The Errant Æsthete

The “steampunk” movement is an “odd subculture” that “envisions a past populated with high-tech products clad in Victorian-era finery,” reports John Biggs in The New York Times (11/15/07). It’s also part of a trend toward do-it-yourself consumer electronics. Like the Aviator Keyboard, above creatd by Richard Nagy, a.k.a. Datamancer, who “builds and sells steampunk keyboards online.” Richard likes to buy a computer keyboard, strip it, and then re-build it as a work of art.

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The “steampunk” movement is an “odd subculture” that “envisions a past populated with high-tech products clad in Victorian-era finery,” reports John Biggs in The New York Times (11/15/07). In addition to a subgenre of books and comics, it is populated by consumer-electronics steampunks such as Richard R. Nagy, a.k.a. Datamancer, who “builds and sells steampunk keyboards online.” Richard likes to buy a computer keyboard, strip it, and then re-build it as a work of art. He “replaces the individual keys with keys from old typewriters and computing machinery. Finally, he replaces the sides of the keyboard with milled metal and gears”

In addition to a subgenre of books and comics, it is populated by consumer-electronics steampunks such as Richard R. Nagy, a.k.a. Datamancer, who “builds and sells steampunk keyboards online.” Richard likes to buy a computer keyboard, strip it, and then re-build it as a work of art. He “replaces the individual keys with keys from old typewriters and computing machinery. Finally, he replaces the sides of the keyboard with milled metal and gears” (The Aviator Keyboard, above).

Steampunks like Richard R. Nagy are actually part of a larger picture — that is, a trend toward do-it-yourself consumer electronics. It’s a trend made possible, in part, by the increasing accessibility of “computer-based prototyping.” For example, service called Ponoko “allows customers to upload designs for flat shapes that can then be snapped together like Ikea furniture. Making a prototype can be as simple as cutting shapes out of cardboard. Users then create a digital version and sent it to Ponoko, which cuts the pattern out in metal or wood with a laser.”

Limor Fried, who builds and sells her own electronics kits at Adafruit.com, extols the benefits of the approach to both consumers and the environment: “There is a glut of technologies, and most of them do not fit our needs very well,” she says. “They are also very closed and proprietary, which is basically a great recipe for ‘buy it and toss it’ … Open hardware brings with it the ability to customize and repair what you have and gives it a higher personal value and usability … Stuff with higher personal value and usability is less likely just to be thrown out as soon as you’re done with it, and is also profoundly more fun and fulfilling.” [reveries]

UPDATE 12/26/07: Wall Street Journal named “Peek into a Steampunk Workshop” as one of the best video’s of the year.