> When Charles C said that "tech the tech is literary greebling" in the bad
> sci fi thread below, I realized what bugged me about steampunk: Much of it
> is greebling too, it's just that the greebles are pulled from a library
> belonging to a different era. Not to say that art cannot be done for art's
> sake, but the common and overplayed theme nowadays seems to be pretend
> functionality in a lot of artistic or semi-artistic endavours, be it 
> sci-fi
> literature, computer games, 3d (creature/humanoid) modelling, as well as
> steampunk. Visuals might be superficially striking, and there's definitely
> display of technical prowess in metal and woodworking, welding, fastening,
> polishing, or if it's virtual, in modeling, but the end result often feels
> empty and does not provoke thought. To me, the true steampunk, thus, is:
> http://www.tatjavanvark.nl/harmonium/

IMO steampunk should be about the blending of ornamentation and
function, not greebling pseudo-function onto things to give the impression
of complexity. The harmonium seems to be all function and no ornamentation
though, it really strikes me as 1930-ish craftsman, more than steampunk.
Nice engineering examples like that deserve engraving and scrollwork.

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