Ingimar Oddsson: October 2015

For many years I've been dressing up and decorating my home in a steampunk influenced way. I have called it costuming and a hobby. But unlike my interests and hobbies that have gradually faded away my interest in steampunk has grown over the years. Costumes became clothes and I started to make music, writing books and interacting with steampunk enthusiasts all over the world.

Steampunk is not only a retro-futuristic science fiction, it has so many variables that to the unfamiliar it is almost impossible to explain it thoroughly.
Steampunk has become a lifestyle of many people, the way to live, dress, eat and behave. But to the outside spectator it might look ridiculous and confusing. A victorian era fiction or a sub-genre of cyberpunk won't help anyone to understand.
In my view Steampunk is a culture that has grown above its predecessors and evolved in to a world of its own. It is intercultural, technological, free thinking, creative and individual.
The true aesthetics of the world we had left behind is back and the dreams of the most creative thinkers have come true.

We had a talk, me and Sigga, my fiancé. -Are we really going to continue this lifestyle and take Steampunk all the way? It means giving away all the clothes we never were, building our own Steampunk house, modify the furniture, steampunk the car and live happily ever after?

But of course!!
-Are we willing to sacrifice our every day dullness and be awesome every day of the year?
But of course !!

I have been working on a project for some years called the kingdom of Bildalia. It is a fictional kingdom in the westfjords of Iceland.
In a village called Bildudalur we have had an annual steampunk festival where the village turns into the kingdom of Bildalia for one week.
Bildalia has its own flag, a national anthem, its own currency, passports, army and king, queen and aristocracy.
This happens during the Steampunk Iceland festival and next year it will be in june 20 to june 26 2016 This isn't a very large festival, about 400 people attended at its highest peak 2014 But it has become an example to the rest of the Steampunk community of what can be achieved and how to make a festival into an ongoing story and create a stage for a live action role play where everyone can participate. (wearing clothes or not)

I visited a much bigger event in Seattle Washington where I met with artists and enthusiasts I only had read about.

As I walked in to the conference centre the first thing I saw was a big poster of myself hanging on the wall. I was attending as a guest and I was going to have a concert during the weekend but I didn't expect to be "mistaken for a celebrity".
But as the conference went into the weekend I realised that everyone was a celebrity there. Everyone was creative artists and thinkers. Everyone had a story to their name.
My concerts (two of them) and the lecture on Cryptozoology went beautifully and I am definitely going to continue with my "Monsters and myths" talks in the future.