's submarine
the Nautilus, its interiors, and the crew's
underwater gear; and George Pal's film The
Time Machine (1960), especially the design
of the time machine itself. This theme is
also carried over to Six Flags Magic Mountain
and Disney parks, in the themed area the "Screampunk
District" at Six Flags Magic Mountain and
in the designs of The Mysterious Island section
of Tokyo DisneySea theme park and Disneyland
Paris' Discoveryland area.Aspects of steampunk
design emphasise a balance between form and
function. In this it is like the Arts and
Crafts Movement. But John Ruskin, William
Morris, and the other reformers in the late
nineteenth century rejected machines and industrial
production. On the other hand, steampunk enthusiasts
present a "non-luddite critique of technology".Various
modern utilitarian objects have been modified
by enthusiasts into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical
"steampunk" style. Examples include computer
keyboards and electric guitars. The goal of
such redesigns is to employ appropriate materials
(such as polished brass, iron, wood, and leather)
with design elements and craftsmanship consistent
with the Victorian era, rejecting the aesthetic
of industrial design.In 1994, the Paris Metro
station at Arts et Métiers was redesigned
by Belgian artist Francois Schuiten in steampunk
style, to honor the works of Jules Verne.
The station is reminiscent of a submarine,
sheathed in brass with giant cogs in the ceiling
and portholes that look out onto fanciful
scenes.
The artist group Kinetic Steam Works brought
a working steam engine to the Burning Man
festival in 2006 and 2007. The group's founding
member, Sean Orlando, created a Steampunk
Tree House (in association with a group of
people who would later form the Five Ton Crane
Arts Group) that has been displayed at a number
of festivals. The Steampunk Tree House is
now permanently installed at the Dogfish Head
Brewery in Milton, Delaware.The Neverwas Haul
is a three-story, self-propelled mobile art
vehicle built to resemble a Victorian house
on wheels. Designed by Shannon O’Hare, it
was built by volunteers in 2006 and presented
at the Burning Man festival from 2006 through
2015. When fully built, the Haul propelled
itself at a top speed of 5 miles per hour
and required a crew of ten people to operate
safely. Currently, the Neverwas Haul makes
her home at Obtainium Works, an "art car factory"
in Vallejo, CA, owned by O’Hare and home
to several other self-styled "contraptionists".In
May–June 2008, multimedia artist and sculptor
Paul St George exhibited outdoor interactive
video installations linking London and Brooklyn,
New York, in a Victorian era-styled telectroscope.
Utilizing this device, New York promoter Evelyn
Kriete organised a transatlantic wave between
steampunk enthusiasts from both cities, prior
to White Mischief's Around the World in 80
Days steampunk-themed event.
In 2009, for Questacon, artist Tim Wetherell
created a large wall piece that represented
the concept of the clockwork universe. This
steel artwork contains moving gears, a working
clock, and a movie of the moon's terminator
in action. The 3D moon movie was created by
Antony Williams.From October 2009 through
February 2010, the Museum of the History of
Science, Oxford, hosted the first major exhibition
of steampunk art objects, curated and developed
by New York artist and designer Art Donovan,
who also exhibited his own "electro-futuristic"
lighting sculptures, and presented by Dr.
Jim Bennett, museum director. From redesigned
practical items to fantastical contraptions,
this exhibition showcased the work of eighteen
steampunk artists from across the globe. The
exhibition proved to be the most successful
and highly attended in the museum's history
and attracted more than eighty thousand visitors.
The event was detailed in the official artist's
journal The Art of Steampunk, by curator Donovan.In
November 2010, The Libratory Steampunk Art
Gallery was opened by Damien McNamara in Oamaru,
New Zealand. Created from papier-mâché to
resemble a large subterranean cave and filled
with industrial equipment from yesteryear,
rayguns, and general steampunk quirks, its
purpose is to provide a place for steampunkers
in the region to display artwork for sale
all year long. A year later, a more permanent
gallery, Steampunk HQ, was opened in the former
Meeks Grain Elevator Building across the road
from The Woolstore, and has since become a
notable tourist attraction for Oamaru.In 2012,
the Mobilis in Mobili: An Exhibition of Steampunk
Art and Appliance made its debut. Originally
located at New York City's Wooster Street
Social Club (itself the subject of the television
series NY Ink), the exhibit featured working
steampunk tattoo systems designed by Bruce
Rosenbaum, of ModVic and owner of the Steampunk
House, Joey "Dr. Grymm" Marsocci, and Christopher
Conte. with different approaches. "[B]icycles,
cell phones, guitars, timepieces and entertainment
systems" rounded out the display. The opening
night exhibition featured a live performance
by steampunk band Frenchy and the Punk.
=== Fashion ===
Steampunk fashion has no set guidelines but
tends to synthesize modern styles with influences
from the Victorian era. Such influences may
include bustles, corsets, gowns, and petticoats;
suits with waistcoats, coats, top hats and
bowler hats (themselves originating in 1850
England), tailcoats and spats; or military-inspired
garments. Steampunk-influenced outfits are
usually accented with several technological
and "period" accessories: timepieces, parasols,
flying/driving goggles, and ray guns. Modern
accessories like cell phones or music players
can be found in steampunk outfits, after being
modified to give them the appearance of Victorian-era
objects. Post-apocalyptic elements, such as
gas masks, ragged clothing, and tribal motifs,
can also be included. Aspects of steampunk
fashion have been anticipated by mainstream
high fashion, the Lolita and aristocrat styles,
neo-Victorianism, and the romantic goth subculture.In
2005, Kate Lambert, known as "Kato", founded
the first steampunk clothing company, "Steampunk
Couture", mixing Victorian and post-apocalyptic
influences. In 2013, IBM predicted, based
on an analysis of more than a half million
public posts on message boards, blogs, social
media sites, and news sources, "that 'steampunk,'
a subgenre inspired by the clothing, technology
and social mores of Victorian society, will
be a major trend to bubble up and take hold
of the retail industry". Indeed, high fashion
lines such as Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace,
Chanel, and Christian Dior had already been
introducing steampunk styles on the fashion
runways. And in episode 7 of Lifetime's "Project
Runway: Under the Gunn" reality series, contestants
were challenged to create avant-garde "steampunk
chic" looks. America's Next Top Model tackled
Steampunk fashion in a 2012 episode where
models competed in a Steampunk themed photo
shoot, posing in front of a steam train while
holding a live owl.
=== Literature ===
The educational book Elementary BASIC - Learning
to Program Your Computer in BASIC with Sherlock
Holmes (1981), by Henry Singer and Andrew
Ledgar, may have been the first fictional
work to depict the use of Charles Babbage's
Analytical Engine in an adventure story. The
instructional book, aimed at young programming
students, depicts Holmes using the engine
as an aid in his investigations, and lists
programs that perform simple data processing
tasks required to solve the fictional cases.
The book even describes a device that allows
the engine to be used remotely, over telegraph
lines, as a possible enhancement to Babbage's
machine. Companion volumes—Elementary Pascal
- Learning to Program Your Computer in Pascal
with Sherlock Holmes and From Baker Street
to Binary - An Introduction to Computers and
Computer Programming with Sherlock Holmes—were
also written.
In 1988, the first version of the science
fiction roleplaying game Space: 1889 was published.
The game is set in an alternative history
in which certain now discredited Victorian
scientific theories were probable and led
to new technologies. Contributing authors
included Frank Chadwick, Loren Wiseman, and
Marcus Rowland.William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's
novel The Difference Engine (1990) is often
credited with bringing about widespread awareness
of steampunk. This novel applies the principles
of Gibson and Sterling's cyberpunk writings
to an alternative Victorian era where Ada
Lovelace and Charles Babbage's proposed steam-powered
mechanical computer, which Babbage called
a difference engine (a later, more general-purpose
version was known as an analytical engine),
was actually built, and led to the dawn of
the information age more than a century "ahead
of schedule". This setting was different from
most steampunk settings in that it takes a
dim and dark view of this future, rather than
the more prevalent utopian versions.
Nick Gevers's original anthology Extraordinary
Engines (2008) features newer steampunk stories
by some of the genre's writers, as well as
other science fiction and fantasy writers
experimenting with neo-Victorian conventions.
A retrospective reprint anthology of steampunk
fiction was released, also in 2008, by Tachyon
Publications. Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
and appropriately entitled Steampunk, it is
a collection of stories by James Blaylock,
whose "Narbondo" trilogy is typically considered
steampunk; Jay Lake, author of the novel Mainspring,
sometimes labeled "clockpunk"; the aforementioned
Michael Moorcock; as well as Jess Nevins,
known for his annotations to The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen (first published in
1999).
Younger readers have also been targeted by
steampunk themes, by authors such as Philip
Reeve and Scott Westerfeld. Reeve's quartet
Mortal Engines is set far in Earth's future
where giant moving cities consume each other
in a battle for resources, a concept Reeve
coined as Municipal Darwinism. Westerfeld's
Leviathan trilogy is set during an alternate
First World War fought between the "clankers"
(Central Powers), who use steam technology,
and "darwinists" (Allied Powers), who use
genetically engineered creatures instead of
machines.
"Mash-ups" are also becoming increasingly
popular in books aimed at younger readers,
mixing steampunk with other genres. Suzanne
Lazear's Aether Chronicles series mixes steampunk
with faeries, and The Unnaturalists, by Tiffany
Trent, combines steampunk with mythological
creatures and alternate history.While most
of the original steampunk works had a historical
setting, later works often place steampunk
elements in a fantasy world with little relation
to any specific historic era. Historical steampunk
tends to be science fiction that presents
an alternate history; it also contains real
locales and persons from history with alternative
fantasy technology. "Fantasy-world steampunk",
such as China Miéville's Perdido Street Station,
Alan Campbell's Scar Night, and Stephen Hunt's
Jackelian novels, on the other hand, presents
steampunk in a completely imaginary fantasy
realm, often populated by legendary creatures
coexisting with steam-era and other anachronistic
technologies. However, the works of China
Miéville and similar authors are sometimes
referred to as belonging to the "New Weird"
rather than steampunk.
Self-described author of "far-fetched fiction"
Robert Rankin has increasingly incorporated
elements of steampunk into narrative worlds
that are both Victorian and re-imagined contemporary.
In 2009, he was made a Fellow of the Victorian
Steampunk Society.The comic book series Hellboy,
created by Mike Mignola, and the two Hellboy
films featuring Ron Perlman and directed by
Guillermo del Toro, all have steampunk elements.
In the comic book and the first (2004) film,
Karl Ruprecht Kroenen is a Nazi SS scientist
who has an addiction to having himself surgically
altered, and who has many mechanical prostheses,
including a clockwork heart. The character
Johann Krauss is featured in the comic and
in the second film, Hellboy II: The Golden
Army (2008), as an ectoplasmic medium (a gaseous
form in a partly mechanical suit). This second
film also features the Golden Army itself,
which is a collection of 4,900 mechanical
steampunk warriors.
==== Steampunk settings ====
===== 
Alternative world =====
Since the 1990s, the application of the steampunk
label has expanded beyond works set in recognisable
historical periods, to works set in fantasy
worlds that rely heavily on steam- or spring-powered
technology. One of the earliest short stories
relying on steam-powered flying machines is
"The Aerial Burglar" of 1844. An example from
juvenile fiction is The Edge Chronicles by
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.
Fantasy steampunk settings abound in tabletop
and computer role-playing games. Notable examples
include Skies of Arcadia, Rise of Nations:
Rise of Legends, and Arcanum: Of Steamworks
and Magick Obscura.One of the first steampunk
novels set in a Middle Earth-like world was
the Forest of Boland Light Railway by BB,
about gnomes who build a steam locomotive.
50 years later, Terry Pratchett wrote the
Discworld novel Raising Steam, about the ongoing
industrial revolution and railway mania in
Ankh-Morpork.
The gnomes and goblins in World of Warcraft
also have technological societies that could
be described as steampunk, as they are vastly
ahead of the technologies of men, but still
run on steam and mechanical power.
The Dwarves of the Elder Scrolls series, described
therein as a race of Elves called the Dwemer,
also use steam powered machinery, with gigantic
brass-like gears, throughout their underground
cities. However, magical means are used to
keep ancient devices in motion despite the
Dwemer's ancient disappearance.The 1998 game
Thief: The Dark Project, as well as the other
sequels including its 2014 reboot, feature
heavy steampunk-inspired architecture, setting,
and technology.
Amidst the historical and fantasy subgenres
of steampunk is a type that takes place in
a hypothetical future or a fantasy equivalent
of our future involving the domination of
steampunk-style technology and aesthetics.
Examples include Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc
Caro's The City of Lost Children (1995), Turn
A Gundam (1999–2000), Trigun, and Disney's
film Treasure Planet (2002). In 2011, musician
Thomas Dolby heralded his return to music
after a 20-year hiatus with an online steampunk
alternate fantasy world called the Floating
City, to promote his album A Map of the Floating
City.
===== American West =====
Another setting is "Western" steampunk, which
overlaps with both the Weird West and Science
fiction Western subgenres. One of the earliest
steampunk books set in America was The Steam
Man of the Prairies by Edward S. Ellis. Several
other categories have arisen, sharing similar
names, including dieselpunk, clockwork-punk,
and others. Most of these terms were coined
as supplements to the GURPS role playing game,
and are not used in other contexts.
===== Fantasy and horror =====
Kaja Foglio introduced the term "Gaslight
Romance", gaslamp fantasy, which John Clute
and John Grant define as "steampunk stories
... most commonly set in a romanticised, smoky,
19th-century London, as are Gaslight Romances.
But the latter category focuses nostalgically
on icons from the late years of that century
and the early years of the 20th century—on
Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Jack the Ripper,
Sherlock Holmes and even Tarzan—and can
normally be understood as combining supernatural
fiction and recursive fantasy, though some
gaslight romances can be read as fantasies
of history." Author/artist James Richardson-Brown
coined the term steamgoth to refer to steampunk
expressions of fantasy and horror with a "darker"
bent.
===== Post-apocalyptic =====
Mary Shelley's The Last Man, set near the
end of the 21st century after a plague had
brought down civilization, was probably the
ancestor of post-apocalyptic steampunk literature.
Post-apocalyptic steampunk is set in a world
where some cataclysm has precipitated the
fall of civilization and steam power is once
again ascendant, such as in Hayao Miyazaki's
post-apocalyptic anime Future Boy Conan (1978),
where a war fought with superweapons has devastated
the planet. Robert Brown's novel, The Wrath
of Fate (as well as much of Abney Park's music)
is set in A Victorianesque world where an
apocalypse was set into motion by a time-traveling
mishap. Cherie Priest's Boneshaker series
is set in a world where a zombie apocalypse
happened during the Civil War era. The Peshawar
Lancers by S.M. Stirling is set in a post-apocalyptic
future in which a meteor shower in 1878 caused
the collapse of Industrialized civilization.
The movie 9 (which might be better classified
as "stitchpunk" but was largely influenced
by steampunk) is also set in a post-apocalyptic
world after a self-aware war machine ran amok.
Steampunk Magazine even published a book called
A Steampunk's Guide to the Apocalypse, about
how steampunks could survive should such a
thing actually happen.
===== Victorian =====
In general, this category includes any recent
science fiction that takes place in a recognizable
historical period (sometimes an alternate
history version of an actual historical period)
in which the Industrial Revolution has already
begun, but electricity is not yet widespread,
"usually Britain of the early to mid-nineteenth
century or the fantasized Wild West-era United
States", with an emphasis on steam- or spring-propelled
gadgets. The most common historical steampunk
settings are the Victorian and Edwardian eras,
though some in this "Victorian steampunk"
category are set as early as the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution and as late as
the end of World War I.
Some examples of this type include the novel
The Difference Engine, the comic book series
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Disney
animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Scott
Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy, and the roleplaying
game Space: 1889. The anime film Steamboy
(2004) is another good example of Victorian
steampunk, taking place in an alternate 1866
where steam technology is far more advanced
than it ever was in real life. Some, such
as the comic series Girl Genius, have their
own unique times and places despite partaking
heavily of the flavor of historic settings.
Other comic series are set in a more familiar
London, as in the Victorian Undead, which
has Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson, and others
taking on zombies, Doctor Jekyll and Mister
Hyde, and Count Dracula, with advanced weapons
and devices.
Karel Zeman's film The Fabulous World of Jules
Verne (1958) is a very early example of cinematic
steampunk. Based on Jules Verne novels, Zeman's
film imagines a past that never was, based
on those novels. Other early examples of historical
steampunk in cinema include Hayao Miyazaki's
anime films such as Laputa: Castle in the
Sky (1986) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004),
which contain many archetypal anachronisms
characteristic of the steampunk genre. The
Steampunk Bible called Laputa: Castle in the
Sky "one of the first modern steampunk classics.""Historical"
steampunk usually leans more towards science
fiction than fantasy, but a number of historical
steampunk stories have incorporated magical
elements as well. For example, Morlock Night,
written by K. W. Jeter, revolves around an
attempt by the wizard Merlin to raise King
Arthur to save the Britain of 1892 from an
invasion of Morlocks from the future.Paul
Guinan's Boilerplate, a "biography" of a robot
in the late 19th century, began as a website
that garnered international press coverage
when people began believing that Photoshop
images of the robot with historic personages
were real. The site was adapted into the illustrated
hardbound book Boilerplate: History's Mechanical
Marvel, which was published by Abrams in October
2009. Because the story was not set in an
alternative history, and in fact contained
accurate information about the Victorian era,
some booksellers referred to the tome as "historical
steampunk".
===== Asian (silkpunk) =====
Fictional settings inspired by Asian rather
than Western history have been called "silkpunk".
The term appears to originate with the author
Ken Liu, who defined it as "a blend of science
fiction and fantasy [that] draws inspiration
from classical East Asian antiquity", with
a "technology vocabulary (...) based on organic
materials historically important to East Asia
(bamboo, paper, silk) and seafaring cultures
of the Pacific (coconut, feathers, coral)",
rather than the brass and leather associated
with steampunk. Other authors whose work has
been described as silkpunk are JY Yang and
Elizabeth Bear.
=== Music ===
Steampunk music is very broadly defined. Abney
Park’s lead singer Robert Brown defined
it as "mixing Victorian elements and modern
elements". There is a broad range of musical
influences that make up the Steampunk sound,
from industrial dance and world music to folk
rock, dark cabaret to straightforward punk,
Carnatic to industrial, hip-hop to opera (and
even industrial hip-hop opera), darkwave to
progressive rock, barbershop to big band.
Joshua Pfeiffer (of Vernian Process) is quoted
as saying, "As for Paul Roland, if anyone
deserves credit for spearheading Steampunk
music, it is him. He was one of the inspirations
I had in starting my project. He was writing
songs about the first attempt at manned flight,
and an Edwardian airship raid in the mid-80s
long before almost anyone else ..." Thomas
Dolby is also considered one of the early
pioneers of retro-futurist (i.e., Steampunk
and Dieselpunk) music. Amanda Palmer was once
quoted as saying, "Thomas Dolby is to Steampunk
what Iggy Pop was to Punk!"Steampunk has also
appeared in the work of musicians who do not
specifically identify as Steampunk. For example,
the music video of "Turn Me On", by David
Guetta and featuring Nicki Minaj, takes place
in a Steampunk universe where Guetta creates
human droids. Another music video is "The
Ballad of Mona Lisa", by Panic! at the Disco,
which has a distinct Victorian Steampunk theme.
A continuation of this theme has in fact been
used throughout the 2011 album Vices & Virtues,
in the music videos, album art, and tour set
and costumes. In addition, the album Clockwork
Angels (2012) and its supporting tour by progressive
rock band Rush contain lyrics, themes, and
imagery based around Steampunk. Similarly,
Abney Park headlined the first "Steamstock"
outdoor steampunk music festival in Richmond,
California, which also featured Thomas Dolby,
Frenchy and the Punk, Lee Presson and the
Nails, Vernian Process, and others.The music
video for the Lindsey Stirling song "Roundtable
Rival", has a Western Steampunk setting.
=== Television and films ===
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958) and
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962), both
directed by Karel Zeman have steampunk elements.
The 1965 television series The Wild Wild West,
as well as the 1999 film of the same name,
features many elements of advanced steam-powered
technology set in the Wild West time period
of the United States.
Two Years' Vacation (or The Stolen Airship)
(1967) directed by Karel Zeman
The BBC series Doctor Who also incorporates
steampunk elements. During season 14 of the
show (in 1976), the formerly futuristic looking
interior set was replaced with a Victorian-styled
wood-panel and brass affair. In the 1996 American
co-production, the TARDIS interior was re-designed
to resemble an almost Victorian library with
the central control console made up of an
eclectic array of anachronistic objects. Modified
and streamlined for the 2005 revival of the
series, the TARDIS console continued to incorporate
steampunk elements, including a Victorian
typewriter and gramophone. Several storylines
can be classed as steampunk, for example:
The Evil of the Daleks (1966), wherein Victorian
scientists invent a time travel device.Dinner
for Adele (1977), directed by Oldřich Lipský
The 1979 film Time After Time has Herbert
George "H.G." Wells following a surgeon named
John Leslie Stevenson into the future, as
John is suspected of being Jack the Ripper.
Both separately use Wells's time machine to
travel.
The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians (1981),
directed by Oldřich Lipský
The 1982 American TV series Q.E.D. is set
in Edwardian England, stars Sam Waterston
as Professor Quentin Everett Deverill (from
whose initials, by which he is primarily known,
the series title is derived, initials which
also stand for the Latin phrase quod erat
demonstrandum, which translates as "which
was to be demonstrated"). The Professor is
an inventor and scientific detective, in the
mold of Sherlock Holmes.
The plot of the Soviet film Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
centers on a desert planet, depleted of its
resources, where an impoverished dog-eat-dog
society uses steam-punk machines, the movements
and functions of which defy earthly logic.
In making his 1986 Japanese film Castle in
the Sky, Hayao Miyazaki was heavily influenced
by steampunk culture, the film featuring various
air ships and steam-powered contraptions as
well as a mysterious island that floats through
the sky, accomplished not through magic as
in most stories, but instead by harnessing
the physical properties of a rare crystal—analogous
to the lodestone used in the Laputa of Swift's
Gulliver's Travels—augmented by massive
propellers, as befitting the Victorian motif.The
first "Wallace & Gromit" animation "A Grand
Day Out" (1989) features a space rocket in
the steampunk style.The Adventures of Brisco
County, Jr., a 1993 Fox Network TV science
fiction-western set in the 1890s, features
elements of steampunk as represented by the
character Professor Wickwire, whose inventions
were described as "the coming thing".The short-lived
1995 TV show Legend, on UPN, set in 1876 Arizona,
features such classic inventions as a steam-driven
"quadrovelocipede" and night-vision goggles,
and stars John de Lancie as a thinly disguised
Nikola Tesla.Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's
1999 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
graphic novel series (and the subsequent 2003
film adaption) greatly popularised the steampunk
genre.Steamboy (2004) is a Japanese animated
action film directed and co-written by Katsuhiro
Otomo (Akira). It is a retro science-fiction
epic set in a Steampunk Victorian England.
It features steamboats, trains, airships and
inventors.
The 2007 Syfy miniseries Tin Man incorporates
a considerable number of steampunk-inspired
themes into a re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Despite leaning more towards gothic influences,
the "parallel reality" of Meanwhile City,
within the 2009 film Franklyn, contains many
steampunk themes, such as costumery, architecture,
minimal use of electricity (with a preference
for gaslight), and absence of modern technology
(such as there being no motorised vehicles
or advanced weaponry, and the manual management
of information with no use of computers).
The 2009–2014 Syfy television series Warehouse
13 features many steampunk-inspired objects
and artifacts, including computer designs
created by steampunk artisan Richard Nagy,
a.k.a. "Datamancer".The 2010 episode of the
TV series Castle entitled "Punked" (which
first aired on October 11, 2010) prominently
features the steampunk subculture and uses
Los Angeles-area steampunks (such as the League
of STEAM) as extras.The 2011 film The Three
Musketeers has many steampunk elements, including
gadgets and airships.
The 2012 Kickstarter-funded webseries, The
World of Steam, written, directed, and produced
by Matthew Yang King and featuring King as
Mr. Liang, the narrator. The series is still
in development for television. The pilot episode,
"The Clockwork Heart," features Gail and Scott
Fulsom of the League of STEAM.
The Legend of Korra, a 2012–2014 Nickelodeon
animated series, incorporates steampunk elements
in an industrialized world with East Asian
themes.
The Penny Dreadful (2014) television series
is a Gothic Victorian fantasy series with
steampunk props and costumes.
The 2015 GSN reality television game show
Steampunk'd features a competition to create
steampunk-inspired art and designs which are
judged by notable Steampunks Thomas Willeford,
Kato, and Matthew Yang King (as Matt King).Based
on the work of cartoonist Jacques Tardi, April
and the Extraordinary World (2015) is an animated
movie set in a steampunk Paris. It features
airships, trains, submarines, and various
other steam-powered contraptions.
Tim Burton's 2016 film Alice Through the Looking
Glass features steampunk costumes, props,
and vehicles.
=== Video games ===
A variety of styles of video games have used
steampunk settings.
The Chaos Engine (1993) is a run and gun video
game inspired by the Gibson/Sterling novel
The Difference Engine (1990), set in a Victorian
steampunk age. Developed by the Bitmap Brothers,
it was first released on the Amiga in 1993;
a sequel was released in 1996.The graphic
adventure puzzle video games Myst (1993),
Riven (1997), and Myst III: Exile (2001) (all
produced by Cyan Worlds) take place in an
alternate steampunk universe, where elaborate
infrastructures have been built to run on
steam power.
The 2001 CRPG called Arcanum: Of Steamworks
and Magick Obscura mixed fantasy tropes with
steampunk.
The SteamWorld series of games has the player
controlling steam-powered robots.
Both Thief: The Dark Project and its sequel,
Thief II are set in a steampunk metropolis.
Resonance of Fate (2010) is a role-playing
video game developed by tri-Ace and published
by Sega for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
It is set in a steampunk environment with
combat involving guns.
Guns of Icarus Online (2012) is multiplayer
game with steampunk thematic.
Dishonored (2012) and Dishonored 2 (2016)
are set within a fictional world with heavy
steampunk influences, wherein whale oil, as
opposed to coal, served as catalyst of their
industrial revolution.
BioShock Infinite (2013) is a FPS game set
in 1912, in a fictional city called Columbia,
which uses technology to float in the sky
and has many historical and religious scenes.
Code: Realize − Guardian of Rebirth (2014),
a Japanese otome game for the PS Vita is set
in a steampunk Victorian London, and features
a cast with several historical figures with
steampunk aesthetics.
Code Name S.T.E.A.M. (2015), a Japanese tactical
RPG game for the 3DS sets in a steampunk fantasy
version of London and where you are conscript
in the strike force S.T.E.A.M. (short for
Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace).
They Are Billions (2017), is a Steampunk strategy
game in a post-apocalyptic setting. Players
build a colony and attempt to ward off waves
of zombies.
Frostpunk (2018) is a city-building game set
in 1888, but where the Earth is in the midst
of a great ice age. Players must construct
a city around a large steampunk heat generator
with many steampunk aesthetics and mechanics,
such as a "Steam Core."
=== Toys ===
Mattel's Monster High dolls Rebecca Steam
and Hexiciah Steam.
The Pullip Dolls by Japanese manufacturer
Dal have a steampunk range.
== Culture and community ==
Because of the popularity of steampunk, there
is a growing movement of adults that want
to establish steampunk as a culture and lifestyle.
Some fans of the genre adopt a steampunk aesthetic
through fashion, home decor, music, and film.
While Steampunk is considered the amalgamation
of Victorian aesthetic principles with modern
sensibilities and technologies, it can be
more broadly categorised as neo-Victorianism,
described by scholar Marie-Luise Kohlke as
"the afterlife of the nineteenth century in
the cultural imaginary". The subculture has
its own magazine, blogs, and online shops.In
September 2012, a panel, chaired by steampunk
entertainer Veronique Chevalier and with panelists
including magician Pop Hadyn and members of
the steampunk performance group the League
of STEAM, was held at Stan Lee's Comikaze
Expo. The panel suggested that because steampunk
was inclusive of and incorporated ideas from
various other subcultures such as goth, neo-Victorian,
and cyberpunk, as well as a growing number
of fandoms, it was fast becoming a super-culture
rather than a mere subculture. Other steampunk
notables such as Professor Elemental have
expressed similar views about steampunk's
inclusive diversity.Some have proposed a steampunk
philosophy that incorporates punk-inspired
anti-establishment sentiments typically bolstered
by optimism about human potential.Steampunk
became a common descriptor for homemade objects
sold on the craft network Etsy between 2009
and 2011, though many of the objects and fashions
bear little resemblance to earlier established
descriptions of steampunk. Thus the craft
network may not strike observers as "sufficiently
steampunk" to warrant its use of the term.
Comedian April Winchell, author of the book
Regretsy: Where DIY meets WTF, cataloged some
of the most egregious and humorous examples
on her website "Regretsy". The blog was popular
among steampunks and even inspired a music
video that went viral in the community and
was acclaimed by steampunk "notables".
=== Social events ===
June 19, 2005 marked the grand opening of
the world's first steampunk club night, "Malediction
Society", in Los Angeles. The event ran for
nearly 12 years at The Monte Cristo nightclub,
interrupted by a single year residency at
Argyle Hollywood, until both the club night
and The Monte Cristo closed in April 2017.
Though the steampunk aesthetic eventually
gave way to a more generic goth and industrial
aesthetic, Malediction Society celebrated
its roots every year with "The Steampunk Ball".2006
saw the first "SalonCon", a neo-Victorian/steampunk
convention. It ran for three consecutive years
and featured artists, musicians (Voltaire
and Abney Park), authors (Catherynne M. Valente,
Ekaterina Sedia, and G. D. Falksen), salons
led by people prominent in their respective
fields, workshops and panels on steampunk—as
well as a seance, ballroom dance instruction,
and the Chrononauts' Parade. The event was
covered by MTV and The New York Times. Since
then, a number of popular steampunk conventions
have sprung up the world over, with names
like Steamcon (Seattle, WA), the Steampunk
World's Fair (Piscataway, NJ), Up in the Aether:
The Steampunk Convention (Dearborn, MI), Steampunk
NZ (Oamaru, New Zealand), Steampunk Unlimited
(Strasburg Railroad, Lancaster, PA). Each
year, on Mother's Day weekend, the city of
Waltham, MA, turns over its city center and
surrounding areas to host the Watch City Steampunk
Festival, a US outdoor steampunk festival.
In recent years, steampunk has also become
a regular feature at San Diego Comic-Con International,
with the Saturday of the four-day event being
generally known among steampunks as "Steampunk
Day", and culminating with a photo-shoot for
the local press. In 2010, this was recorded
in the Guinness Book of World Records as the
world's largest steampunk photo shoot. In
2013, Comic-Con announced four official 2013
T-shirts, one of them featuring the official
Rick Geary Comic-Con toucan mascot in steampunk
attire. The Saturday steampunk "after-party"
has also become a major event on the steampunk
social calendar: in 2010, the headliners included
The Slow Poisoner, Unextraordinary Gentlemen,
and Voltaire, with Veronique Chevalier as
Mistress of Ceremonies and special appearance
by the League of STEAM; in 2011, UXG returned
with Abney Park.Steampunk has also sprung
up recently at Renaissance Festivals and Renaissance
Faires, in the US. Some festivals have organised
events or a "Steampunk Day", while others
simply support an open environment for donning
steampunk attire. The Bristol Renaissance
Faire in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on the Wisconsin/Illinois
border, featured a Steampunk costume contest
during the 2012 season, the previous two seasons
having seen increasing participation in the
phenomenon.Steampunk also has a growing following
in the UK and Europe. The largest European
event is "Weekend at the Asylum", held at
The Lawn, Lincoln, every September since 2009.
Organised as a not-for-profit event by the
Victorian Steampunk Society, the Asylum is
a dedicated steampunk event which takes over
much of the historical quarter of Lincoln,
England, along with Lincoln Castle. In 2011,
there were over 1000 steampunks in attendance.
The event features the Empire Ball, Majors
Review, Bazaar Eclectica, and the international
Tea Duelling final. The Surrey Steampunk Convivial,
held in New Malden, southwestern London (not
far from where H. G. Wells used to live) started
as an annual event in 2012, and now takes
place thrice a year, and has spanned three
boroughs and five venues. Attendees have been
interviewed by BBC Radio 4 for Phil Jupitus
and filmed by the BBC World Service. The West
Yorkshire village of Haworth has held an annual
Steampunk weekend since 2013, on each occasion
as a charity event raising funds for Sue Ryder's
"Manorlands" hospice in Oxenhope.
== See also ==
Air pirate
Alternate history
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk derivatives
Dieselpunk
Retrofuturism
Retrotronics
Tik-Tok (Oz
