a lesson on steampunk

so, as you may or may not have noticed by now, we have bit of an eccentricity regarding our wedding. a certain quirk or two to be entwined into our nuptials. a drop of the obscure soaked into our reception. we're calling it steampunk.

what is steampunk, you ask? well, i could just show you, a la my gripe about the dress:

(source)

but do you really get it? perhaps not. so, in an effort to educate you, dear reader, let me explain.

just today, casey and i received an email (thanks shannon!) of a cool article detailing the aesthetic appeal of steam power. the author, stefany anne golberg, writes:

The aesthetic movement Steampunk wants to bring the wonder back into
our relationship with machines. Its tack is to fully embrace (and affect) an
Edwardian orientation to the world.

i, of course, would argue that the style is more victorian than edwardian, with a touch of western-ness thrown in there, but i digress.

Steampunk tries to capture that Edwardian moment when steam power
still ruled and the romance of technology lay precisely in the line it toed
between destruction and possibility. Equally fascinated by flying machines
and trench warfare, Steampunk is both optimistic and nihilistic...

It is the 21st-century answer to 20th-century loss via a nostalgic 19th-century
sensibility. Is this a reactionary nostalgia? I don't think so. By creating works for
the world of tomorrow of yesterday—anachronistic and utterly contemporary
and usually useless — Steampunk sidesteps the worry about whether technologies
will become obsolete, and takes joy in the plain fact that they will. We can
choose to feel alienated by this, or enjoy being engulfed in the exciting mystery
of steam. Exploring the relationship between obsolescence and wonder is what
makes Steampunk works tick.

so there you have it. to read the whole article in it's fabulosity, please go ahead. and while that's great and all from a completely scholastic point of view, you have to admit it's all in the fashion for us here on the ground.


now don't worry, there won't be people dressed like this showing up to the wedding (though i'm watching you, blake). think of it more as inspired by steampunk. a steampunk-ness or steampunkesque. whatever you call it, rest assured that it will be awesome.