The word “steampunk” instantly conjures images of folks dressed as Victorians drinking absinthe and tinkering with gears, but few people know what steampunk really is. Christina Brown, anthropology junior, founded the Baton Rouge Area Steampunk Society to teach people just that.
“Steampunk is a creative movement that embraces a hodgepodge of styles and themes,” Brown said.
According to Brown, steampunks combine the aesthetics of older civilizations with the novel technologies and motifs of speculative science fiction.
Suits, goggles, big hats and gears of all shapes, colors and sizes are common accessories to the typical steampunk ensemble. Many steampunks draw inspiration from the fashions of the Victorian Era, but as the movement has increased in popularity, so has the scope of cultures it embraces.
“There’s Japanese steampunk, Middle Eastern steampunk — it’s become a very diverse subculture,” Brown said.
Steampunks pay no heed to the restrictions of time and space. In any given steampunk work, an artist can visit a quiet British village and fuse its regal aesthetic with the mechanistic designs of a futuristic airship. Steampunks love old and iconic science fiction authors like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, but they also love “Firefly,” “Bioshock” and “Final Fantasy,” and they’re not afraid to show it.
According to Brown, the defining aspect of steampunk culture is that its practitioners embrace a variety of different ideas to create works that express a defiance of artistic restraints placed on artists by mainstream culture. That’s where the “punk” part comes in.
“We all love making cool stuff, and that’s basically what steampunk is all about,” Brown said.
While the most obvious expressions of the steampunk tenets are the costumes they wear, steampunks also produce music, plays, books, paintings, dances and homebrew beverages.
At BRASS’s gatherings, participants typically talk, drink and help one another build the intricate mechanized equipment integral to their style. At larger conventions, some act in plays written by their friends, and some even participate in live action role-playing, or LARPing.
But the focus of the steampunk super-culture isn’t on one single activity. Steampunks come from a variety of professional backgrounds, and their events reflect various blends of expertise.
Steampunks with degrees in architecture meet to plan and design theoretical cities, while steampunks who build houses for a living bring some of their machinations to life. Conductors run train shows, and artists run side shows and build museum exhibits to introduce the rest of the world to the wonders of their culture.
Engineers and computer scientists even work with anthropologists to build virtual simulations of steampunk societies.
“Steampunk attracts a lot of creative thinkers,” Brown said.
Brown formed BRASS this summer and has already attracted more than 166 people to the movement. She attributed this burst of popularity to movies like “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “The Prestige” that have seeped into mainstream consciousness.
“People want to create the culture they experience, and that’s what we do,” Brown said.
For more information on BRASS, contact Christina Brown at [email protected], or visit the group’s Facebook page: facebook.com/brsteampunk.
“We all love making cool stuff, and that’s basically what steampunk is all about.”

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Charlotte Willcox

Steampunk