“What is steampunk”, that innocuous yet slightly infuriating question is posed to me on a daily basis, to the point where I am tempted to stop answering and just whip out a little informative pamphlet instead. Almost as often, particularly in the professional sphere, I am asked why I haven’t fled Michigan, and particularly Metro Detroit, for some utopian, opportunity laden, far off city, as if I am doing myself some incredible disservice by remaining here. Why do I torture myself by living in this resource stripped wasteland? And the more I have answered both redundant and uncomfortable questions, the more the answer has fused and it has become clear to me how intimately related the two issues are.
If you are still asking the first one, please help yourself to any of the fine resources online for some images and definitions, because here I will go instead into what steampunk means to me personally. Steampunk is the ability to see form, function, and beauty, in things that would otherwise be regarded as ‘used’, ‘discarded’, or ‘worthless’. The process of salvage itself is very closely ingrained with my professional mission as a sustainable designer, and while philosophers have delved very deeply into subjects of creativity, problem solving, and the design process, not a lot of light has been shed onto the unique imaginative impulse that drives someone to re-use a material, or retrofit an already designed object for some completely other purpose.
In a lot of ways, this is a beautiful allusion to Detroit, and the Depression era paradigm of fixing broken things when new ones can’t be purchased, and as this is done enough, the handicrafts developed in this way take on more value as folk art and something cherished. Necessity is the mother of invention, and that is the very essence of the steampunk aesthetic; it is fulfilling a deeply rooted human need to reconcile the past and future, and catalog and appreciate all aspects of life in a chronologically meaningful, mentally stimulating, and artistically pleasing way.
Now many people are forming opinions on what is wrong with Detroit, and what ought to be done with it, but I offer a somewhat novel suggestion; maybe it is just as it should be. Maybe nothing is ever really broken, just in different stages of use over the course of their lifetime. In engineering, we talk about life cycle analysis, cradle to cradle, and the full impact of an object from the time of it’s manufacture to it’s end of use phase. A few architects have tackled the issue of the life cycle of a city, and treated it like a living biome, the most notable of these being Jacques Fresco, whose work I highly recommend to all steampunk and design enthusiasts. He and other champions of modern design took it’s philosophy to heart, and insisted that good design will be the salvation of mankind; but I would make one adjustment to this statement: Re-Design will be the salvation of mankind.
The waste products accumulated in the wake of the industrial age are a real and pressing threat to our continued life on earth, and while many avant garde designers have crisp and elegant solutions utilizing the latest and greatest polymers and alloys, ultimately the victory over our own excesses will be won by the scavengers who neutralize waste while fulfilling human demands, providing creative and meaningful labor opportunities, and replacing repetitive grind tasks with machines.
That being said, I am proud to introduce the collective group of artists, characters, engineers, business tycoons, and dreamers that make up the steampunk community of Metro Detroit as the Rivet Fleet of the United Armada. I had the unique blessing in school of working with a very inspirational sculpture teacher, who emphasized the concept of ‘joinery’, and how things are put together. Once you are made aware of something like that, and instructed to watch for it, it’s amazing how relevant it becomes in life and how it stands out. Thus the method that to me most embodies Detroit work ethic and community is riveting. The seams are visible, the joint is obvious to the point of being decorative and we wear our bonds proudly. Our region is home to the Motor City, the Arsenal of Democracy, and the Birthplace of the Assembly Line. We were the cornerstone of the Industrial Revolution in America, and we continue to carry on that tradition via steampunk.
It’s philosophies and principles are swiftly becoming an economic driving force in their own right, and encourage individual potential, entrepreneurship, and community involvement. In this spirit, I pledge to continue hosting steampunk tradeshows throughout the year, and fashion this quarterly publication to provide opportunities for the fleet. I want to thank everyone who has supported and inspired me in doing this, they say the future belongs to the brave and you are the most courageous lot I’ve ever met!
If you are still asking the first one, please help yourself to any of the fine resources online for some images and definitions, because here I will go instead into what steampunk means to me personally. Steampunk is the ability to see form, function, and beauty, in things that would otherwise be regarded as ‘used’, ‘discarded’, or ‘worthless’. The process of salvage itself is very closely ingrained with my professional mission as a sustainable designer, and while philosophers have delved very deeply into subjects of creativity, problem solving, and the design process, not a lot of light has been shed onto the unique imaginative impulse that drives someone to re-use a material, or retrofit an already designed object for some completely other purpose.
In a lot of ways, this is a beautiful allusion to Detroit, and the Depression era paradigm of fixing broken things when new ones can’t be purchased, and as this is done enough, the handicrafts developed in this way take on more value as folk art and something cherished. Necessity is the mother of invention, and that is the very essence of the steampunk aesthetic; it is fulfilling a deeply rooted human need to reconcile the past and future, and catalog and appreciate all aspects of life in a chronologically meaningful, mentally stimulating, and artistically pleasing way.
Now many people are forming opinions on what is wrong with Detroit, and what ought to be done with it, but I offer a somewhat novel suggestion; maybe it is just as it should be. Maybe nothing is ever really broken, just in different stages of use over the course of their lifetime. In engineering, we talk about life cycle analysis, cradle to cradle, and the full impact of an object from the time of it’s manufacture to it’s end of use phase. A few architects have tackled the issue of the life cycle of a city, and treated it like a living biome, the most notable of these being Jacques Fresco, whose work I highly recommend to all steampunk and design enthusiasts. He and other champions of modern design took it’s philosophy to heart, and insisted that good design will be the salvation of mankind; but I would make one adjustment to this statement: Re-Design will be the salvation of mankind.
The waste products accumulated in the wake of the industrial age are a real and pressing threat to our continued life on earth, and while many avant garde designers have crisp and elegant solutions utilizing the latest and greatest polymers and alloys, ultimately the victory over our own excesses will be won by the scavengers who neutralize waste while fulfilling human demands, providing creative and meaningful labor opportunities, and replacing repetitive grind tasks with machines.
That being said, I am proud to introduce the collective group of artists, characters, engineers, business tycoons, and dreamers that make up the steampunk community of Metro Detroit as the Rivet Fleet of the United Armada. I had the unique blessing in school of working with a very inspirational sculpture teacher, who emphasized the concept of ‘joinery’, and how things are put together. Once you are made aware of something like that, and instructed to watch for it, it’s amazing how relevant it becomes in life and how it stands out. Thus the method that to me most embodies Detroit work ethic and community is riveting. The seams are visible, the joint is obvious to the point of being decorative and we wear our bonds proudly. Our region is home to the Motor City, the Arsenal of Democracy, and the Birthplace of the Assembly Line. We were the cornerstone of the Industrial Revolution in America, and we continue to carry on that tradition via steampunk.
It’s philosophies and principles are swiftly becoming an economic driving force in their own right, and encourage individual potential, entrepreneurship, and community involvement. In this spirit, I pledge to continue hosting steampunk tradeshows throughout the year, and fashion this quarterly publication to provide opportunities for the fleet. I want to thank everyone who has supported and inspired me in doing this, they say the future belongs to the brave and you are the most courageous lot I’ve ever met!