Category: Steampunk News

IBM Predicts Steampunk to Go Mainstream by 2014

Steampunk is about to bulldoze its way into the mainstream, according to Dr. Trevor Davis, a consumer reports expert at IBM. And he has data to back that up.

IBM has a system called the Social Sentiment Index, which collects and analyzes comments and mentions from across social media to discover and study trends. This system’s gaze has been turned towards Steampunk and they found what we’ve known all along, that Steampunk is growing and spreading and isn’t likely to stop any time soon.

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Six Steampunk KickStarters You Funded in November

More people turn to KickStarter each day to get their projects off the ground and Steampunk creators are no different. It’s been a good year for Steampunk on KickStarter, and in November alone you successfully funded six different projects.

1. Laser Lace Letters – 7 Tangible Steampunk Stories

A very unusual art project. The stories of seven people told in fragments, notes, and pieces left behind when each went to a London shop to have their cameo cut. Each set of clues to the story comes with a laser cut and hand woven lace cameo of the character in question. Together the seven stories show a world of assassins, airships, mad scientists, and adventurers as well as showing us how their lives interconnected before their disappearances. Seems pretty cool.

Funded: 105%

2. The World of Steam

Envisioned as a Twilight Zone for Steampunk, The World of Steam will be an ongoing series of short films in a Steampunk world. The hope is to have high quality stories shot with high production values and the idea really caught the imagination of the Internet and the funding just rolled in. I can’t wait to start watching the episodes.

Funded: 155%

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Steampunk is Terrorism?

Some of you may have already heard the story. If not, let me bring you up to speed. Last Thursday, Geoffrey McGann of Rancho Palos Verdes, California tried to take a flight from the Oakland airport. As with other passengers, he stood in line at security. When he got the front, he put his backpack on the belt and his watch in the little bin. And that’s where the trouble began.

McGann’s watch was not a simple Dakota Watch Company thing from a mall kiosk. Nor was it fancy Patek Philippe or a even a Timex or Seiko. No, McGann’s watch was his own customized creation and it did not look safe to the TSA folks. Fast forward a day and the Associated Press has a nice little article about McGann’s arrest. The article also mentions his boots as being “unusually large and stuffed with layers of insoles.”

So, why was McGann arrested?

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The World Sky Race

Very few things are more iconic to Steampunk than airships. Zeppelins, dirigibles, blimps, balloons, etc. are part and parcel to getting around in our neo-Victorian worlds. Unfortunately, in our own world, airships have fared poorly over the last 75 years. Sadly, if you see a blimp today, it probably just means there is a football game that day.

Don Hartsell, Texas resident and aircraft enthusiast, wants to change that by organizing the World Sky Race, an 18 leg around-the-world airship race. The race would kick off in London, go past over 100 UNESCO cultural sites, and be visible to over 140 million people. For comparison, only about 5 million people were able to witness the London Olympic games first hand.

Is this all just a pipe dream? I certainly hope not. Hartsell believes there are over 30 privately owned airships in the world and hopes to get at least 5 of them to join the inaugural race in 2014. The $50 million cost of the race would be covered by sponsorships and donations.

Let’s cross our fingers and hope it happens and passed our way when it does.

It’s Steampunk Week at Tor.com

This week is Steampunk Week on Tor.com, this year led by the esteemed Ay-Leen the Peacemaker, creator of Beyond Victoriana, a must read site for steampunk outside the UK. Steampunk Week will feature tons of articles from members of the steampunk community, online and off, covering everything from fiction and fashion to machinery and music. You can keep an eye on everything going on over there on their Steampunk Week index page. You might even see an article by me later this week.

[N.B. This should have gone up a couple of days ago, but it's been a crazy busy week. Mea Culpa.]