Steampunk as Design Fiction Joshua Tanenbaum, Karen Tanenbaum, & Ron Wakkary Simon Fraser University 250 – 13450 102nd Avenue, Surrey, British Columbia, V3T 0A3, Canada {joshuat; ktanenba; rwakkary}@sfu.ca ABSTRACT a fantastic and idealized vision of the Victorian Era. In In this paper we look at the Steampunk movement and Steampunk speculative imaginings and its material consider its relevance as a design strategy for HCI and practices are inextricably linked to each other. Based on a interaction design. Based on a study of online practices of study of online practices of Steampunk, we consider how, Steampunk, we consider how, as a design fiction, as a design fiction, Steampunk provides an explicit model Steampunk provides an explicit model for how to for how to physically realize an ideological and imagined physically realize an ideological and imagined world world through design practice. We contend that the through design practice. We contend that the practices of practices of DIY and appropriation that are evident in DIY and appropriation that are evident in Steampunk Steampunk design provide a useful set of design strategies design provide a useful set of design strategies and and implications for HCI. implications for HCI. In this paper we broadly define Steampunk and describe Author Keywords key concepts we used to frame this study, design fictions, Design Strategies, Steampunk, Design Fiction, DIY, DIY and appropriation. We describe our study of the online Appropriation presence of three Steampunk “designers” and two aggregate web sites, and discuss implications. WHAT IS STEAMPUNK? Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction literature that traces its roots back to the early science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells [22]. The most common expression INTRODUCTION of Steampunk involves imagining a world in which steam The literary genre and subculture of “Steampunk” may hold power rather than the internal combustion engine became interesting and new perspectives for HCI and interaction the dominant form of energy. Typically, Steampunk fiction design. In this paper we will consider how Steampunk may and design evokes an alternate history that weds aspects of be understood as a design movement, by examining how the modern day, such as computation, to elements of Steampunk practitioners document and disseminate their Victorian aesthetics, materials and culture. The name techniques and methods through online DIY tutorials and “Steampunk” appears to have been coined in 1987 by personal design blogs. We argue that the practices of author K.W. Jeter, to describe the revisionist histories of Steampunk makers represent a unique convergence of himself, Tim Powers, and James Blaylock [48]. several concepts that are of particular relevance to HCI and Since the coining of the term, Steampunk has experienced a interaction design: namely the concept of design fictions, steady growth within popular culture, transforming from a and the interrelated concepts of DIY and appropriation. fringe genre to a fictional form of broad mass-market Steampunk is a multifaceted phenomenon that manifests as appeal with examples in literature film, graphic novels, and a subcultural identity, as a community of practice rooted in computer games. The canonical contemporary work of design and making, and as a fictional representation across Steampunk fiction is The Difference Engine, a speculative a wide range of media forms. All of these are bound history written by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson [21] together by a shared ideological and aesthetic sensibility in which Charles Babbage’s “analytical engine” ushers in that re-envisions modern day technology through the lens of an era of mechanical computation at the start of the industrial revolution. In comics, Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen draws heavily on Victorian literature to envision an alternate history where Captain Nemo, Alan Quatermain, Dr. Jeckel (and Mr. Hyde), the Invisible Man, Mina Harker, and Dorian Gray team up to fight threats to the British Empire [35]. In film, Barry Sonnenfeld’s Wild Wild West represents one of the first mass media appearances of the Steampunk aesthetic, with its giant steam powered advises designers to adopt metaphors from magic and machinery [42]. paranormal phenomena, the staples of fantasy literature [44]. The rise in popularity of the Steampunk aesthetic has also given birth to a subculture movement of self-identified DIY (Do-It-Yourself) “Steampunks”. Although still a young movement when Kuznetsov and Paulos view DIY practitioners as “expert compared to other subculture groups, such as Punk [33], the amateurs” who create, modify or repair objects without the Steampunk community already has many avenues of help of paid professionals [30]. The notion of the “expert cultural expression including international Steampunk amateur” reflects the fact that the skills involved in DIY are conventions, Steampunk musical acts, local Steampunk often quite advanced and grow continually in practice. hobby organizations, and even touring Steampunk circuses Further, it reflects the fact that the culture of DIY is based [47; 49-51]. One of the key defining characteristics of on “anticonsumerism, rebelliousness, and creativity… Steampunk, however, is that it is built around physical supporting the ideology that people can create rather than artifacts that evoke an imagined alternate past, present and buy…” [30]. We see this manifest in a practice of bricolage future. This paper focuses this aspect of the Steampunk in Steampunk design [31]. Typically with DIY, the movement as most relevant to HCI. techniques used are shared for others to duplicate or improve upon within an open source model. For example, KEY CONCEPTS web sites like Make Magazine (makeprojects.com) and In our paper we explore three main concepts: design fiction, Instructables (instructables.com) are online communities DIY, and appropriation, which we outline here. that include how-to resources, blogs, and web forums. Early DIY practices emerged from hacker cultures and were thus Design Fiction influenced by a computing ethos, programming/hacking The notion of design fiction is still taking shape in the and open source [17]. discourse of HCI and design research [14; 40; 43]. Although its origins are unclear, the earliest use of the term Appropriation appears to be in a presentation given by Julian Bleecker at Appropriation is related to DIY. Appropriation can be the Engage Design conference in 2008 [5]. Bleecker’s talk described as the use of a designed artifact for a purpose was given in response to an unpublished paper by Paul different than intended by the designer(s). We have Dourish and Genevieve Bell entitled Resistance is Futile: researched customization and appropriation under the Reading Science Fiction Alongside Ubiquitous Computing concept of everyday design, where we examine the [13]. In this article, the authors perform parallel analyses of possibility that everyone is a designer and that design design trends in science fiction television during the period occurs on an everyday basis through use or design-in-use from 1963 to 1989 and developments in ubiquitous (modifying during the experience of using artifacts or computing in the 1980s. Science fiction plays a significant systems) [55-56]. This work is related to other role in shaping the general public’s understanding of investigations of appropriation [7; 11-12; 25; 45], science fact. interpretation [41] and ambiguity [8; 18] in interaction David Kirby uses the term diegetic prototypes to “account design. Similar to our study, Akah and Bardzell conducted for the ways in which cinematic depictions of future a study of Steampunk culture to investigate personal technologies demonstrate to large public audiences a appropriation [1]. Their insights focus on a guideline for technology’s need, viability and benevolence” [29]. Both how designers can support identity construction by Kirby and Bleecker provide the gestural interface from the allowing users to transform artifacts to both suit and film Minority Report as an example of a fictional represent individuals through altered functions, interactions, realization of a technology that went on to broadly inform and aesthetics. Our work extends the idea of individual public opinion (and design practice) about interactive appropriation by investigating the social and creative technologies. A more recent work by Bleecker explores practices of Steampunk as a design strategy. Similarly, we how actual design and science as practices intersect with extend the idea of identity construction in wider social the imagined futures of science fiction narratives [4]. In a terms as the manifestation of a subculture that is seen in recent ACM interactions article entitled Design Fiction, terms of design as design fiction. science fiction author and futurist Bruce Sterling considers Appropriation has been identified as central and inevitable how a design perspective can be used to inform the creation in the use-life of design artifacts and systems. Researchers of fiction that better engages with the issues of an imagined have discussed the need for technologies to support or desired future [43]. appropriation. For example, Mackay and Gillespie [32] In interaction design, Dunne and Raby’s [14] speculative argued that the design processes of conception, invention, design and design noir are good examples of design fictions development and design require the inclusion of social as a strategy for exploring