Inhaltsverzeichnis für Autumn 2017 in Smith Journal

a roadside distillery making mezcal out of crushed-up agave. There was a horse mill to grind the plant fibre, several large concrete buckets with fermenting pulp inside, a copper still and a cooling vat. If you stood downwind you got slapped in the face with alcohol fumes and couldn’t breathe for a bit. Everything on site was handmade, and cobbled together strictly for utility. Jury-rigged in the best possible sense from tarp, concrete, piping and corrugated iron. The only design question they needed was: does it work? (The answer was yes. Their mezcal was excellent.) No-one there had tried to make things pretty, but it was beautiful in a way. There’s something similar going on in this issue of Smith. With the hand-forged aeroplanes of rural China, welded together from…

CASSIE CONLEY DESCRIBES HERSELF AS A TYPICAL AMERICAN BUREAUCRAT. SHE SPENDS MOST OF HER DAYS IN A FEDERAL OFFICE “ATTENDING MEETINGS, DOING EMAIL, AND WRITING OR REVIEWING DOCUMENTS”. But Conley is not some mid-level pencil pusher. She’s the NASA Planetary Protection Officer (PPO) – the person tasked to, as she puts it, “protect the Earth from life we might bring here from elsewhere, and protect other solar system objects from being contaminated by Earth life”. Planetary protection has been a concern for space wonks since 1956, when Sputnik 1 launched the space race. In 1967 the United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty stipulated that signatories incorporate planetary protection into their space programs. Fifty years later, there’s a PPO at every space agency. Early planetary protection focused on fears that astronauts would…

 What’s the story behind these photos? I read an article in a Dutch newspaper about how farmers and other workers were building their own aircraft in the most unexpected places all over China. They weren’t working in fancy hangars with proper equipment; they were playing around in their backyards, recycling scrap metal and using household tools. I was fascinated by their imagination and persistence, and decided to go to China to know more about them. How do you make an aircraft with no training? The aeronauts, as they’re called, do a huge amount of reading. Then it’s a matter of trial and error. Because of their limited knowledge, their work progresses fitfully, often needing to stop until they figure out a solution. They can be very…

 What’s your background as an artist? I did an interior design degree and hated every minute of it. In my third year, I went to study in Berlin and discovered ceramics. I completely fell in love and I’ve been doing it ever since. I started my From Russia, With Love project about a year ago. Why the obsession with tattoos? It started with my identity as a Russian girl with tattoos – I was born in Uzbekistan and came to Israel when I was three, but my parents are Russian. All my life, I was told: “No one will want to marry you because you have tattoos,” or, “Tattoos are for prisoners and sailors, not for girls.” I think that’s why I started thinking about them. I found out…

“EMPEROR GEORGE STANDS APART FROM THE REST IN THE WAY THAT ATLANTIUM IS PRIMARILY ABOUT SELLING A GRAND IDEA OF HOW A COUNTRY SHOULD RUN TO BENEFIT EVERYONE.” HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY GEORGE II IS RUNNING LATE FOR OUR INTERVIEW. I TEXT HIM: FIVE MINUTES? HE WRITES: MAKE IT 10 – JUST PUTTING THE WASHING ON. He came into this world as George Francis Cruickshank, but at age 15 he became the Emperor of Atlantium, a non-territorial sovereign entity on the continent of Australia that’s twice the size of Vatican City and half the size of Monaco. Contrary to the textbooks, we’re not alone down here. The washing spins in the background of his home in Marrickville, New South Wales, as the Emperor takes a seat. What does one call such…

LAST NOVEMBER, RESEARCHERS AT THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS PUBLISHED A PAPER MAKING AN ASTOUNDING CLAIM: USING ONLY A SIMPLE SOLUTION, THEY COULD TRANSFORM BITS OF SILVER INTO GOLD AND GOLD INTO SILVER. FOR CASUAL OBSERVERS – AND SOME HEADLINE WRITERS – THIS SMACKED OF ALCHEMICAL ABSURDITY. Alchemy is a pseudoscientific system that reached its zenith in medieval Europe; practitioners believed matter was constantly changing from rougher to ‘purer’ substances. Their favourite hobby was the quest to induce that change, by transforming base metals into pure gold. The illogicality of this quest, and the cryptic terms alchemists used, have since made them synonymous with magical delusion. Which makes it hard not to be suspicious of any effort to fully transform other materials into something yellow and shimmering. That goes…

IT CAN BE ENJOYABLE TO WRITE A GOOD ARTICLE OR THINK THROUGH AN ARGUMENT, BUT I CAN’T BE A PHILOSOPHER 100 PER CENT OF THE TIME. ACCIDENTS ARE IMPORTANT A lot of the things that led me to study philosophy were accidents. When I went to university I intended to study law, but a course advisor told me I might find it a bit dry. My sister had a boyfriend who had done some philosophy and it sounded interesting, so I did that. Years later, I got into a conversation with another student as we were getting lunch at college. I overheard him ask whether there was meat in the spaghetti sauce, and when he was told there was, he chose a salad instead. I asked him why he had…

ONE SWELTERING SUMMER’S AFTERNOON IN 2015, SHANE THOMS AND FOUR MATES EXECUTED A DARING PLAN. AFTER SNEAKING ONTO A BOAT DOCKED JUST OFF NAGASAKI, IN SOUTHERN JAPAN, THEY WOOED THE CAPTAIN WITH A WAD OF CASH THEN SET OFF 15 KILOMETRES NORTH TO HASHIMA ISLAND, A ONCE-BUSTLING MINING COMMUNITY ABANDONED 40-ODD YEARS AGO AFTER NEARBY UNDERSEA COAL RESERVES RAN DRY. Dumped unceremoniously at the island’s sea wall, Thoms and his friends scrambled up over the rocks and into the overgrown grounds of a deserted school, ever alert to the threat of being busted. They set up camp before immediately going their separate ways. The light would soon fade and there was much to explore. The guys met three hours later atop an abandoned apartment block, slapping at voracious mosquitoes…

THE DEEPLY DIVISIVE WORLD WE LIVE IN CALLS FOR ITS OWN PUNCTUATION MARK. LUCKILY IT ALREADY EXISTS – THE ELLIPSIS. WHILE THE EXCLAMATION MARK IS GENERALLY THOUGHT OF AS PRETTY LOW-RENT WHEN IT COMES TO WRITING, THE THREE DOTS OF THE ELLIPSIS HOLD A WEIRD MIDDLE GROUND. Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Harold Pinter and a whole stack of other big literary names have managed to use this particular device elegantly; on the other hand, Italian novelist Umberto Eco commented on “the ghastliness of these dots”, German philosopher Theodor Adorno saw them as a product of mass cultural consumption, and you don’t have to look far online to find “The five most annoying ways to use an ellipsis.” Perhaps it’s unsurprising that there’s antagonism towards this innocuous-looking symbol –…

THE CONCEPT OF AN ACTUARIAL TABLE – THE CHART THAT LIFE INSURERS USE TO CALCULATE THE PROBABILITY SOMEONE WILL DIE BEFORE THEIR NEXT BIRTHDAY – MANAGES THAT RARE FEAT OF BEING BOTH CONCERNED WITH DEATH AND INCREDIBLY DULL. So goes life insurance, the most maligned and misunderstood of all insurances. A field associated with thick-glassed accountants poring over mortuary statistics and depressed door-to-door salesmen selling policies to even more depressed housewives, life insurance these days feels like the kind of conversation topic you bring up at a dinner party you’re trying to ruin. However, for much of its history, life insurance was not only a vital strut of the social welfare state, but also a realm of occult ritual, bizarre initiations and occasional axe-throwing. Rich with pageantry, comedy and good…

IT’S 1967, WATTS COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. THURSDAY EVENINGS IN ATHENS PARK, BETWEEN 120TH AND FIGUEROA. THERE’S A BUNCH OF BLACK GUYS THERE, AND THEY’RE THROWING PUNCHES – ABSOLUTELY HAMMERING EACH OTHER. SOME ARE CLIMBING SIX METRES UP INTO THE BLEACHERS AND HURLING THEMSELVES OFF. Violence is nothing new in this part of the world, the scene of the 1965 Watts riots in which 34 were killed amid protests against police brutality. The LAPD surround the guys in the park, confident they’ve uncovered a cell of the radical Black Panthers. All they’ve done, in fact, is come across a bunch of men and women trying to get a job. At the time, there were no black stuntmen in Hollywood. Eddie Smith, an organiser of the Thursday night sessions and eventual co-founder of…

PINNING KEVIN VERSTREPEN DOWN ON DETAILS CAN BE TOUGH. THE BELGIAN GENETICIST CAN’T SAY MUCH ABOUT HIS MOST INNOVATIVE WORK BECAUSE HIS CLIENTS – MEGA-CORPORATIONS AND AT LEAST ONE ORDER OF BELGIAN MONKS YOU DON’T WANT TO PISS OFF – ARE ALL COMPETING IN A GLOBAL INDUSTRY THAT’S NOT FAR BEHIND PHARMACEUTICALS IN TERMS OF REVENUE AND CORPORATE SECRECY. THAT INDUSTRY? BEER. A Heston Blumenthal-like figure with a shaved head and thick-framed glasses, Verstrepen says he became interested in genetics around the same time he first started drinking beer – though he confesses the two passions were initially unrelated. One day at high school, a bioengineer came to talk to his class about working on vaccines for a living. Verstrepen was captivated, and decided then and there to become a…

CONSIDER THIS: IN A BASIC 6-FROM-49 LOTTERY, WHERE THE ONLY REQUIREMENT IS THAT YOU PICK SIX CORRECT NUMBERS OUT OF 49 POSSIBILITIES, THE ODDS OF YOU WINNING IN ANY GIVEN DRAW ARE 1 IN 13,983,816. To put that in perspective, here is a list of things that are more likely to happen to you in your 80-odd years on this Earth: finding a four-leaf clover (1 in 10,000), dying in a plane crash (1 in 5.37 million) or becoming President of the United States of America (1 in 10 million). By any measure, purchasing a ticket for the lottery is an insane financial investment. Yet week after week, year after year, millions of people throw their money at this beautiful impossibility, hoping for the best, knowing that it will never…

MANUFACTURE // From the initial hand sketch to the laser cutting and stitching, the whole shoe is handmade. DESIGN // This style is typically designed for horse riding, but we call it the NORIDER because our founder is vegan. MATERIALS // Made from eco-friendly, 100 per cent recyclable microfibre from Italy, which has the feel of real leather. It’s easy to cut and clean, and it ages well. SAMPLES // We had to change the last, or foot mould, twice to get the right shape. It took a lot of trial and error; the first sample always looks great, but you can’t put your foot in them. DESIGN // The design was sketched on paper, then sketched on the lasts, then transferred back to paper. The entire process is done…

THARPE WAS ONE OF THE FIRST MUSICIANS TO HAVE HER OWN DEDICATED TOUR BUS. A NECESSITY AS MUCH AS A LUXURY, IT CAME IN HANDY WHEN SUITABLE ‘COLOURED’ ACCOMMODATION WAS UNAVAILABLE. BORN: March 20, 1915, Cotton Plant, Arkansas, U.S.A. DIED: October 9, 1973, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. IN 1915 A PAIR OF ARKANSAS COTTON PICKERS BROUGHT INTO THIS WORLD A BABY GIRL WHOM HISTORY WOULD EVENTUALLY REMEMBER AS THE GODMOTHER OF ROCK’N’ROLL. HER NAME, BACK THEN, WAS ROSETTA NUBIN. AND WHEN SHE WAS SIX HER MOTHER, KATIE BELL, TOOK HER ON THE ROAD AS A TINY GUITAR PLAYER PREACHING THE GOOD WORD WITH AN EVANGELICAL TOURING GROUP. Bell was what they called a ‘stompdown Christian’, practising her religion with ecstatic stamping and clapping and music-making. She was also a preacher for…

“WHEN YOU PLAN SUCH EXPEDITIONS, YOU KNOW THERE IS A CHANCE OF NOT RETURNING ALIVE.” FEDOR KONYUKHOV GREETS VISITORS TO HIS MOSCOW WORKSHOP WITH A HAND TO THE FOREHEAD – A BLESSING IN THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH WHERE HE SERVES AS A PRIEST. A RUGGED 65-YEAR-OLD WITH A THICK GREY BEARD AND A BOOMING VOICE, HE WEARS A SAILOR’S PEA COAT WITH A PRIEST’S SOFT BLACK HAT, AND FINGERS A LONG ROSARY OF WOODEN BEADS AS HE SPEAKS. “I’VE GOT A LOT OF SINS,” HE JOKES. As Russia’s most prominent adventurer, he has climbed Mount Everest twice, reached the North Pole three times (including one time alone and on skis), rowed across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and sailed solo around the world four times. In recent years he…

I GREW UP IN PARIS, AND MY PARENTS WERE VERY OLD-SCHOOL: NO TV, NO STAR WARS. BUT THEY HAD FRIENDS WHO KNEW ABOUT STAR TREK WHO TOLD THEM, “IT’S OKAY, THERE’S NO VIOLENCE,” SO I WENT TO SEE THE FIRST MOVIE WHEN I WAS EIGHT. People knock Star Trek: The Motion Picture because nothing happens in it, but I found it very soothing. In the ’70s and early ’80s, we lived with constant anxiety about nuclear war, missiles, the Wall – it was not a super-happy time. Plus, I was in France, which I wouldn’t call a racist country, but if you’re on the outside, it’s not that easy. And Star Trek had none of that. On the contrary, it was proudly inclusive. It also portrayed a world where a…

THE LARGEST LANGUAGE SPOKEN EXCLUSIVELY IN AUSTRALIA IS ONE YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE. IT HAS AN ABC NEWS SERVICE DEDICATED TO IT, IS NOW HEARD ON THE SHAKESPEAREAN STAGE AND BOASTS A BIBLE PREACHING THE SCRIPTURES IN ITS TONGUE. IT’S CALLED KRIOL, AND IT’S THE SECOND MOST COMMON LANGUAGE IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY, WITH SOMETHING LIKE 20,000 SPEAKERS ACROSS REMOTE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIA FROM THE QUEENSLAND BORDER TO BROOME. Linguistically speaking, a creole is a type of language that emerges out of a sudden, often brutal colonisation process, when Indigenous languages are suppressed. A creole is born when local speakers riff on the dominant lingo of the coloniser to suit their needs, innovating so creatively on the grammatical structure and lexicon that the language becomes incomprehensible…

HARD. IF AN INTERROGATOR HELD A GUN TO YOUR TO HEAD, THAT’S PROBABLY THE WORD YOU’D CHOOSE TO DESCRIBE BRUTALIST ARCHITECTURE. Don’t punch those concrete exteriors even though they sometimes look like they want to punch back – you’ll get blood on your knuckles. Brutalism’s aesthetics can seem tough, unsympathetic, aggressive. Its eccentric shapes, myriad entrances and multiple levels are often hard to compute. And it’s a style that’s hard to love. It takes time to understand and appreciate this architecture; it’s like a James Joyce novel, a Mogwai album, a Chris Morris comedy sketch. Though, as with all these other cultural trinkets, once you’ve cracked the code you can fall much harder for brutalism than for something run-of-the-mill. Brutalism began in the post-WWII period as a way of describing…

COME TO NEW ZEALAND, THE POSTERS SAY. YOU’LL DISCOVER AN UNTOUCHED WORLD FILLED WITH FIERCE AND NOBLE MĀORI WARRIORS, GEOTHERMAL WONDERS, RUGGED OUTDOORSMEN AND EPIC LANDSCAPES. IT’S ALL THERE WAITING – IF YOU CAN GET THERE. If you think the Land of the Long White Cloud is a long way from the rest of the world now, spare a thought for the British and American travellers of the early- to mid-20th century. Going that far was an expedition requiring serious weeks at sea, let alone any time actually spent on Kiwi terra firma. But that was all the more reason for the New Zealand tourism machine to put some dedicated – and extremely innovative – work in. Knowing it was a hard sell, they invested in poster art depicting Aotearoa’s…

CRIME FICTION IS UNDENIABLY POPULAR. BUT IF YOU DON’T READ THE GENRE, YOU MIGHT HAVE A HARD TIME UNDERSTANDING ITS APPEAL. WHY SPEND YOUR DOWNTIME MEDITATING ON HUMANITY’S DARKEST DEEDS? Among the earliest explanations is the “compensatory” theory: that reading (and watching) crime thrillers enables law-abiding citizens to entertain murderous fantasies they would never put into action. This theory dates back to 18th -century Britain, when novels based on the exploits of real-life criminals were popular, and it endures today. Asked to explain the attraction, Sisters in Crime Australia’s Mary Ann Metcalf has said, “Because [women] work in the caring professions, we like to go home and read about killing someone.” Anthropologists would call crime fiction a “rite of reversal”: a socially sanctioned way of stepping outside our everyday lives…

TRUMAN WOODRUFF WAS ALMOST REDUCED TO BEGGING IN THE AUTUMN OF 1975. THE HEAD OF THE PHYSICS DEPARTMENT AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, WOODRUFF WAS WRITING TO A COLLEAGUE, PROFESSOR JACK H. HETHERINGTON, IN THE HOPE OF REACHING THE ELUSIVE F.D.C. WILLARD – HETHERINGTON’S ESTEEMED CO-AUTHOR ON A PAPER ABOUT LOW TEMPERATURE PHYSICS. THE ODDS, WOODRUFF KNEW, DID NOT LOOK GOOD. “Let me admit at once,” Woodruff wrote, “that if you had not written I should never have had the temerity to think of approaching so distinguished a physicist as F.D.C. Willard, F.R.S.C. [Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry], with a view to interesting him in joining a university department like ours… “However, heartened by your view that he might conceivably deign to look with favour on the modest opportunity…

BEING IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS, I TRY TO KEEP UP WITH WHAT’S GOING ON, BECAUSE IT’S EASY FOR ME TO GET OUT OF TOUCH. STILL, I’M PRETTY OUT OF THE LOOP WHEN IT COMES TO WHO’S SUPER POPULAR; I USUALLY JUST LISTEN TO MY OWN STUFF, AS I DON’T LISTEN TO FM RADIO OR WHEREVER IT IS PEOPLE LISTEN TO MUSIC THESE DAYS. BUT I AM VERY AWARE OF BEYONCÉ. I’d been unable to avoid a couple of Destiny’s Child songs over the years, and I’d heard one or two of her solo tracks. They sounded quite impressive. Then, a few years ago, I was flying back from Europe and there was a Beyoncé tour video on the in-flight entertainment. I only had an hour or so before we landed,…