I am *really* behind the times...

This week I discovered a geeky subculture that I'd never heard of before - even though it's been around for decades. It's called Steampunk. The first inkling I had of such things was this post, showing a PC case that had been turned into something huge and interesting.

What is it? Steampunk is a whole genre of literature, art, decor etc. Steampunk magazine describes it thus:

  

BEFORE THE age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.
     Even if we had to make it all up.

It also involves modifying modern-day technology to look quite different...

Here are some other examples, from the Wired site:

Believe it or not, this used to be a 1988 Mac. It still works. 

A keyboard and monitor modified with old-fashioned-typewriter style.

A laptop modified to look "steampunk"

What do you think of steampunk?