Humbug is a term infrequently used in design. It is an archaism straight out of the 19th century, meaning hoax or nonsense. The word has strong associations with Dickens’ Scrooge and the ultimate showman and hoaxer himself, P.T. Barnum. In this time of cultural recycling, it is a word perhaps best used to describe Steampunk, a subculture supposedly born out of a mash-up of DIY (do-it-yourself), Victoriana, punk, science fiction, Japanese anime and the urge to re-skin one’s computer as 19th century bric-a-brac. If the number of recent articles in the mainstream press is any reliable barometer (
The New York Times,
Boston Globe,
Paper, and
Print all have featured the movement in the past year), Steampunk is
the next big thing. This appears to be the result of a fascination with remixing historical and contemporary aesthetics, as if all eras can be collapsed into the present. What is most interesting and disappointing about Steampunk is the odd DIY design culture that it has engendered.
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