Tag Archives: D.I.Y

November 9, 2010 · 11:48 pm

Newsflash: “Steampunks Around the World, Unite!” Now Available in Italian

reginazabo, a blogger from Italy who works as a translator, was quite taken by my essay about the current state of multicultural steampunk and translated it into Italian to share with the steampunks of Italy! A PDF of this document is available through the DIY magazine Ruggine (“Rust”).

The mission statement for Ruggine magazine is pretty awesome:

Our funding principle is Do-It-Yourself. We find things we like and simply activate to spread them around. It’s all about putting our hands on the heart of the matter, of getting involved with our brains, blood and hearts and avoiding the detached vantage points from which others gaze at futures made by someone else.

A giant THANK YOU goes out to her and the Ruggine team for their work in putting this together!

Available in Italian from Ruggine magazine. Click to download PDF.

Formatted at 52 pages in a pocket-sized edition, this PDF prints to the ideal size for stuffing in your waistcoat before leaving for your next steampunk meet-up, or ready-made for the determined pamphleteer.

Oh, you Italian punks–don’t you ever stop. ^_^

“Steampunk di tutto il mondo, unitevi!” is also available to read on reginazabo’s blog (at Part #1 and Part #2).

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Filed under Announcement

Tagged as "steampunk communities", Ay-leen the Peacemaker, D.I.Y, Steampunk, transnational, writing ramblings

April 30, 2010 · 10:39 pm

Beyond Victoriana Special Edition Odds & Ends #4

I’m preparing for some big events in May (like co-hosting two panels at the Steampunk World’s Fair. Will you be coming? It’s bound to be INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING and IMMENSELY ENTERTAINING.) Thus, the next post will be delayed. But never fear, I have some nifty reads that have been building up in my inbox for you to check out after the cut.

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Filed under Beyond Victoriana Odds and Ends, Linkspams

Tagged as "Beyond Victoriana Odds and Ends", "beyond victoriana", "east asia", "latin america", "middle east", "south asia", "southeast asia", "steampunk identity", antiques, Ay-leen the Peacemaker, D.I.Y, literature, muslim world, north america, photography, Steampunk, transnational

April 25, 2010 · 12:00 am

#24 African Junk Artist Willie Bester’s Apartheid Laboratory

“Soldier II” 1994. Image courtesy of the artist’s site. Click for source.

“What I try to get behind is why it is so difficult for people to change from their old ways. It hasn’t worked out the way I imagined. People who thought they were superior before haven’t really changed. I try to find out through studying history what gives people the right to think that way. I try to find a solution, not to be disappointed, to reach an understanding.” – Willie Bester (source)

Junk art á la Mad Max takes steampunk one step away from Victoriana elegance and optimistic gaslamp cheer and one madcap dive bomb toward the realm of the dystopian. The gritty, industrial sense of steampunk isn’t seen in much art other than the tastefully rusted flash drives or the gentleman hobos with their finger-less gloves and worn-edged bowler hats. But the ideas of using found materials, D.I.Y. and re-structuring trash into art fit easily within the maker and punk tenants that steampunk has acquired.

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