Steampunk

First off, I was shown the brief for our first assignment and our basic objective in a nut shell is to create a interesting and visually catchy poster for a A-Level science courses across the country. The brief also states that it would like you to follow the design styles or show similarities/influences from artists such as Steampunk, Victoriana, and Popart.

Coming from the A-Level iMedia course last year I thought I would be equipped for this degree course however I can now see that some basic knowledge of the founders of styles that we see and use today just aren't taught, so I'm going to some research!

Let's start off with Steampunk, now the first thing I see when I google 'Steampunk' is:

"Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century."
-Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

This small paragraph has perfectly coined what I see Steampunks looks like:

 These are some images that I took from google images when I searched 'Steampunk'. When first looking at the photo it looks very dark, dirty and old fashioned, however when you continue to look the outfits on the people are clean, the picture is surprisingly well lit and you can see that its a recent photograph from the quality. This is all the style of steampunk and I'm starting to understand it now. In the background of the picture to the left is a huge steam engine, and with the man and woman stood in front of it gives me the impression that they are operating it. However it is just another illusion everything is a prop and staged but the way in which it is done is very deceiving.

-Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kyle-cassidy-steampunk.jpg

In this second photo that was the first search result when searching steampunk seems to be a bit more clearly representing that style. The image shows a very Victorian pale man who is dressed smartly and holding a cane, this immediately gives the impression of a upper class member of the public, and completely mis-fitting is a mechanical golden prosthetic arm that is held on with a harness, this is so different from the rest of the photo it really catches you attention, and could be a big factor as to why Steampunk is so well known due to the fact that it is just so hard to miss. The photographer who I found out through research was David Lynch has very cleverly made the man pose like a Victorian would if they were getting their photo taken to furthermore increase the difference between the two areas of the photo and also further confuse the viewer, with all of this set against a pale white background it makes everything stand out that little bit more.


-Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Steampunk-falksen.jpg


Aside from just analysing some images that were directly representing the style of 'steampunk' I wanted to find out a bit more about the origin of the term, and style to help me understand it further. So I continued to read on Wikipedia and it seems that the term 'Steampunk' was originally coined by an author named K. W. Jeter who was looking for a general term for a novelists work (Tim Powers) who often wrote about Victorian fantasies.

All of this information to me seems very dated however looking at the dates this style only really came around in 1980, maybe its just the effect of all these Victorian/Robot images?!

Anyway, thanks for reading and next i'll be looking at Victoriana to try and get some history behind that.