Kathe Hicks Albrecht

The Machine Anxieties of Steampunk (eBook, ePUB)

Contemporary Philosophy, Victorian Aesthetics, and the Future

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

What is steampunk and why are people across the globe eagerly embracing its neo-Victorian aesthetic? Old-fashioned eye goggles, lace corsets, leather vests, brass gears and gadgets, mechanical clocks, the look appears across popular culture, in movies, art, fashion, and literature. But steampunk is both an aesthetic program and a way-of-life and its underlying philosophy is the key to its broad appeal.

Steampunk champions a new autonomy for the individual caught up in today's technology-driven society. It expresses optimism for the future but it also delivers a note of caution about our human role in a world of ever more ubiquitous and powerful machines. Thus, despite adopting an aesthetic and lifestyle straight out of the Victorian scientific romance, steampunk addresses significant 21st-century concerns about what lies ahead for humankind. The movement recovers autonomy from prevailing trends even as it challenges us to ask what it is to be human today.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 208
• Erscheinungstermin: 4. November 2021
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781501349331
• Artikelnr.: 62533035

Autorenporträt

Kathe Hicks Albrecht serves on the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a presidential appointment, and is a faculty member at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts (IDSVA). Albrecht has represented educators on many national and international boards including the Visual Resources Association, Digital Future Coalition, National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH), and the US Commerce Department's Conference on Fair Use (CONFU). Albrecht holds a doctorate in Philosophy and Art Theory (IDSVA), a Masters, Art History (American University), and Bachelors, Art History (UCLA).

Inhaltsangabe

List of Plates List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Origins
of Steampunk: Science Fiction and Victoriana 2. The Victorian/Steampunk
Connection: Upheaval, Discovery and the Birth of Modernism 3. The Steampunk
Aesthetic in Contemporary Visual Art 4. Performing Steampunk 5. Steampunk's
Challenge to Contemporary Philosophy 6. Beyond Steampunk Notes Bibliography