Art & Music: Steampunk is Creative
Upon exploring Steampunk, students will recognize that it values form just as much, if not more, than function. Through its retrofuturistic identity, the way that it merges the past with an imagined future, it allows artists of all mediums to let their imaginations go wild. Steampunk art and music creations are as interesting as they are beautiful.
1,000 Steampunk Creations: Neo-Victorian Fashion, Gear, and Art
by Dr. Grymm and Barb Saint Johne
Packed with 1,000 color photographs of Steampunk fashion, jewelery, home decor, art, modified technology, vehicles, and even weapons, this book celebrates craftmanship and attention to aesthetics and may inspire subsequent inventions.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Hugo Cabret is an orphan, living in a Paris train station, keeping the station clocks running. The only items he has from his father, a gifted clock maker, is an old automaton—a mechanical man—and his father’s careful notes for its repair. Can Hugo mesh the many gears and parts to repair the automaton, and will it reveal a message from his father? Do a toyshop owner and his granddaughter offer the keys to unlocking the automaton’s message, or are they hiding histories of their own?
Steampunk Art & Music Teacher Resources and Lesson Plans
Steampunk Influences the Arts
STEAMPUNK YOUR REALITY
1. View the following video by PBS in which artists explain how steampunk influences theatre, music, and visual art: http://www.thedenveregotist.com/news/national/2011/september/1/pbs-explains-steampunk-your-children-so-you-dont-have
2. Pay special attention to the images at the end of the clip: Steampunked My Little Pony, Steampunked Segways, Steampunked Tree Houses, etc. As a class, make a list of traits of steampunk. What does it mean to represent steampunk? What does it look like?
3. Look around your house or neighborhood tonight and find something modern to steampunk. Your skateboard? Your telephone? Your favorite dress? If possible take a picture of the original item.
4. Utilizing the steampunk traits the class developed, draw a steampunked version of your item.
5. Share your artwork with the class!
1. View the following video by PBS in which artists explain how steampunk influences theatre, music, and visual art: http://www.thedenveregotist.com/news/national/2011/september/1/pbs-explains-steampunk-your-children-so-you-dont-have
2. Pay special attention to the images at the end of the clip: Steampunked My Little Pony, Steampunked Segways, Steampunked Tree Houses, etc. As a class, make a list of traits of steampunk. What does it mean to represent steampunk? What does it look like?
3. Look around your house or neighborhood tonight and find something modern to steampunk. Your skateboard? Your telephone? Your favorite dress? If possible take a picture of the original item.
4. Utilizing the steampunk traits the class developed, draw a steampunked version of your item.
5. Share your artwork with the class!
The Automaton that inspired Hugo Cabret
WATCH AN AUTOMATON IN ACTION: www.fi.edu/pieces/knox/automaton
1. In the Acknowledgements of his book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, author Brian Selznick describes his visit to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to see an actual, nineteenth-century automaton. Brought to the museum in 1928, the automaton was refurbished and draws four different pictures and writes three different poems. Much like the automaton in Selznick’s book, the automaton signs the name of its maker, Maillardet. Visit the website from the Franklin Institute and view the video showing the Maillardet Automaton at work.
2. What is mechanical about the automaton? What is artistic?
3. The Maillardet Automaton creates 7 different sketches. Which is your favorite, and why? (Remember to click on the sketches to enlarge them.)
4. If you were the creator of the automaton, what would you have the automaton sketch?
1. In the Acknowledgements of his book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, author Brian Selznick describes his visit to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to see an actual, nineteenth-century automaton. Brought to the museum in 1928, the automaton was refurbished and draws four different pictures and writes three different poems. Much like the automaton in Selznick’s book, the automaton signs the name of its maker, Maillardet. Visit the website from the Franklin Institute and view the video showing the Maillardet Automaton at work.
2. What is mechanical about the automaton? What is artistic?
3. The Maillardet Automaton creates 7 different sketches. Which is your favorite, and why? (Remember to click on the sketches to enlarge them.)
4. If you were the creator of the automaton, what would you have the automaton sketch?
A Collection of Automata
SEE MORE AUTOMATA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gmQE2qpYB8
Richard Garriott is a very creative user of technologies! Computer game developer, entrepreneur, space explorer, Garriott talks in this video about his collection of automata, perhaps the largest collection in the world. See how one automaton can be very different from others!
Richard Garriott is a very creative user of technologies! Computer game developer, entrepreneur, space explorer, Garriott talks in this video about his collection of automata, perhaps the largest collection in the world. See how one automaton can be very different from others!
Student Resources
Create your own Automaton
Paper Automata: Four Working Models to Cut Out and Glue Together by Rob Ives: Paperback book available from Amazon
Cut out and make these four models, and then operate the mechanisms! These models require no electricity, using simple paper cams and levers to make them move.
Cut out and make these four models, and then operate the mechanisms! These models require no electricity, using simple paper cams and levers to make them move.