Giving shape to the International Steampunk Day

1.- International Steampunk Day?

As you probably know, 14th June is considered the International Steampunk Day. I am writing this post due to an interesting exchange of ideas in Twitter that began with this tweet of Marcus Rauchfuß.

Disclaimer: I would like to clarify that I have tried to make a selection of tweets in order to make this post shorter and easier to read, all the related tweets are available in Twitter.

Have a most splendid International Steampunk Day! http://t.co/n250rYu0 #steampunk

— Marcus R. (@Yithmas) June 14, 2012

Then Bruno Jiménez made a key question:

@Yithmas @Decimononic today?! is there any source or any reason for it being today?

— Bruno Jiménez (@Noxbru) June 14, 2012

And I have to admit that my answer was not very accurate…

Today is H. G. Wells' birthday @noxbru 🙂 cc/ @Yithmas #happysteampunkday

— Decimononic (@Decimononic) June 14, 2012

@Decimononic @Yithmas Really? in wikipedia says it's the 21th September http://t.co/q2V07bHY

— Bruno Jiménez (@Noxbru) June 14, 2012

@noxbru ouch! Dammit, you are right! Urban legend then? U_u cc/ @Yithmas

— Decimononic (@Decimononic) June 14, 2012

Yes, definitely it happened to be an ‘urban legend’ (you will find below why 14th June has been chosen as International Steampunk day).  Then Elisabet Roselló took part in the debate with a load of smart questions:

@Yithmas @Noxbru @Decimononic What's the mission of an international #steampunk day? There is no actions, and there isn't a social fight for

— Elisabet Roselló (@LisRosello) June 14, 2012

@Yithmas @Noxbru @Decimononic the rights, as the Homosexual. I think everyone who believe on Steampunk proposals, is Steampunk every day 🙂

— Elisabet Roselló (@LisRosello) June 14, 2012

So I would like to take this chance to share with you our thoughts about the International Steampunk Day.

First of all, I have to say that neither Irene nor me are big fans of commemorative days. Are they necessary? Do they make real sense? These are difficult questions to answer and probably each commemorative day would require an individual analysis.

This is the answer I gave to Elisabet:

Interesting contribution @lisbushi. What's the sense of the 'Steampunk day'? we would say educate and commemorate cc/ @Yithmas @Noxbru (1/2)

— Decimononic (@Decimononic) June 14, 2012

However, and as Steampunk itself, it needs to grow and take shape worldwide (2/2) cc/ @Yithmas @Noxbru

— Decimononic (@Decimononic) June 14, 2012

Naturally Elisabet’s reply came swiftly:

@Decimononic @Yithmas @Noxbru So I return asking what are the actions to educate -educate through Sp I guess-… and commemorate what?

— Elisabet Roselló (@LisRosello) June 14, 2012

htt://twitter.com/Lisbushi/status/213266712580194304

As I said in my tweet, commemorative days pursue, at least, two objectives. Let’s go deeper.

2.- Educate and commemorate

2.1.- Educate

The way we see it, Steampunk International Day -as any other commemorative day- should have an educational purpose. Ideally it should become an effective way to give visibility and help to spread Steampunk, achieving an informative character. All of us who are involved in Steampunk in our daily lives do not need any Steampunk Day to learn about it. As Bruno Jiménez pointed out:

@Lisbushi @Decimononic @Yithmas maybe that could be done just to organize it, but have visibility towards the rest of the people in it

— Bruno Jiménez (@Noxbru) June 14, 2012

2.2.- Commemorate

At the same time, this should be the perfect opportunity to commemorate and celebrate. Commemorate what? Something meaningful in this context, something relevant thanks to its symbolic charge, something related to the essence of Steampunk. And, at the same time, celebrate the sense of belonging, the pleasure of sharing interests, philosophical preoccupations, a concrete sensibility.

3.- Steampunk… and its Day

All this said, the truth is that if we have a close look to the International Steampunk Day at present, we acknowledge that:

• The purpose of this -supposed to be- significant date is not defined.
• 14th June does not seem to be a date with a specific meaning for the Steampunk community, unless we consider the demonstration of the first steam engine to the Royal Society by Thomas Savery.
• There are not coordinated actions and objectives that reach the whole international community.

As Elisabet Roselló sharply stated:

@Noxbru @Decimononic @Yithmas and the most important, there is no sense/feeling of international and really vertebrate community

— Elisabet Roselló (@LisRosello) June 14, 2012

@Noxbru @Decimononic @Yithmas and the pillars of SP are not solid yet, it seems loosing the game against a simple aesthetic sense

— Elisabet Roselló (@LisRosello) June 14, 2012

At this moment we can’t help but reintroduce our blog post entitled ‘Steampunk raison d’être: it’s all about values’.

@Lisbushi @Decimononic @Yithmas then maybe we should do first things first: "What is SP? and What about it unites us all?"

— Bruno Jiménez (@Noxbru) June 14, 2012

@Noxbru @Decimononic @Yithmas uh, try it… Many people have tried it, but there are people who broke the debate "there are many visions"

— Elisabet Roselló (@LisRosello) June 14, 2012

And we are back to one of the main difficulties that Steampunk is facing now-a-days: its vagueness. We have been witnessing the constant debate about the Steampunk reach for a long time. Is it an artistic trend? Is it a counter-culture? Is it a movement? What is Steampunk today? Probably we will need to go to the roots to find an answer…

So, what is Steampunk? Strictly speaking, and from our point of view, Steampunk is a Victorian retrofuturistic uchronia. Nothing more, nothing less.

• Victorian era: ‘period of Queen Victoria’s reign 1837 until her death on 1901’.
• Retro-futurism: ‘depictions of the future produced prior to about 1960’.
• Uchronia: ‘hypothetical or fictional time-period of our world; it is a concept similar to alternate history but different in the manner that uchronic times are not easily defined’.

Some people think that this has to be reflected as aesthetic sensibility only.  However, we are of the opinion that no human activity can be apolitical, ideologically neutral. When someone -consciously or unconsciously- chooses to obviate the implications of something is equally shaping it; the way we imagine our Steampunk world defines a vision as per our own principles, determined by our own values. Quoting Yves Montand, ‘although you don not take care of politics, politics will take care of you’.

As I said, we see the point Elisabet Roselló was coming to and we agree with her. Recommended reading: ‘International Steampunk (Superman) Day’ by Mike Perschon (aka Steampunk Scholar).

And you? What do you think about the International Steampunk Day?