Abstract
Steampunk is a cultural phenomenon which takes a different shape than many other subcultures and countercultures which have proceeded it. This new shape is a significant variation from the paradigm and can be interpreted as a model of socio-cultural progression. By blending opposites like future and past, humanism and technology, this subcultural phenomenon offers symbolic solution model by way of triadic movement and transcendent function. Steampunk seems to be created and defined from the bottom up in that it tries to collapse hierarchies, use creativity and innovative thinking to solve problems and to challenge limits, and uses anachronism, retrofuturism, speculative and alternate realms to inspire individuals and groups to re-imagine and redress the issues and paradigms which have limited them. Through research, interview, participant observation and analysis, this piece explores and explains how the productions and interactions of a small groups of people can offer alternative solutions to a perceived intractable binary towards in both symbolic and tangible ways.