I think we all have our dream office set-up. Some people want modern gadgets, slides, and that sort of thing. Not me. You see, I have an affinity for steampunk. If you don’t know what steampunk is, a great example of steampunk art is the clockwork bugs that were featured here just yesterday. However, bugs wouldn’t do it for me; I’d want steampunk-ish office supplies like these.
Why do I dig steampunk so much? I don’t know. Maybe too many Jules Verne novels as a kid. There’s just something about big brass gears, cogs, and cranks that does it for me. There’s something about the functional look and feel of it, I guess. There’s a tactile sensation from touching the key of a legitimate typewriter, and a satisfying clack that you can’t get with a keyboard. Using actual metal switches instead of plastic ones just has an entirely different aura about it, and the clunkier or more old-school the button, the more I like pressing it!
I can’t understand most of the technology I deal with on a daily basis, so it may as well look as complicated as it feels. Like William Burroughs said in his poem “No More Stalins, No More Hitlers”: The rulers of this most insecure of all worlds are rulers by accident. Inept, frightened pilots at the controls of a vast machine they cannot understand, calling in experts to tell them which buttons to push.
Tags: art, metal, springs, gears, calculators, adding machines, Andy Aaron, steampunk, steam punk