Steampunk exhibition gets underway at Bradford Industrial Museum (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Steampunk exhibition gets underway at Bradford Industrial Museum

10:40am Monday 12th December 2011 in Bradford By David Barnett, Content Editor

Bradford was going back to the future today as a six-month exhibition devoted to the growing movement of steampunk gets under way.

The Bradford Industrial Museum is hosting Steampunk until May, and visitors will be able to immerse themselves in a world that never was, but which is growing momentum in books, movies and re-enactments.

The term steampunk was coined in the 1980s to refer to science fiction novels which were set in an alternative Victorian period but with retro-futuristic technology – steam-powered robots, clockwork computers, airships and fabulous beasts.

The genre pays homage to the novels of Jules Verne and HG Wells and has grown from a literary movement to become a lifestyle choice for steampunk enthusiasts who dress in Victorian gear and create artworks based around the imagined technology.

Beth Hughes, assistant curator at the Industrial Museum, said: “Steampunk is growing in popularity and we thought it was an interesting fit with the museum’s exhibits of the real Victorian, steam-powered era.”

Movies such as Martin Scorsese’s Hugo and the latest version of the Three Musketeers employ steampunk imagery, and there are two groups of steampunk enthusiasts in West Yorkshire – the Royal Dirigible Corps and the Yorkshire Steampunk Coalition.

The genre pays homage to the novels of Jules Verne and HG Wells and has grown from a literary movement to become a lifestyle choice for steampunk enthusiasts who dress in Victorian gear and create artworks based around the imagined technology.

Wesley Perriman, 29, who lives in Skipton and works in Keighley, helped to put together the exhibition at the industrial museum.

He has worked with other steampunks to provide the Tranzient Gallery – a mini-museum mounted on a bicycle – and the Palace of Curiosities, featuring steampunked memorabilia such as a mermaid.

He said: “Steampunk is certainly growing as a community.

“The difference between genuine historical re-enactment societies and steampunk is that with the latter you can be more creative, use your imagination more.”

And Steampunk is leaking into modern culture more and more. Exhibits at the Industrial Museum will include a steampunk chess board, a pest-controller’s backpack, an absinthe fairy costume, a steam-powered croquet mallet, and more.