Biography in this world ( in progress ):
I've trained as a Mechanical Engineer, and my PhD research is looking at the way engineers interact with design media. I was initially interested in this area because I'm fascinated by how people 'invent', I'm frustrated with how Computer Aided Design systems don't really Aid Design, and I don't think we really understand how sketching, gesturing, calculating and modelling support design. The more I study people designing, the more it becomes clear that design is a truly complex activity, and that current descriptions of design don't capture the richness of interaction with design media.
'Mechanical Engineering' used to have overtones for me of 'getting your hands dirty' but unfortunately I have the hands of someone who spends most of their day in air-conditioned sterility in front of a computer. I really respect and value finely honed bodily skills and knowledge, particularly when it comes to making 'things', fixing 'things' and thinking with hands. I think it's interesting and important to study how people do what they do, whether it's in engineering design or other domains. One of the most fascinating mornings I've ever had was spent watching a piano tuner at work, and I think the artistry and intuition of the woodturner, plumber, carpenter and mechanic are undervalued.
Parallel Universe Biography: Benjamin McGarry was born Potok Ben Ishmael in 1977 to a poor Turkmenistani family running a gherkin farm on the outskirts of Krasnovodsk, a ghost town in the wastelands on the east coast of the Caspian Sea. Seeking a life beyond the gherkin farm, Ben rebelled against his strict parents and stowed away on a seaplane destined for freedom. Unfortunately, "freedom" is slang for "Fri Goh Mah Dom", a death camp on the Thai-Burma border, and upon landing Ben was promptly imprisoned and tortured in an attempt to get him to reveal all he knew about gherkins. This didn't take long, as Ben had never been interested in following in his father's footsteps, so after only a brief spell in the camp, Ben was released into the jungle. He spent the years of 1987 - 1991 with the student militia in the Burmese highlands, perfecting the art of "Pun Ka Go", or "building things from banana leaves", before hitching a ride on a commercial Dutch frigate bound for Jamaica at the age of 14. What happened between the years of 1991-2001 is unclear, but Ben woke up in the Great Court of the University of Queensland in St Lucia on March 17, 2001 with vague recollections of working for a decade in a morgue in Haiti, not an enviable profession given that the dominant religion on the island is voodoo. After failing a string of part-time jobs, Ben enrolled in a PhD, which is going OK so far.
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