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This should be fun, packing a top hat and bow tie now...

Austin, TX February 25th - On March Monday 12th from 7pm to midnight, a fun-filled and wholly unique event will take place at Scholtz Garten as part of SXSW Interactive festival. This year, the oldest restaurant in Texas will host "Futures of the Past: A Steampunk Adventure". The event is an annual celebration honoring the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit group of lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries working to protect digital rights. This year, the event will also be open to the public, benefiting EFF-Austin. A plethora of Vaudeville entertainers from St. Idiot's Collective, Schave and Reilly, and Popsy Purvy will entertain throughout the event. Austin's own White Ghost Shivers will headline, with Luna Tart and David Demaris filling out the bill. The showcase, has generously been sponsored primarily by Fish and Richardson P.C., Make Magazine, the Digital Convergence Initiative of Texas and Enspire Learning, has become a staple of the SXSW Interactive party scene. EFF-Austin has selected Doryan Rice, Austin's digital P.T. Barnum, and his Wednesday Night Dinner Co. to create and produce the event for the second year running. Steampunk refers to the genre of futuristic writings by H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley and Jules Verne, who dreamt of what the future could accomplish with steam power, clockwork, and other Victorian-era machinery. Many artists, animators, and performers have embraced and evolved the aesthetic into dazzling futuristic visions using past technology. Included in this list is speaker Bruce Sterling, author with William Gibson of the Steampunk novel The Difference Engine.

Also featured, there will be an exhibit of "Modern Marvels", which will hold visual and interactive artworks from local and national artists who specialize in Steampunk styles. Included works involve hand-made shadow boxes, a time machine booth, and candles that spin under their own steam power. Finally, Austin's Robot Group will be on hand with their automatons wheeling about amongst the audience.

The public is invited to attend for a donation to EFF-Austin (badge holders get in free). Revelers in Steampunk-style costumes get a discount at the door.

Interactive Showcase to Steam-up SXSW 07, Monday March 12th from 7pm to midnight - Link.