the machine anxieties of steampunk: contemporary philosophy, neo-victorian aesthetics, and futurism

310 Pages·2017·3.34 MB·English

Maine State Library
Maine State Documents
Academic Research and Dissertations Special Collections
2016
THE MACHINE ANXIETIES OF
STEAMPUNK: CONTEMPORARY
PHILOSOPHY, NEO-VICTORIAN
AESTHETICS, AND FUTURISM
Kathe Hicks Albrecht
IDSVA
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Albrecht, Kathe Hicks, "THE MACHINE ANXIETIES OF STEAMPUNK: CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY, NEO-
VICTORIAN AESTHETICS, AND FUTURISM" (2016).Academic Research and Dissertations. 16.
http://digitalmaine.com/academic/16
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THE MACHINE ANXIETIES OF STEAMPUNK: CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY,
NEO-VICTORIAN AESTHETICS, AND FUTURISM

Kathe Hicks Albrecht

Submitted to the faculty of
The Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy

July, 2016

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Accepted by the faculty of the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in partial
fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

______________________________
Donald R. Wehrs, Ph.D.

Doctoral Committee ______________________________
Other member’s name, #1 Ph.D.

______________________________
Other member’s name, #2, Ph.D.

July 23, 2016
ii
© 2016

Kathe Hicks Albrecht

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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This work is dedicated to my parents: Dr. Richard Brian Hicks, whose life-long exploration
of the human mind and spirit helped to prepare me for my own intellectual journey, and
Mafalda Brasile Hicks, artist-philosopher, who originally inspired my deep interest in
aesthetics.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation director Donald R. Wehrs
for his unwavering support and encouragement. Don has a wonderful gift for guiding the
student through what is a uniquely arduous process of research and writing. His astute
commentary, intriguing ideas, and continued enthusiasm for the project encouraged me at
every step of the way. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to work with Don these past
few years. Other important mentors, colleagues, and friends at IDSVA also guided me
throughout the doctoral journey. George Smith, Simonetta Moro, Christopher Yates, Michael
Smith, Christopher Lonegan, Amy Curtis, and countless others provided much needed
inspiration and guidance. Finally, I would surely have stumbled along this path without the
encouragement of fellow students in Cohort ‘11, and in particular my study group stalwarts
Maria LaBarge and Mary Anne Davis. We are in this process together and our regular study
group communications kept us moving forward, individually and collectively. Nancy
Bookhart, IDSVA friend and colleague, also encouraged me as I struggled through research
and writing.
Most importantly, however, I would like to thank my family whose patience and
sacrifice made all this possible, especially as the dissertation temporarily took over many
aspects of my life. My children Nicole, Alexander, and Olivia, encouraged me from the
beginning to walk this path. And it was Alex who first described steampunk to me as we
stood in the halls of Comic-Con in San Diego many years ago. That conversation and the
characters we encountered piqued my interest in this unique philosophical and aesthetic
enterprise. My husband Dr. Mark Jennings Albrecht has been co-navigator on a lifetime of
adventure together. Without his unwavering support, patience, intellectual insight, and
perpetual encouragement this project would not have been possible. Certainly the long
evenings of study, never-ending deadlines, paper-writing, and book-reading impacted him as
much as it did me. Mark’s sacrifice of our time together allowed me to flourish at IDSVA
and I could not have done it without his encouragement and support. Our adventure together
has always unfolded unexpectedly and with great joy and thus it has been with my (our)
experience at IDSVA. Thanks, Mark, for taking this magical turn in our journey together.

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ABSTRACT

Kathe Hicks Albrecht

THE MACHINE ANXIETIES OF STEAMPUNK: CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY,
NEO-VICTORIAN AESTHETICS, AND FUTURISM

This dissertation examines the steampunk movement as a significant
contemporary expression of the human condition. Although its aesthetic inspiration comes
from the Victorian past, as re-tooled, re-imagined, and re-energized for the twenty-first
century, steampunk’s underlying interest is in a speculative view of the future and a concern
for the contemporary individual’s struggle to retain autonomy in a de-centered, de-
territorialized world. As such the steampunk movement participates in, and contributes to, an
important ongoing philosophical and aesthetic dialog.
The project examines the motivations for steampunk’s visual inspiration in the
Victorian. Technological and scientific advancements in that period greatly impacted societal
traditions and the role of the individual within it. Economic, social, and political changes
revolutionized daily life and the individual faced a new self-consciousness as she confronted,
and adapted to, these significant changes. Today, similar technological advancements force
new tensions between the individual and the world around her. Astounding developments in
computing and artificial intelligence, and the concept of the cyborg and other hybrid beings
challenge the contemporary individual’s sense of self. By looking to the past, steampunk
seeks to recuperate the Victorian individual’s successful navigation of technological change.
She does so in order to facilitate our own navigation of current waters.
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The project traces the movement’s modest roots as a literary sub-genre of science
fiction, explores its sources in the Victorian, and describes the movement’s rapid evolution to
global phenomenon. Today steampunk is fully integrated into contemporary culture as an
aesthetic observed in visual, decorative, and fashion arts, comic books, movies, and
television. The project explores the current landscape of art and philosophy in order to
position the steampunk movement within the larger scope of the contemporary scene. A
triad of prevailing philosophical trends—postmodernism, transhumanism, and post-
humanism, help to reveal steampunk’s involvement in the contemporary philosophical and
aesthetic dialog.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...page 1

Chapter 1
The Origins of Steampunk: History and Early Development..….…………………………26

Chapter 2:
The Victorian/Steampunk Connection: Upheaval, Discovery and the Birth of Mode……59

Chapter 3
The Steampunk Aesthetic in Contemporary Visual ……………………………………..123

Chapter 4
Performing Steampunk…….……………………………………………………………..170

Chapter 5
Steampunk and Contemporary Philosophy………………………………………………..209

Chapter 6
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………...269

Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………….289

Notes………………………………………………………………………………………298

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Introduction

“To me [steampunk] is essentially the intersection of technology and romance.”
Jake von Slatt
Steampunk designer and scholar (La Ferla)

When one meets friends at the Edison Bar in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the
twenty-first century city is quickly left behind. Our modern reality is just another skin to
shed. Built out in the basement of the Higgins building, the first private power plant in Los
Angeles, this hangout for the young and hip is not only a chic watering hole it is also an
artful homage to steampunk. Brass and metal bar stools, exposed mechanical elements from
the original industrial facility, old-fashioned light fixtures, and a Victorian aesthetic surround
you. What are the visual motivations of the founders and designers of this hip bar and
restaurant? Why does steampunk have such broad appeal across certain segments of
contemporary society? After all, carefully designed steampunk bars have cropped up in Asia,
Cape Town, South Africa, Romania and elsewhere across the globe.1
This dissertation, The Machine Anxieties of Steampunk, thoroughly explores
steampunk and its development into a global phenomenon, a movement whose aesthetic is
reflected in visual arts, entertainment, fashion, the decorative arts, and even built
environments such as the Edison Bar. In this project we will answer the question of what is
the steampunk movement. But we will also address the more complex question as to why the
steampunk movement develops and takes hold within our global culture. For reasons that
will be carefully explored in the following pages, this quietly revolutionary aesthetic and
viewpoint has settled into the contemporary consciousness. The steampunk genre captures
the zeitgeist of our culture as a very diverse and global cross-section of humanity role-plays
1