Steampunk Redesigns the Future

Zenzibar has added another category to its Alternative Culture Directory. Steampunk is an artistic and technological exploration of what the 21st century would look like from a late 19th century perspective. If Jules Verne had described a personal computer in his science fiction writings in the late 1800's, it would look like what the steampunks are creating now. Steampunk encompasses a range of creations from fabrication of fantasy contraptions based on steam-powered Victorian-era tecnology and style to modifying the appearance of 21st century appliances like computers and cars to reflect their vision of a future aesthetic that never happened. The steampunks go beyond merely reading and thinking about what the future would have been like if H.G. Wells designed it. They are building it themselves in their workshops and garages and displaying their works at such places as the Maker Faires and Burning Man.