Steampunks and media culture: appropriations of a retro-futuristic proposal in Brazilian scenario

Abstract

This article analyses the relations that can be established between visualities and sociabilities of the steampunk’s universe, a contemporary urban culture based on a retro-futuristic worldview. It proposes to think about the contemporary links of sociability, which are strongly marked by the imagery production, as Michel Maffesoli proposes. The steampunks question the essence of technique and their implications, seeking mainly on the literature of science fiction, the cinema and the visuality characteristic of Eng land in the 19th century, the subsidy to their creations. All this set can be understood as a result of a specific 19th century visuality, resignified contemporarily by media interferences which, in turn, transform into a retro-futuristic aesthetic.