Steampunk is not a mainstream thing. A cultural movement that involves art and music made in the way they would have been during the era of steam power, it's a left-field venture, most often seen in small bohemian sort of places. But Saturday at Morehead Planetarium, the music of this movement will be on proud display. Jay Cartwright, a great local steampunk musician, will deliver his product alongside art and science exhibits. The free event starts at 11 p.m. and will show the ways steampunk and science intersect. Looking forward to the event, Diversions Editor Jordan Lawrence caught up with Cartwright for a short chat about his unusual style.
Diversions: You're doing the steampunk event at Morehead this weekend. Why did you want to take part in this?
The reason I was asked is just that I've been involved in the steampunk community in Carrboro and Chapel Hill, mostly through the rock band I used to play in Lemming Malloy, which was a steampunk band. The planners of this steampunk event had talked to some of my friends, and then it got back to me that they were looking for some folks. And I just thought it sounded like a lot of fun.
Dive: How big and involved would you say that the steampunk community in Carrboro and Chapel Hill is compared to other places?
JC: As far as smaller metropolitan areas go, this is the most active there is in the United States. There's a really big scene in San Francisco, and there's a big scene in New York. And I'm sure you'll find a scene in other big cities like Boston or Chicago, but as far as a college town is concerned, this is a pretty special thing. I know this because after events, they'll like have people that have flown in from Maine to come to this steampunk ball because they're so in to steampunk, and there's nothing like that at home. That's what tells me that it's a special thing, special to this area.
Dive: What draws you to play steampunk? What do you like about it?
JC: I think it's fun because most of culturally what we consider about science these days has to do with how science can distill everything down to numeric codes, down to patterns that can be modeled in such a way that you can predict anything. It's sort of like in "The Matrix" or something. That's the dominant idea. That you can sort of distill everything down to ones and zeros. That you could calculate using some giant theoretical computer.
And what I like about steampunk is that its take on science is an older take in that it goes back to more late 1700s, early 1800s when people didn't quite see things that way. When science was sort of seen as something that was going to show us new wonders and show us things that we were previously unaware of and actually expand the unpredictability in our lives. What's funny is that if you really look at particle physics today, like contemporary particle physics study, when you look really closely at the fabric of the universe, it is highly unpredictable. So in away, by going back that far in how we look at science, it's more closely accurate to the way things might actually be. I think that most people are unaware of that, just because they don't learn particle physics in high school. It's only scientists and mathematicians that actually see things that way.
So I see steampunk as just another way to argue that we only expect the unexpected in our lives and live that way. I think when I consider the world that way I find it a more exciting place to be.
Dive: What do you think that a crowd at a more family oriented event like this can take away from a steampunk event?
JC: The really cool thing about this event is that it's open to the public. This is not really a scene event. So my hope is that people who have never really heard of steampunk before will come and see some really neat things, and they're interest will grow. And they'll become more involved in steampunk.
Dive: Do you think you'll have to dumb down what you normally do since it's not a niche audience?
JC: I don't think so. I do different things. When I played in a band it was original music. We dressed in the outfits and that kind of a thing. This time it's going to be just me, and I'm going to play accordion. And I'm going to play contemporary songs. Well not contemporary, but songs from the '60s onward. But I play them on the accordion, arranged for the accordion in a completely acoustic environment. No amplification of any kind. Because there are no electronics involved the presentation of the music involved will be 100 percent mechanical. So it will have a little bit more charm to it. It's a really nice reward to play the accordion in an unampliphied environment because you can really hear the richness of the instrument. Its physical qualities create the music as opposed to just electrical components.
That ties back into what I was saying earlier. That richness is sort of because of the unpredictability that is inherent in moving objects. That's not there in a synthesizer where it's just a computer program. And by doing the contemporary music, it's a bridge between now and then.
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