IBM brains ponder universe, say kids will go nuts for STEAMPUNK
Big Blue wants to show off its ability to chew on Facebook pages and Twitter feeds to predict the next big mainstream fashion: steampunk. So now you know what your kids will want for presents this year: don't be surprised if they want to suddenly build dirigibles instead of rockets and ask for a steam-powered, gear-driven …
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Re: I hate Steampunk.
It's an R2D2 that looks like the copper from a Czech brewery... okay.
Many Czech breweries were built by Skoda, a firm who enjoyed a good reputation for quality before the communists days made them a joke. Lots of polished brass and copper.
Re: I hate Steampunk.
"It's an R2D2 that looks like the copper from a Czech brewery... okay."
With the exception that no brewing vessels that I know of literally (in the correct sense of the word) move around under their own steam, under radio control.
Re: I hate Steampunk.
There are plenty of functional items made in the same style, it's about a bit more than the odd article of clothing. Try this for example: http://steampunkworkshop.com/victorian-all-one-pc
Re: I hate Steampunk.
>With the exception that no brewing vessels that I know of literally (in the correct sense of the word) move around under their own steam, under radio control.
I think you've just found your next project! : D
Actually, if you visit The Beer Engine pub and micro-micro brewery between Exeter and Crediton, you'll see a lot of comic paintings on the walls that play on 'beer engine' (the name for the hand pump assemblies) and 'steam engine', featuring breweries on rails...
Please lose the sepia
There were lots of bright and cheery colours in the Victorian age, we're just left with sepia prints because that is what the majority of surviving media consists of. Go the a museum and look at the fabrics. And all that lovely mahogany.
Re: Please lose the sepia
Its well worth learning about the period, the Arts and Crafts movement and the excitement of new technology. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is probably as good a place to start as any.
Or, Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, hilarious... he visits the British Library to self-diagnose in the way hypochondriacs now consult the internet!
I say..
While people are busy arguing about what is or isn't steampunk, and deciding how shameful it is, have some delightful chaphop to lighten the mood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA
(I believe it's fitting, and the advice is sound)
Re: I say..
I've had the opportunity to meet him on a couple of occasions, and a frightfully decent chap he is too.
Punk?
IAW rule 34, I find that steamspunk is far more satisfying. Ladies dressed up in posh frocks, and then... less so.
You heard it here first.
The next big fashion is going to be Printpunk. 3D-printed accessories and artefacts.
Lots of people will have individual designs for a short period until a sub-set of patterns become dominant and are mass produced for people to choose their "individuality" on an industrial scale. Bit like the Arts & Crafts movement all over again and somewhere a 21st century William Morris will get rich. But who will it be?
Re: You heard it here first.
>somewhere a 21st century William Morris will get rich. But who will it be?
Depends on the perception of value, and its motivation... people will spend £10,000 on a Damien Hirst print - a print, not an 'original' of which there are tens of thousands. Back in the saner realms, there are well-off people who will happily spend money on items crafted in the local area, such as furniture, or a bespoke kitchen. Being a patron to the arts (and the artisans) is a way of softening your image - see the Medici banking family who commissioned great artworks.
3D printing? I've assisted established artists in making artworks with a CNC machine and a 3D printer (despite there existing quicker and easier ways of achieving the same ends), but the client is looking for exclusivity, thought and finish.
This might give you an idea of what can sell:
https://www.othercriteria.com/browse/all/unique_items/
(glass replicas of plastic bottle bongs, as found in hedgerow near you, selling for £2,300... I have no idea)
Re: You heard it here first.
http://web.media.mit.edu/~neri/site/projects/projects.html
Neri Oxman is probably a good one to start with.
"Imagine modern tech but powered by hot air."
Uh ... Do I really have to point out the obvious?
Enjoy your iFads, sheeple ;-)
Is it me?
"Imagine modern tech but powered by hot air."
Yes, seen a lot of that in my time, with Oracle probaly at the front of the queue - step forward Mr Ellison and recieve your brass and gunmetal self-adjusting tiepin.
Bah!
Well if you are going to split hairs, your iPhone case appears to be "Clockpunk".
And if one is going to celebrate Steampunk Aesthetic one would be barking mad to ignore the work of Rowland Emett. His Lunar Cycle, demonstrated by Patrick Moore on the occasion of the first moon landing, was the very essence of the movement, and his wondrous Aqua Horological Tintinnabulator can still be seen , I understand, in Nottingham's Victoria Centre.
No, he didn't call what he did Steampunk, but it is so obviously in the genre he deserves celebrating as one of its stars.
Re: Bah!
"Well if you are going to split hairs, your iPhone case appears to be 'Clockpunk'."
Well, there you go - a hipster version of Steampunk for a hipster phone.
Erm.... why?
So, you have a massive analytics capability, shedloads of cash (squeezed from poor mainframe owners), and instead of aiming it at something useful, like gene sequencing, or solving complex molecular structures for medicines, or just economic predictions to help the Germans bail out the PIIGS, instead they have a stab at predicting fashion? And miss. The first thing you learn after five minutes in any "social media" is that it has no reflection on the real World whatsoever. What a waste of time and money, TBH.
I hope they're right
Steampunk fashion would be a massive improvement over what passes for fashion right now. Maybe it's just me, but there's a certain classiness to steampunk that really appeals to me. That's probably just a reflection of the fact that people in the Victorian era wanted to look good while a lot of today's trendsetters just want to be the center of attention.
This could explain why a BOF like me is always bemused by the fuss about the latest high street phenomenon - it turns out that fashion trends are 15 years out of date !
Referencing itself...
"Imagine modern tech but powered by hot air."
Doesn't that pretty much sum up El Reg?
Cog-hopper
Can we have a scandal about all these sub-genres of alternative fashion and call it "Punkgate"? That way we can coin the most meaningless word of all time.
Duscussions?
In 160 characters per reply? And in whatever Farcebook allows?
That's clearly a definition of "discussion" which I wasn't aware of previously.
Bas-Lag
Chine Mieville must be mentioned when considering steampunk.
Perdido Street Station
The Scar
Iron Council
All excellent steampunk (amongst other things) novels.
Steampunk:
It's what happens when goths discover brown.
Why is it...?
That somebody has to knock things that other people like for the sake of it? I'm not a massive Steampunk aficionado, although I did enjoy The Difference Engine, Chaos Engine and even newer stuff like Dishonoured (http://www.dishonored.com/).
However I'd never consider talking crap about something I've no interest in because that's just rude. I can't really listen to Country and Western without smirking, I find it impossible to take it serious but I know people who love it and why the heck not? Are they going to be persuaded by me slagging it off? No. Am I going to annoy them for no real reason? Yes.
So why the 'hate' people? I think it's far better to say "I don't get why you think this is cool but that's fine because it's your thing not mine."
The Victorian's, steam-punk or not, knew a few things about manners and there are a few here that could stand to learn that from them at the very least.
@AC 14:38
They are daft as a brush, but for a steampunkish romp I am absolutely loving Chris Wooding's trilogy: The Tales of the Ketty Jay. Well worth a read.
Check out the steampunk band: Steam Powered Giraffe on youtube, some pretty good stuff.
But I doubt Steampunk will be mainstream... anymore than anime.
Imagine modern tech but powered by hot air....
No need to imagine it. It's real and it's known as twitter and facebook.
hmmmm...
"IBM says that the amount of yammering and bickering about steampunk has increased by a factor of eleven in the past three years"
Given the growth of twitter, facebok, social media and the general cloud of tw@ts that inhabits them, could this statement not be true about almost anything at all... such as "the amount of bickering and yammering about creationism has increased eleven fold over the last three years"... doesn't mean I'm going to buy an iPhone case with a picture of Adam, Eve and a "friendly" dinosaur on it anytime soon.
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