Sux2BeMe

My rant about steampunk... To me, steampunk is what the future would look like if the future had happened at the height of the Victorian era. This was a very special time. In today's mass-production world, someone who makes doors, or builds fences isn't really considered an artist, they're considered a laborer, builder, construction worker (depends on where you live). In the Victorian era however, they guy who laid the cobblestones on the street could be considered a artist by today's standards. Nowhere is this really more apparent than in the engineering of the day. They had to be innovative because they had no access to many of the things we take for granted. Steady light, for example. They had no pencil sharpeners, steady and even light sources hadn't been developed, and the only computers they used involved beads. But they poured themselves into their work, designing modern conveniences using the only fuel sources available to them. Of course, it should be said that by nature, steampunk could just as easily have been called "coal-punk." To get steam, you need to boil water, and that heat needs to come from somewhere. So it wasn't exactly clean power...but the machinery they made makes any modern combustion engine look dull by comparison. What I will say about the artwork, that has lately become a media trend, is there are quite a few people who don't seem to understand what makes something steampunk. YOU DO NOT SIMPLY PUT SOME GEARS ON IT. Gears have an elegant design to them. They're attractive for the same reason they're functional. It's because they're regular, precise, and symmetrical. They make very appropriate decorations to things. Using them however, does not magically make it steampunk. One of the greatest writers once wrote, "I have found that all beautiful things come from someone making something useful." His name was Oscar Wilde and he was as intelligent as he was creative. He also lived during the era and had a very good point, one with which I happen to agree. The innate beauty of steampunk doesn't come from its ornamentation. The real and genuine beauty comes from its functionality. A gear hanging in space that doesn't appear to drive anything, or even connect with any other gears, is just taking up space. It's blocking the rest of the picture. On jewelry, I can accept it. On something that looks like it would function every bit as well without the gear's presence, that gear is useless. It's purpose has been removed, and unless you're a Dadaist, it's not working. That said, the same goes for springs, valves, pipes, tubes, gauges, rivets, screens, vents, levers, buttons, bulbs, or any other damn thing people just add to force the theme on what would otherwise be perfectly fine without it. Steampunk artwork requires thought and planning. It's a meeting of art and engineering, form and function, yin and yang. Done properly, it's pretty cool. Done wrong, it's just putting syrup on a wristwatch and calling it a pancake.