Image Courtesy of Mr. XPK
Tinkering and DIY. Form as important as function. Equality and acceptance.
These are common themes throughout steampunk, and they not only say what we want our alternate 1800s to be like, but also what we want our future to be like.
Steampunk as a means to inform our future makes our lives better by letting us build our wish list of what that future holds, and gives us the playground to try out all of those ideas.
Steampunk may say that common courtesy should be the baseline behavior. It may say that our technology should be more accessible than electronics which can only be replaced and not repaired. It may say that quality if far preferable over quantity. It may say that everyone is invited and no one is excluded. It may say there are no glass ceilings and no limitations on what a person could do.
In the documentary, Vintage Tomorrows, it’s commented that steampunk makes a statement – quite a few, actually – and the initial dinner panel, which included yours truly, essentially asked “If steampunk is about building a better past, what kind of future is built from that?”
We can bring all of our steampunk goodness from the fictional realms and social gatherings into our current and future life. We can make today be about ensuring equality so that it is part of tomorrow’s structure. We can add elegance and fashion to how we dress today so that tomorrow it’s custom and tradition instead of an exception. We can be a constant example of politeness and civility today so that such behavior is the norm tomorrow.
Everyday we have the chance to build that future we want, one step, one action, one expression at a time. Out future is always rushing toward us, and steampunk gives us a chance to shape it in ways which make our lives better.
How are you building your future? What steampunk elements are being used as the foundation for it?
Follow along each day as new entries are added to the Official Link List and join the discussions on the Facebook event page.
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