Steampunk Design Contest Winners Announced

In March, the Balboa Park Online Collaborative launched Balboa Park’s first-ever steampunk design contest. The contest offered steampunk enthusiasts the opportunity to show their creativity by creating a version of the Anomaly Detector used by the characters Pandora and Drake in Giskin Anomaly, Balboa Park’s park-wide cell phone adventure.

We advertised some pretty cool prizes—a weekend stay at the historic Cosmopolitan Hotel, gift cards, passes to the Gaslight Gathering convention, etc. — but we had no idea how much time people would dedicate to creating their devices. As the entries began to arrive in our office, we discovered battery-operated moving parts, light switches, and intricate metalworking.

Grand prize winner John Hosford spent about 80 hours creating his entry (pictured), titled Sir Tellabeem’s Tempress Mark II. He hand-dyed and cut the leather for his entry, which we found to be the most creative and elaborate of the submissions. Yesterday, we invited all of the winners to come to Balboa Park to wear their steampunk costumes, take photos with their winning devices, and meet Danielle LoPresti, the voice of Pandora in Giskin Anomaly.

Decked out in old-timey vests, hats, and goggles, the winners posed with their devices in different parts of the Park—stopping every so often to explain to a Park visitor what, exactly, this whole steampunk thing is about. They also talked about their processes for creating their entries.

“When I first started working on my entry, I didn't know exactly what a temporal anomaly detector looked like. I thought that the closest thing was the PKE meter from 'Ghostbusters,' so I started with that as inspiration, and added on from there,” explained Chris, the second place winner who also goes by the name Captain Duncan Z. Doenitz. “The wand idea sounded cool, and since the whole idea of Giskin Anomaly is thought imprints from the past, the earpiece idea sounded perfect.”

Ruslan, creator of the Vox Preteritus Mk 1 device, said that the most difficult part about his entry was the time factor. “I had many ideas but had to narrow it down to something I was able to build in the time allowed and the same time be happy with the final product,” he said. Ruslan’s day job is to create custom armor and costumes out of materials such as steel, bronze, copper, leather and aluminum.

Other winners, like Jeff Axup, had limited experience with metalworking or welding but simply had clear, creative ideas for what the device could be. Although Jeff couldn’t make it to yesterday’s photo shoot, he sent along this explanation of his device:

The Recollectoscope Model-VI is the latest offering in the Velvet Emporium's extensive collection of quality steam-gadgets for the discriminating gentleman scientist. It can be used in any social environment to conduct a temporal-contextual analysis of the subconscious communal cognitive flow, permitting analysis and eavesdropping on both historical and real-time experience. Strap a Recollectoscope to your chevaline before galloping off on your next expedition into an uncharted social network, and know with certainty that you will have a truly unforgettable experience.

Balboa Park Gets Steampunk'd

Ruslan, John, and Chris discuss techniques at Zoro Garden 

Ruslan uses his device near the Botanical Building

Chris uses his device near the San Diego Air & Space Museum

John, Ruslan, and an oblivious jogger by the Prado

Another view of Sir Tellabeem’s Tempress Mark II, held by creator John Hosford

Pandora (Danielle LoPresti) uses one of the devices to detect anomalies: thoughts from the past that have become hidden in the Balboa Park landscape

The full list of winners is available on the Balboa Park website. To see more photos from the photo shoot, go to our Flickr page. To learn more about Giskin Anomaly, visit the Giskin website or become a fan on Facebook.