STEAMPUNK - An all new old design
movement
Why Steampunk?
Why Steampunk?
Well, like all design movements it is distinctive and has a number of unique characteristics.
It can really be considered to be a useful antidote and alternative to intensive CADCAM and machine made products. Developing useful functional products that have both an historic and iconic flavour is easy. An as well as having an ever so slightly Gothic meets Art Deco rebellion. Essentially SP is product design with a twist. Curves, connections and detail can be prolific or sparing.
The most likely to use materials includes copper, pewter, wood as well as steel sheet, wire and tube and leather-look PVC cloths. These offer a substantial range of working processes that are otherwise side stepped in a present day homage to CNC cut parts and components.
With the potential for finishes and surface decoration that lends warmth and leans to detail, Steampunk also has a �monochrome� aspect making sketching, shading initial ideas easy to develop.
Strong aspects of SP include that of keeping and of value and long term ownership rather than something transient . It is also a point where Art and Design and Design & technology can comfortably meet
Find out more
You can find out much more by visiting the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford. They are hosting a Steampunk exhibition until 21st February 2010 and also running a design competition.
You can see more examples of Steampunk design on the DTEP website and the competition leaflet is on this disc.
More
Machine aesthetic approaches to design form a large part of the products and responses. From the many people introduced to Steampunk it is rather like marmite; a case of love it or hate it. Its appeal is visceral but sometimes quirky at times. Many opportunities lie in re-using and recycling materials. Art, fashion and craftwork are cornerstones of Steampunk�s aesthetic expression and give a clue to D&T�s long term evolution in working with other curriculum areas.
The movement is mainly American input so far from artists and designers, with a smattering of European offerings too. We think it should be about real solutions to real problems rather than just models and artist representation. To that end robotics, clocks, stirling engines and electronic products are key functional products already being developed.
Look out for more on the DTEP website including a CPD session and teach-in for 2010 Steampunk, a literary genre, now being applied to all aspects of art and design, can be seen in jewelry, lamps, computers, art, cars, clothes and everyday objects. The mechanistic workings of watches, appliances, sculptural devices and contraptions, and even books are being paired with the reticulated aesthetic of the Victorian Era. An ornate classicism in the form of overlay is being placed over sleek modern component designs whose dullness would otherwise dovetail with Robert Venturi�s dictum, "Less is not more. Less is a bore". Instead of curlicues and scroll work to conceal the inner workings of things, Steampunk delivers the opposite effect. Everything is revealed in this movementin short, it is a full-blown design exfoliation. And why now? Has New Modernism, so impersonal and downright sterile in it�s lack of detail, run it�s course? Perhaps the answer lies in a restlessness and desire for a messy vitality that allows the imagination to soar. To explore re-imagined borrowings from the world of sci-fi and industry with no codified design methodology makes Steampunk, if nothing else, just plain fun.
 
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