Steampunk: Making the Past Cyborg

A few weeks ago I fully discovered an excellent sub-culture called Steam-punk, which can loosely be described as the depiction of stories or even just settings with futuristic elements using Victorian technology.  There are two manifestations of this sub culture:  one is tacking advanced technology onto a Victorian setting, for example, drawing a flying locomotive into a Victorian Train Station, or writing a story where one of the characters is a robot that is powered by clockwork and steam. 

http://geekadelphia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/steam_punk_abe_lincoln.jpg

The other manifestation of the culture is making current or futuristic culture Victorian -- for example some artisans post step by step instructions for decorating computers to give them a steam-punk flair, or take pride in 'tin etching', and some fan artists draw pictures of Star Wars with Victorian technology.

http://www.slipperybrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/ain30-desktop-main_54.jpg

I believe this is an example of historicizing the cyborg.  By creating modernized technology out of something archaic, aren't we trying to render history into something undichotomized?  The differences between the Victorian era and today are vast, and Steampunk almost seems to be a way to help us familiarize ourselves with the future by associating it with the nostalgic past.  Other dichotomies are vanquished in this genre/sub-culture.  Many images depict women in shortened dresses or breeches, working alongside men with wrenches in steam powered dirigibles.  Perhaps this implies that technology has the ability to erase established gender boundaries the way it does today, when look at the world through the internet.

http://steampunk-beauties.tumblr.com/page/

The most popular fan accessory hands down seems to be the steam-punk goggles.  These are usually modeled as a cross between aviator goggles with jeweler's lens attached; the better to see the tiny clockwork gears that power the intricately designed Victorian era AI.  Now we look through computer screens to construct our programs, but perhaps with steam punk, Victorian era technology, goggles signify the same sort of power; the ability to see through the machine into the possibilities that it creates.  

http://amatoc.com/images/articles/steampunk/steampunk_goggles.jpg

Boom Boom Pow: The Digital Afterlife.

I'm more a rock n' roll kind of gal, but every now and then I feel like doing my nerdy little head nod to something more techno.  So I remembered a song that went boom boom something, and looked it up.... and wham, came face to face with the cyborg.

Okay, so the lyrics "boom boom pow" aren't exactly deeply thought provoking, but the concept and the visuals most definitely are. The song itself is about music going digital... the opening scene of the music video is a listener selecting the song from a 'list' on a computer.  The singers constantly switch places with cyber singers and dancers, and in one scene Fergie has "monster hands" which to me signify the "monstrous" implications those unfamiliar with the cyborg may assume.  Will.i.am and Fergie actually spell out the concept of the cyborg in the "making of" video:

The concept of the singers and music being transported into the digital realm of the computer implies the formation of the cyborg... both the artists and the music become part of the technnology used to play the song.  In the "making of" interview clip above, there are several excellent statements made by the singers that signify that they have considered the implications.  Fergie speaks of the computer as a "digital afterlife"and describes how the album's title, E-N-D (Energy-Never-Dies) implies that once one is on the internet, one has created an identity that cannot be destroyed.  Will.i.am discusses how when music is digitized, there is no longer any seperation between the art and the music.


I find Fergie's concept of the "digital afterlife" interesting, since it is true that personalities created on the web will never die as long as there are servers to store them on.