Tom Sepe, who’s work was shown but not credited in the recent Design Observer post has this reply to the article:

My name is Tom Sepe and I’m the creator of the Whirlygig Emoto – (the “steampunk motorbike” that you failed to credit.) http://tomsepe.com/fabrication.html

Firstly, if you are going to make the point that steampunk is non-functional surfactant, then you really shouldn’t use a photograph of my bike as an example. The fully-functioning Whirlygig is built on a junked 1967 frame that has been completely re-tooled, gutted and forced to motivate using lead-acid chemical electricity – an 18th century technology that very well could have been society’s primary one if not for the oil and rubber industries. (I am of course using modern electronics to control the input and output of electrons, yet the principle is the same one that powered the first electric vehicles.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_electric_vehicle

In addition, my bike sports a fully functional handbuilt steam-boiler, produciing 100psi steampressure in just about 20 minutes. If you want to feel the superficial quality of my steampunk art, then please place your hand over this valve while I open it.

Now, I admit that the steam doesn’t power the vehicle, but steampunk doesn’t mean “runs on steam” – it’s an aesthetic title…. The use of the word “steam” in steampunk is a poetic reference to an era, meant to be an evocative and imagebased. We are talking about art and artists after all.

And although I agree that “function” is a primary component of Steampunk, I would also submit that it is the job of the artist to decide what function is fulfilled. If what you get is a working computer – great! If it is a 1940’s parachute that functions as a dress – amazing! If it is a tiny steamboiler that gurgles and confuses – incredible!  So to critique a laptop-mod as being “all about the look” is really missing the point. And to critique the entirety of the Steampunk house because of the paint-job in one room is lacking journalistic depth.

What you fail to notice in your reductionism – is that there is a lot going on within this genre, bridging multiple countries and cultures. Including fashion, design, literature, music, art, architecture, unique modifications, custom fabrications, community, skill-share, events and just plain ‘ole people doing something they like.

If at worst, Steampunk is “bad hobbyists with great publicists” as you say, then perhaps you might also notice that at its best, Steampunk is a vibrant and multi-faceted artistic movement, that includes men and women, geeks, metal-workers, hobbysts, scientists etc..- a movement that is inspiring people to create beautiful, functioning objects in the world around them, and to share that know-how with anyone who is curious.

Tom Sepe