Cover of Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian and a Futurist Journey Through Steampunk Into the Future of Technology

Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian and a Futurist Journey Through Steampunk Into the Future of Technology

What would today's technology look like with Victorian-era design and materials? That's the world steampunk envisions: a mad-inventor collection of 21st century-inspired contraptions powered by steam and driven by gears. In this book, futurist Brian David Johnson and cultural historian James Carrott explore steampunk, a cultural movement that's captivated thousands of artists, designers, makers, hackers, and writers throughout the world.

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Just like today, the late 19th century was an age of rapid technological change, and writers such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells commented on their time with fantastic stories that jumpstarted science fiction. Through interviews with experts such as William Gibson, Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling, James Gleick, and Margaret Atwood, this book looks into steampunk's vision of old-world craftsmen making beautiful hand-tooled gadgets, and what it says about our age of disposable technology.

Steampunk is everywhere—as gadget prototypes at Maker Faire, novels and comic books, paintings and photography, sculptures, fashion design, and music. Discover how this elaborate view of a history that never existed can help us reimagine our future.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 397 pages

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Liked Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian and a Futurist Journey Through Steampunk Into the Future of Technology? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian and a Futurist Journey Through Steampunk Into the Future of Technology. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Steampunk: An Illustrated History of Fantastical Fiction, Fanciful Film and Other Victorian Visions Shares steampunk, nonfiction, history
  2. The Steampunk Bible Shares steampunk, nonfiction, history
  3. The Steampunk User's Manual: An Illustrated Practical and Whimsical Guide to Creating Retro-futurist Dreams Shares steampunk, nonfiction
  4. The Lady Machinist Shares steampunk

“If you want more of the same (history), start with these.”

  1. Full Steam Ahead
  2. The Immersion Book of Steampunk
  3. The Steampunk Adventurer's Guide: Contraptions, Creations, and Curiosities Anyone Can Make
  4. A Matter of Desire and Dirigibles

“If it was the steampunk that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Steampunk Gear, Gadgets, and Gizmos: A Maker's Guide to Creating Modern Artifacts
  2. Wild Cards and Iron Horses
  3. Fields of Iron
  4. Hangfire

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. How to Draw Steampunk: Discover the secrets to drawing, painting, and illustrating the curious world of science fiction in the Victorian Age
  2. Anatomy of Steampunk: The Fashion of Victorian Futurism
  3. Fiendish Schemes
  4. Steampunk: The Art of Victorian Futurism