Art and design Many of the visualisations of steampunk have their origins with, among others,
Walt Disney's film
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), including the design of the story's submarine the
Nautilus, its interiors, and the crew's underwater gear. Aspects of steampunk design emphasise a balance between
form and function. In this, it is like the
Arts and Crafts Movement. But
John Ruskin,
William Morris, and the other reformers in the late nineteenth century rejected machines and industrial production. In contrast, steampunk enthusiasts present a "non-
luddite critique of technology". In Dutch amusement park
De Efteling, there is a dive coaster themed to a steampunk Victorian haunted goldmine called
Baron 1898. Various modern utilitarian objects have been modified by enthusiasts into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style. Examples include
computer keyboards and
electric guitars. The goal of such redesigns is to employ appropriate materials (such as polished brass, iron, wood, and leather) with design elements and craftsmanship consistent with the Victorian era, rejecting the aesthetic of
industrial design. The artist group
Kinetic Steam Works brought a working steam engine to the
Burning Man festival in 2006 and 2007. The group's founding member, Sean Orlando, created a Steampunk Tree House (in association with a group of people who would later form the
Five Ton Crane Arts Group) that has been displayed at a number of festivals. The Steampunk Tree House is now permanently installed at the
Dogfish Head Brewery in
Milton, Delaware.
The Neverwas Haul is a three-story, self-propelled mobile art vehicle built to resemble a Victorian house on wheels. Designed by Shannon O'Hare, it was built by volunteers in 2006 and presented at the Burning Man festival from 2006 through 2015. When fully built, the Haul propelled itself at a top speed of 5 miles per hour and required a crew of ten people to operate safely. Currently, the Neverwas Haul makes her home at Obtainium Works, an "
art car factory" in
Vallejo, CA owned by O'Hare and home to several other self-styled "contraptionists". In May–June 2008, multimedia artist and sculptor
Paul St George exhibited outdoor interactive video installations linking London and
Brooklyn, New York, in a Victorian era-styled
telectroscope. Utilizing this device, New York promoter Evelyn Kriete organised a transatlantic wave between steampunk enthusiasts from both cities, prior to
White Mischief's Around the World in 80 Days steampunk-themed event. , Canberra, Australia (September 24, 2009) In 2009, for
Questacon, artist Tim Wetherell created a large wall piece that represented the concept of the
clockwork universe. This steel artwork contains moving gears, a working clock, and a movie of the moon's terminator in action. The 3D moon movie was created by Antony Williams. Steampunk became a common descriptor for homemade objects sold on the craft network
Etsy between 2009 and 2011, though many of the objects and fashions bear little resemblance to earlier established descriptions of steampunk. Thus the craft network may not strike observers as "sufficiently steampunk" to warrant its use of the term. Comedian
April Winchell, author of the book
Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF, cataloged some of the most egregious and humorous examples on her website "Regretsy". The blog was popular among steampunks and even inspired a music video that went viral in the community and was acclaimed by steampunk "notables". From October 2009 through February 2010, the
Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, hosted the first major exhibition of steampunk art objects, curated and developed by New York artist and designer Art Donovan, who also exhibited his own "electro-futuristic" lighting sculptures, and presented by Dr. Jim Bennett, museum director. From redesigned practical items to fantastical contraptions, this exhibition showcased the work of eighteen steampunk artists from around the globe. The exhibit proved to be the most successful and highly attended in the museum's history and attracted more than eighty thousand visitors. The event was detailed in the official artist's journal
The Art of Steampunk, by curator Donovan. In November 2010,
The Libratory Steampunk Art Gallery was opened by Damien McNamara in
Oamaru, New Zealand. Created from papier-mâché to resemble a large cave and filled with industrial equipment from yesteryear,
rayguns, and general steampunk quirks, its purpose is to provide a place for steampunkers in the region to display artwork for sale all year long. A year later, a more permanent gallery,
Steampunk HQ, was opened in the former Meeks Grain Elevator Building across the road from The Woolstore, and has since become a notable tourist attraction for Oamaru.
Fashion , wearing a steampunk-styled arm prosthesis (created by
Thomas Willeford), exemplifying one take on steampunk fashion Steampunk fashion has no set guidelines but tends to synthesize modern styles with influences from the Victorian era. Such influences may include
bustles,
corsets, gowns, and
petticoats; suits with
waistcoats, coats,
top hats and
bowler hats (themselves originating in 1850 England),
tailcoats and
spats; or military-inspired garments. Steampunk-influenced outfits are usually accented with several technological and "period" accessories: timepieces,
parasols, flying/driving goggles, and ray guns. Modern accessories like cell phones or music players can be found in steampunk outfits, after being modified to give them the appearance of Victorian-era objects.
Post-apocalyptic elements, such as gas masks, ragged clothing, and tribal motifs, can also be included. Aspects of steampunk fashion have been anticipated by mainstream high fashion, the
Lolita and
aristocrat styles, neo-Victorianism, and the
Romantic Goth subculture. In 2005,
Kate Lambert, known as "Kato", founded the first steampunk clothing company, "Steampunk Couture", mixing Victorian and post-apocalyptic influences. In 2013,
IBM predicted, based on an analysis of more than a half million public posts on message boards, blogs, social media sites, and news sources, "that 'steampunk,' a subgenre inspired by the clothing, technology and social mores of Victorian society, will be a major trend to bubble up and take hold of the retail industry". Indeed, high fashion lines such as
Prada,
Dolce & Gabbana,
Versace,
Chanel, and
Christian Dior ''
America's Next Top Model'' tackled steampunk fashion in a 2012 episode where models competed in a steampunk-themed photo shoot, posing in front of a steam train while holding a live owl.
Literature '' featuring work by
H. G. Wells In 1988, the first version of the science fiction
tabletop role-playing game Space: 1889 was published. The game is set in an
alternative history in which certain now discredited Victorian scientific theories were probable and led to new technologies. Contributing authors included
Frank Chadwick,
Loren Wiseman, and
Marcus Rowland.
William Gibson and
Bruce Sterling's novel
The Difference Engine (1990) is often credited with bringing about widespread awareness of steampunk. The novel applies the principles of Gibson and Sterling's
cyberpunk writings to an alternative Victorian era where
Ada Lovelace and
Charles Babbage's proposed steam-powered mechanical computer, which Babbage called a
difference engine (a later, more general-purpose version was known as an
Analytical Engine), was actually built, and led to the dawn of the
Information Age more than a century "ahead of schedule". This setting was different from most steampunk settings in that it takes a dim and dark view of this future, rather than the more prevalent
utopian versions.
Nick Gevers's original anthology
Extraordinary Engines (2008) features newer steampunk stories by some of the genre's writers, as well as other science fiction and fantasy writers experimenting with neo-Victorian conventions. A retrospective reprint anthology of steampunk fiction was released, also in 2008, by
Tachyon Publications. Edited by
Ann and
Jeff VanderMeer and appropriately entitled
Steampunk, it is a collection of stories by
James Blaylock, whose "Narbondo" trilogy is typically considered steampunk;
Jay Lake, author of the novel
Mainspring, sometimes labeled "
clockpunk"; the aforementioned Michael Moorcock; as well as
Jess Nevins, known for his annotations to
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (first published in 1999). Younger readers have also been targeted by steampunk themes, by authors such as
Philip Reeve and
Scott Westerfeld. Reeve's quartet
Mortal Engines is set far in Earth's future where giant moving cities consume each other in a battle for resources, a concept Reeve coined as
Municipal Darwinism. Westerfeld's
Leviathan trilogy is set during an alternate
First World War fought between the "clankers" (
Central Powers), who use steam technology, and "darwinists" (
Allied Powers), who use genetically engineered creatures instead of machines. "Mash-ups" are also becoming increasingly popular in books aimed at younger readers, mixing steampunk with other genres.
Stefan Bachmann's
The Peculiar duology was labeled a "steampunk fairytale," and imagines steampunk technology as a means to stave off an incursion of
faeries in Victorian England. Suzanne Lazear's
Aether Chronicles series also mixes steampunk with faeries, and
The Unnaturalists, by Tiffany Trent, combines steampunk with mythological creatures and alternate history. Self-described author of "far-fetched fiction"
Robert Rankin has incorporated elements of steampunk into narrative worlds that are both Victorian and re-imagined contemporary. In 2009, he was made a Fellow of the Victorian Steampunk Society. The
comic book series
Hellboy, created by
Mike Mignola, and the two
Hellboy films featuring
Ron Perlman and directed by
Guillermo del Toro, all have steampunk elements. In the comic book and the
first (2004) film,
Karl Ruprecht Kroenen is a
Nazi SS scientist who has an addiction to having himself surgically altered, and who has many mechanical prostheses, including a clockwork heart. The character
Johann Krauss is featured in the comic and in the second film,
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), as an
ectoplasmic medium (a gaseous form in a partly mechanical suit). This second film also features the
Golden Army itself, which is a collection of 4,900 mechanical steampunk warriors.
Steampunk settings Alternative world Since the 1990s, the application of the steampunk label has expanded beyond works set in recognisable historical periods, to works set in fantasy worlds that rely heavily on steam- or spring-powered technology. An example from juvenile fiction is
The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and
Chris Riddell. Fantasy steampunk settings abound in
tabletop and
computer role-playing games. Notable examples include
Skies of Arcadia,
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, and
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. as they are vastly ahead of the technologies of
men, but still run on steam and mechanical power. The Dwarves of the
Elder Scrolls series, described therein as a race of Elves called the
Dwemer, also use steam-powered machinery, with gigantic brass-like gears, throughout their underground cities. However, magical means are used to keep ancient devices in motion despite the Dwemer's ancient disappearance. The 1998 game
Thief: The Dark Project, as well as the other sequels including its
2014 reboot, feature heavy steampunk-inspired architecture, setting, and technology. Amidst the historical and fantasy subgenres of steampunk is a type that takes place in a hypothetical future or a fantasy equivalent of our future involving the domination of steampunk-style technology and aesthetics. Examples include
Jean-Pierre Jeunet and
Marc Caro's
The City of Lost Children (1995),
Turn A Gundam (1999–2000),
Trigun, and
Devon Monk's
Dead Iron. Fantasy and horror Kaja Foglio introduced the term "Gaslamp Fantasy", for the series
Girl Genius. Author/artist
James Richardson-Brown coined the term
steamgoth to refer to steampunk expressions of fantasy and
horror with a "darker" bent.
Post-apocalyptic Mary Shelley's
The Last Man, set near the end of the 21st century after a plague had brought down civilization, was probably the ancestor of post-apocalyptic steampunk literature. Post-apocalyptic steampunk is set in a world where some cataclysm has precipitated the fall of civilization and steam power is once again ascendant, such as in
Hayao Miyazaki's
post-apocalyptic anime
Future Boy Conan (1978, loosely based on
Alexander Key's
The Incredible Tide (1970)), where a war fought with superweapons has devastated the planet.
Robert Brown's novel,
The Wrath of Fate (as well as much of
Abney Park's music) is set in a Victorianesque world where an apocalypse was set into motion by a time-traveling mishap.
Cherie Priest's
Boneshaker series is set in a world where a
zombie apocalypse happened during the
Civil War era.
The Peshawar Lancers by
S.M. Stirling is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which a
meteor shower in 1878 caused the collapse of industrialized civilization. The movie
9 (which might be better classified as "stitchpunk" but was largely influenced by steampunk) is also set in a post-apocalyptic world after a self-aware war machine ran amok.
Steampunk Magazine even published a book called ''A Steampunk's Guide to the Apocalypse'', about how steampunks could survive should such a thing actually happen.
Victorian In general, this category includes any recent science fiction that takes place in a recognizable historical period (sometimes an
alternate history version of an actual historical period) in which the
Industrial Revolution has already begun, but
electricity is not yet widespread, "usually Britain of the early to mid-nineteenth century or the fantasized
Wild West-era United States", with an emphasis on steam- or spring-propelled gadgets. The most common historical steampunk settings are the
Victorian and
Edwardian eras, though some in this "Victorian steampunk" category are set as early as the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution and as late as the end of
World War I. Some examples of this type include the novel
The Difference Engine, the comic book series
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Disney animated film
Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and the
roleplaying game Space: 1889. Some, such as the comic series
Girl Genius, Other early examples of historical steampunk in cinema include
Hayao Miyazaki's
anime films such as
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) and ''
Howl's Moving Castle'' (2004), which contain many archetypal anachronisms characteristic of the steampunk genre. "Historical" steampunk usually leans more towards science fiction than fantasy, but a number of historical steampunk stories have incorporated magical elements as well. For example,
Morlock Night, written by
K. W. Jeter, revolves around an attempt by the wizard
Merlin to raise
King Arthur to save the
Britain of 1892 from an invasion of
Morlocks from the future. The site was adapted into the illustrated hardbound book ''Boilerplate: History's Mechanical Marvel'', which was published by
Abrams in October 2009. Because the story was not set in an alternative history, and in fact contained accurate information about the Victorian era, some booksellers referred to the tome as "historical steampunk".
East Asia Fictional settings inspired by East Asian rather than European history, especially those inspired by
Chinese history, have been called "silkpunk". The term originated with the author
Ken Liu, who defined it as "a blend of science fiction and fantasy [that] draws inspiration from classical
East Asian antiquity", with a "technology vocabulary (...) based on organic materials historically important to East Asia (bamboo, paper, silk) and seafaring cultures of the Pacific (coconut, feathers, coral)", rather than the brass and leather associated with steampunk. Liu used the term to describe his
Dandelion Dynasty series, which began in 2015. Other works described as silkpunk include
Neon Yang's
Tensorate series of novellas, which began in 2017. Lyndsie Manusos of
Book Riot has argued that the genre does "not fit in a direct analogy with steampunk. Silkpunk is technology and poetics. It is engineering and language."
Music Steampunk music is very broadly defined.
Abney Park's lead singer
Robert Brown defined it as "mixing Victorian elements and modern elements". There is a broad range of musical influences that make up the steampunk sound, from
industrial dance and
world music Carnatic to
industrial,
hip-hop to opera (and even
industrial hip-hop opera),
darkwave to
progressive rock,
barbershop to
big band. Joshua Pfeiffer (of
Vernian Process) is quoted as saying, "As for
Paul Roland, if anyone deserves credit for spearheading Steampunk music, it is him. He was one of the inspirations I had in starting my project. He was writing songs about the first attempt at manned flight, and an Edwardian airship raid in the mid-80s long before almost anyone else..."
Thomas Dolby is also considered one of the early pioneers of retro-futurist (i.e., Steampunk and Dieselpunk) music.
Amanda Palmer was once quoted as saying, "Thomas Dolby is to Steampunk what
Iggy Pop was to
Punk!" Steampunk has also appeared in the work of musicians who do not specifically identify as steampunk. For example, the music video of
"Turn Me On", by
David Guetta and featuring
Nicki Minaj, takes place in a steampunk universe where Guetta creates human androids. Another music video is "
The Ballad of Mona Lisa", by
Panic! at the Disco, which has a distinct Victorian steampunk theme. A continuation of this theme has been used throughout the 2011 album
Vices & Virtues, in the music videos, album art, and tour set and costumes. In addition, the album
Clockwork Angels (2012) and its supporting
tour by progressive rock band
Rush contain lyrics, themes, and imagery based around steampunk. Similarly,
Abney Park headlined the first "Steamstock" outdoor steampunk music festival in
Richmond, California, which also featured
Thomas Dolby,
Frenchy and the Punk,
Lee Presson and the Nails,
Vernian Process, and others. During season 14 of the show (in 1976), the formerly futuristic looking interior set was replaced with a
Victorian-styled wood-panel and brass affair. In the 1996 American co-production, the
TARDIS interior was re-designed to resemble an almost Victorian library with the central control console made up of an eclectic array of anachronistic objects. Modified and streamlined for the 2005 revival of the series, the TARDIS console continued to incorporate steampunk elements, including a Victorian typewriter and
gramophone, for many years.
Dinner for Adele (1977) directed by
Oldřich Lipský involves steampunk contraptions. The 1979 film
Time After Time has
Herbert George "H.G." Wells following a surgeon named John Leslie Stevenson into the future, as John is suspected of being
Jack the Ripper. Both separately use Wells's time machine to travel.
The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians, (1981) directed by
Oldřich Lipský, contains steampunk elements. The 1982 American TV series
Q.E.D. is set in
Edwardian England, stars
Sam Waterston as Professor Quentin Everett Deverill (from whose initials, by which he is primarily known, the series title is derived, initials which also stand for the Latin phrase
quod erat demonstrandum, which translates as "which was to be demonstrated"). The Professor is an inventor and scientific detective, in the mold of
Sherlock Holmes. The plot of the
Soviet film
Kin-dza-dza! (1986) centers on a
desert planet, depleted of its resources, where an impoverished dog-eat-dog society uses steampunk machines, the movements and functions of which defy Earthly logic. In making his 1986 Japanese film
Castle in the Sky,
Hayao Miyazaki was heavily influenced by steampunk culture, the film featuring various airships and steampowered contraptions as well as a mysterious island that floats through the sky, accomplished not through magic as in most stories, but instead by harnessing the physical properties of a rare crystal—analogous to the
lodestone used in the
Laputa of
Swift's ''
Gulliver's Travels—augmented by massive propellers, as befitting the Victorian motif. The first "Wallace & Gromit" animation A Grand Day Out'' (1989) features a space rocket in the steampunk style. The second half of
Back to the Future III (1990) gradually evolves into steampunk.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., a 1993
Fox Network TV science fiction-Western set in the 1890s, features elements of steampunk as represented by the character Professor Wickwire, whose inventions were described as "the coming thing". The short-lived 1995 TV show
Legend, on
UPN, set in 1876 Arizona, features such classic inventions as a steam-driven "quadrovelocipede",
trigoggle and
night-vision goggles (à la teslapunk), and stars
John de Lancie as a thinly disguised
Nikola Tesla.
Alan Moore's and
Kevin O'Neill's 1999
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel series (and the subsequent 2003
film adaption) greatly popularised the steampunk genre. The 2010 episode of the TV series
Castle entitled "Punked" (first aired October 11, 2010) prominently features the steampunk subculture and uses
Los Angeles-area steampunks (such as the
League of STEAM) as extras. The 2011 film
The Three Musketeers has many steampunk elements, including gadgets and airships.
The Legend of Korra, a 2012–2014
Nickelodeon animated series, incorporates steampunk elements in an industrialized world with East Asian themes. The
Penny Dreadful (2014) television series is a Gothic Victorian fantasy series with steampunk props and costumes. The 2013–2014
ABC3 game show
Steam Punks!, sees
Paul Verhoeven playing The Inquisitor, who helps teams complete multiple challenges who have become trapped in a bizarre world controlled by an evil genius named The Machine. The 2015
GSN reality television game show ''
Steampunk'd features a competition to create steampunk-inspired art and designs which are judged by notable steampunks Thomas Willeford, Kato, and Matthew Yang King (as Matt King). Based on the work of cartoonist Jacques Tardi, April and the Extraordinary World'' (2015) is an animated movie set in a steampunk Paris. It features airships, trains, submarines, and various other steam-powered contraptions.
Tim Burton's 2016 film
Alice Through the Looking Glass features steampunk costumes, props, and vehicles. Japanese anime
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (2016) features a steampunk
zombie apocalypse. The American
fantasy animated sitcom,
Disenchantment, created by
Matt Groening for
Netflix, features a steampunk country named Steamland, led by an odd industrialist named Alva Gunderson voiced by
Richard Ayoade, first appears in the season 1 episode, "The Electric Princess." The country is portrayed as driven by
logic and is
egalitarian, governed by science, rather than magic, as is the case for Dreamland, where the protagonist,
Princess Bean, is from. The country has cars, automatic lights, submarines, and other modern technologies, all of which are steam-powered, and references to Groening's other series,
Futurama. Steamland appears in three episodes of the show's second season, showing an explorers club as part of the country's
high society, flying
zeppelins, and robots with light bulbs for heads that chase the protagonists through the streets. Some even argued that Steamland is "
dieselpunk-inspired." The 2023 film
Poor Things has been noted for its "steampunk-infused" production design.
Video games A variety of styles of video games have used steampunk settings.
Steel Empire (1992), a
shoot 'em up game originally released as
Koutetsu Teikoku on the
Sega Mega Drive console in Japan, is considered to be the first steampunk video game. Designed by Yoshinori Satake and inspired by
Hayao Miyazaki's anime film
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986),
Steel Empire is set in an alternate timeline dominated by steam-powered technology. The commercial success of
Steel Empire, both in Japan and the West, helped propel steampunk into the
video game market, and had a significant influence on later steampunk games. The most notable steampunk game it influenced is
Final Fantasy VI (1994), a
Japanese role-playing game developed by
Squaresoft and designed by
Hiroyuki Ito for the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Final Fantasy VI was both critically and commercially successful, and had a considerable influence on later steampunk video games. The
graphic adventure puzzle video games
Myst (1993),
Riven (1997),
Myst III: Exile (2001), and
Myst IV: Revelation (all produced by or under the supervision of
Cyan Worlds) take place in an alternate steampunk universe, where elaborate infrastructures have been built to run on steam power.
The Elder Scrolls (since 1994, last release in 2014) is an
action role-playing game where one can find an ancient extinct race called dwemers or dwarves, whose steampunk technology is based on steam-powered levers and gears made of bronze or brass, which are maintained by magical techniques that have kept them in working order over the centuries.
Sakura Wars (1996), a
visual novel and
tactical role-playing game developed by
Sega for the
Saturn console, is set in a steampunk version of Japan during the
Meiji and
Taishō eras, and features steam-powered
mecha robots. and Karnaca, which is powered by wind turbines fed by currents generated by a cleft mountain along the city's borders.
BioShock Infinite (2013) is a
first-person shooter game set in 1912, in a fictional city called Columbia, which uses technology to float in the sky and has many historical and religious scenes.
Code: Realize − Guardian of Rebirth (2014), a Japanese
otome game for the
PS Vita is set in a steampunk Victorian London, and features a cast with several historical figures with steampunk aesthetics.
Code Name S.T.E.A.M. (2015), a Japanese tactical RPG game for the
3DS set in a steampunk fantasy version of London where you are a conscript in the strike force S.T.E.A.M. (short for Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace).
They Are Billions (2017), is a steampunk strategy game in a post-apocalyptic setting. Players build a colony and attempt to ward off waves of zombies.
Frostpunk (2018) is a city-building game set in 1888, but where the Earth is in the midst of a great
Ice Age. Players must construct a city around a large steampunk heat generator with many steampunk aesthetics and mechanics, such as a "Steam Core." ==Culture and community==