Dragon*Con 2011 Through Rose-Colored Goggles: One Steampunk’s View << Prev Next >>
Chronicle correspondent and Junior Air Corps Brownie Girl Patricia Nolde gives us her own take of t...
By ProfHoppingood on Sep 20 2011 Category:SpC,Events  Dragon*Con is a lot like the British Museum of Geekery. If you’ve ever had occasion to visit the British Museum, your first impression is “This is Huge.” Your second impression is, “Holy Cow, this is HUGE!”. The British Museum almost defies definition because everything in the world is there, from the Rosetta Stone to the colossal head of Amenhotep III. It’s the largest (and one of the most controversial) collections of historical and cultural ephemera anywhere on earth.
In much the same way, Dragon*Con is one of the grandest and most diverse collections of geekery on display one can experience. Over 46,000 fans of science fiction and popular culture came out over Labor Day Weekend to fly their Geek Flag proudly. Superheroes mingled with anime characters, robotics engineers rubbed shoulders with people dressed as robots, and war-gamers hung out with…well, other gamers, mostly. And it is precisely this confluence of con-goers in their myriad forms of fandom that gives Dragon*Con both its panoramic exploration of the geekverse, but also makes it difficult at times to navigate. Dragon*Con is a maze of buildings encompassing five convention hotels that house events, concerts, competitions, parties, panels and sessions of every sort, to cater to every interest. A simple Steampunk Gal such as myself could get lost in this jungle, and only through skillful planning and careful attention to the complex schedule can one hope to maneuver through four wonderful days at Dragon*Con.
Thank heavens (and Cindy MacLeod) for the Alternative History Track! Through varied and skilled programming, the coordinators of this track bring together a smorgasborg of steamy sessions in one hotel, fondly referred to as the Wild Wild Westin. I was delighted to attend panels on arts, music, literature, graphic novels, culture, craftsmanship, and the science behind Steampunk technology. On Saturday, the Steampunk Exhibition was an amazing and inspiring display of some of the finest talents and their most impressive creations from around the world of Steampunk makers and designers, with equal acclaim for the professional craftsmen as well as for the amateur maker. A stunning and appreciative crowd of over 1000 people filed through the exhibit in a period of just over three hours. And on Sunday, The Grand Pirate and Time Travellers’ Ball kept all the retrofuturists out dancing until the wee hours of the morning to the tunes of Frenchy and the Punk, Voltaire, and Pandora Celtica, the masterful dj talents of Doctor Q and the Davenport Sisters, all emceed by the indomitable and sultry Taloolah Love. In fact, if a Steampunk were to just revolve through the ballrooms and salons of the Wild Wild Westin for the entire weekend, they would have suffered no lack of entertainment.
 But this is Dragon*Con, the British Museum of Geekery, and as such, it behooves a Steampunk to look outside of the retrofuturistic box to see what the other tracks have to offer to our Steampunk understandings. The Costuming Track offered panels and workshops on every facet of costuming, including corsetry, millinery, molding props, and the addition of special effects to costumes. Honestly, what would Steampunk costuming be without corsets, fine hats, and flashing lights, sound effects, and smoke? I rest my case. Hidden below the surface of the Costume track was a secondary Steampunk track just waiting to be discovered by the brave soul who ventured out of the Westin. Even the Robotics track offered a session on the Maker Movement and one on vacuum-forming, potentially a very important skill for makers. In the same way that a maker looks at sundry pieces of brass and eclectica consigned to the salvage yard by others, the adroit Steampunk can benefit from taking a close and discriminating look at what the world beyond cogs and bellows has that can enrich our ambience.
 To be honest, I actually prefer to attend a more narrowly-focused Steampunk-themed convention, such as World Steam Expo or TeslaCon. A wholly Steampunk con circumvents the sometimes jarring impressions that come from the co-mingling of so many disparate expressions of fandom. There’s a comfort in looking across an event that is unified in theme, a closer approach to an immersive experience, a camaraderie of like-minded enthusiasts. And, speaking as an avid shopper, it’s preferable to not have to push my way through three giant rooms of various vendors of every sort in order to find the handful of shops that cater to Steamier sensibilities. But that being said, the undeniable strength of the Steampunk community is the ability to borrow, adapt and incorporate ideas, elements and innovations into our own uniquely identifiable aesthetic. Even the most steadfast of Steampunks can benefit from venturing beyond the comfort of our admittedly decorative and fascinating corner of the creative world in order to explore the greater Geekdom at large.
And it doesn’t come any larger, or any geekier, than Dragon*Con.
Patricia Nolde is an absent-minded professor with a wanderlust and too many unfinished projects. | |