True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

Rough Science
A very cool BBC series (over several seasons) wherein the crafty producers
take a bunch of scientists and technicians to a remote location and
have them recreate sophisticated tools and inventions using only the
primitive materials on hand. Vines, wood, bits of metal, shells. Here:
make a clock (with bell), or a device to record sounds, or how about
a camera, microscope, soap and sunblock; or go survey and map the
island – using tools of your own construction. You don’t know science
until you can roll your own. This 10-part program is highly instructional
because you get to see technology reduced to its essence – and because
not everything works.
By Sarah Topalian and
David Shulman
2002, 90 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
A hot-air balloon (left top)
made from taped together
garbage bags lifts a camera
to record an aerial view.
The beginnings of a wax
phonograph in the workshop
(above). Making a light bulb
with homemade vacuum
equipment (left).
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