The moment he emerged from the water in full 3D glory his equipment at once reminded me of the ↵industrial tribal art, and I already liked the movie. The majority of the critics’ reviews paints a less favorable picture, though. Nevertheless those reviews pour quite some water on my mills. Alonso Duralde for example ↑wrote for Reuters: “The creators of the umpteenth new adaptation of ‘↑The Three Musketeers‘ [Anderson 2011] decided that the classic novel really needed a giant blimp battle, high-tech booby traps, bird droppings, ‘Matrix’-esque slo-mo fight scenes and scads of computer-generated French soldiers.” [bold emphasis … Continue reading
Tag Archives: steampunk
When I entered the last chapter of ↑Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal 2008) my account read 178 diamonds. The sneaky bastard I am, I felt so comfortable once I had the combination of silenced P9, Dragunov, dart rifle, and the camouflage suit, there was no reason for me to spend anything on new equipment. The payments for accomplished missions came in, and the fortune amassed till ↑suicide was painless. Somehow mixing this up with my bank account, the one my salary as an anthropologist goes to, yesterday evening I strolled into a shop and laid fifty quid down … Continue reading
My new book ‘↑Cyberanthropology‘ has been published. You absolutely are invited to order it online ↑via amazon [I have absolutely nothing against you clicking the like-button there] or ↑via Peter Hammer Verlag. Offline every decent bookshop can get it for you, too. As the book is in German, here is my description of its contents in German: In “Cyberanthropology” geht es um moderne Technik und den Menschen, um Computer und Internet, um Computerspiele, aber auch um GPS, Automobile, Roboter … Was vor nicht allzu langer Zeit Science Fiction war, ist Lebenswirklichkeit geworden. Die vielfältigen Erscheinungsformen digitaler Elektronik und … Continue reading
The cultural production of the ↵moc world features an amazing richness—in several dimensions. There is the vast range of scales to which the artefacts are made. But there also is a beautiful wealth of styles. Not to mention the incredible number of artefacts. And this although I for now almost exclusively have limited my scope to ‘Star Wars’ related mocs. But then again this was to be expected when dealing with aspects of the fandom of the biggest intellectual property franchise around. Here are two examples. Both interpretations of the same subject, an imperial ↑AT-AT walker, are by … Continue reading
Polish illustrator and graphics designer Robert ‘TroC‘ Czarnyr (his website is a treasure trove for everybody seriously interested in 3D-visualization) has done two illustrations for H. G. Wells’ classic ‘The War of the Worlds’ (1898), which to my eye perfectly catch the atmosphere and ambience of the original text. You can judge for yourself, as the high resolution versions at Renderosity are accompanied with the matching excerpts from the novel: Thunder Child attacking Martian tripod war machines [Hi-Res] and Martian tripod war machines attacking London [Hi-Res]. WELLS, HERBERT GEORGE. 1898. The War of the Worlds. London: William Heinemann. via entry … Continue reading
It is a common cliché that anthropologists are fascinated by masks, even obsessed sometimes. Hence it was high time to post something on masks in here. If the two above pictured specimen from Steve ‘Radio-Guy’ Erenberg‘s collection seem vaguely familiar to you, then read Steve’s fine article at ‘Collectors Weekly’ to hear about an astounding theory. About the origin of his collection Steve says: More than 30 years ago, my wife, Helene, and I started collecting. She loved tribal masks—African, Oceanic, Indonesian, etc.—while I focused on medical, scientific, and industrial artifacts. I’ve spent my career as a creative … Continue reading
‘Arms Race’ is a steampunk short film by Nigel Clegg. It’s alternate hi/story is set in 1855, during a Crimean War (1853-1856) spiced up with steampunk machinery and gadgetry … for example, you will witness the charging of a not-so-light brigade. The behind-the-scenes & background of this micro-budget independent movie are really worthwhile, too. CLEGG, NIGEL. 2010. Arms Race [motion picture]. UK: It’s A Trap! via entry at brass goggles … Continue reading
Beyond Victoriana offers an exclusive sneak peek into the steampunk-anthology ‘Vaporpunk,’ featuring stories from Brazil and Portugal, which of course are all in Portuguese. But the sneak-peek teasers are in English, together with their Portuguese originals. If you need more secondary information—Fabio Fernandes has written a review of ‘Vaporpunk’ (in English). Obviously there is not only Latin-American cyberpunk (Toledano Redondo 2005), but steampunk, too. The blog Beyond Victoriana, where the excerpts have been published, in itself is interesting for literature-buffs and anthropologists alike, and perfect for anthropologists interested in literature: Beyond Victoriana is a blog about multicultural steampunk … Continue reading
Because his ↵steampunk keyboard mod “looked terribly anachronistic” in front of his flat panel display, Jake von Slatt, proprietor of ↑The Steampunk Workshop voided the warranty of his ↑monitor and modified it, too, because “art must be served.” … Continue reading
steampunk informed appropriation of mythical worlds and hardware ↑Captain Nemo‘s submarine “Nautilus” on the surface, getting entered by “cannibals”. The picture is for those, maybe a bit more traditionally oriented anthropologists, who dare to doubt that this vessel has anything to do with anthropology. It was clear as a scuttle—sometime around Christmas they would re-air “↑20,000 leagues under the sea,” the 1954 Disney rendition for the silver screen of ↑Jules Verne‘s ↑1870 novel. They always do, and so they did this time. Just having read ↑H. G. Wells‘ brilliant scientific romance “The first men in the moon” (1901), rewatching “Leagues” … Continue reading