An Interview With Datamancer, a.k.a. Doc

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So how would you describe yourself: quirky inventor, techno genius or beardy bloke tinkering down the garden shed, swigging the odd jug of home made cider?

I dunno, I'm not all that comfortable labelling or describing myself. I have no idea how I appear to the rest of the world so I usually just go by what’s been said about me. Usually when I’m with friends and meeting someone else for the first time, I’ll say “Hey, I’m Doc, nice to meet you...” and most of the time someone will pipe in with “...he’s a mad scientist”, or “...he’ll be taking over the world with a robot army shortly”. Another friend once called me a “Technical Artist”, though I think “Artist, technically” fits better sometimes. If I was forced to quantify myself, I guess I see me fitting into that odd class of mutant, vagabond intelligentsia-infiltrators; underestimated, overlooked, self-taught tinkerers from humble beginnings who kind of sneak up on the world... like a builder who wakes up one day and realizes he is actually now an architect, or a gear head mechanic who unwittingly slides into the title of a land-speed-record-shattering aerodynamics engineer. There is also part of me that would be perfectly happy on a farm somewhere, living a simple life churning out strange creations a la Dr. Evermor and his Forevertron. Sooooo, I guess my official answer to your question would have to be “all of the above”.

Your P.C. hardware seems to know no reprieve from your tinkering hands, from the The Nagy Magical- Movable-TypePixello-Dynamotronic Computational Engine, to it’s accompanying scanner,The Opti-Transcripticon, that now looks like a leather bound book from some ancient library. Where, when, and how did this obsession of turning your tech. into retro fitted gizmos begin?

Well, tinkering was just sort of inborn with me and for some reason I was just never satisfied with the “supplied packaging” of any item in my possession. I remember as early as age 8 or so, I used to take apart every toy I owned that had a wire, battery, motor, or light of any kind in it and build other toys out of them. At that age, my fabrication supplies were mostly limited to string, tape, and stolen office supplies from school. I remember making a small pair of 10-inch “robot” knights whose bodies were constructed from of a bunch of toothpick wire frame polygons with tin foil stretched across them (all lashed together with thin slivers of scotch tape, nautical-rope fashion). The arms were attached to electric motors in each shoulder and would flail wildly in a circle when voltage was applied. There were red LEDs used for the eyes. I built a small “control panel” on their backs (paper clip switches, essentially) and set them against each other with improvised weapons (pens, popsicle sticks, etc). I was totally lost in a fantasy world of epic conquest, the knights tearing long gashes in the foil “armour” and shattering their toothpick bones until my mother came in and yelled at me. All she saw was me sitting there with a pile of broken toys, shattered bits of wood, and foil scraps everywhere. I think she thought I was just sitting there smashing things. Such misunderstandings have been common throughout my life. When I became older I was kind of a bad kid, always getting into trouble, so around age 12-14 or so, during the 363 days of the year when I was grounded and not allowed outside, I would hack and reprogram my father’s obsolete work computers (286, 386-era) using only knowledge gleaned from the help files (the /? flag was my best friend). I built all kinds of elaborate nested batch file menus, custom command interpreters full of my own stupid in-jokes, tore apart DOS games and modified them, wrote my own Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style text games, etc ad nerdium. I didn’t actually get a computer of my own until about age 17 or 18, when I cobbled together discarded pieces of other people’s computers and built them into a milk crate. That was baby’s first case mod. Of course, at the time, it wasn’t so much “custom” as “necessary” but it was cool nonetheless. As far as the “retro” inclinations, I guess that was sort of inborn too. I come from a long line of mechanics and auto body specialists who are also avid and rather locally renowned car customizers and  hot-rodding enthusiasts. In spite of the fact that I didn’t get heavily into cars myself until recently, I was still imbued with an appreciation of the craftsmanship and artistry of classic design. Once I finally got myself on the internet, I found through research that the further back in time you went, the more beautiful the designs became.

Did you train in electronics or are you self taught?

I’m entirely autodidactic, except for an A+ Certification that I just went through the motions to get (basically slept through that class and showed up for the final test, which I aced since I’d already taught myself the material 8 years prior), and an entirely useless MCSE certification in Networking. So basically, at the risk of quoting an old higher learning cliché, everything I learned in school is utterly useless to me now. I seem to have just always had an intuitive knack for machinery, whether it be clockwork, mechanical, or electronic. I “speak machine”, as it was once put to me (i.e. “Hey Rich, you speak machine. Come, fix this”).

What advice would you give to those wanting to create their own Steampunk bit of technology?

Research. When you’re trying to capture a particular aesthetic, you need to study it thoroughly. I spend hours sometimes on google images just punching in the names of different devices like craniometers (I also have a medicina antiqua fetish), tombstone radios, nixie tubes, steam trains, etc. You have to immerse yourself in the subject matter and get a feel for the design of each era and how the design flows into, plays off of, or camouflages the function. Most importantly, just have fun with it. Look around you. Which common item in your home do you wish was more attractive? Mod it. When in doubt, go with wood and brass. You can also feel free to drop me an email and I’ll offer my advice or experience.

Is there something you would really love to build, a personal blimp, perhaps? What bit of unsuspecting kit is to undergo modification next?

Now that you mention blimps, I do really want to build myself a full sized dirigible airship one day. Multiple gasbags, Da Vincian ornithopter-like bat wings, superfluous rigging, the whole kit and boodle. That’s a larger-scale project that I’m sure I won’t get to for at least another 5 years. But one day…

Right now I’m trying not to start any larger projects because I’ll be moving to California soon, but I’ve been wanting to do a Victoriana/Steampunk laptop for a few years now, so that’ll probably be one of the first projects once I get settled. I’ve got all the design sketches drawn up, I just need to get my hands on a decent donor laptop. I also want to start offering “products” on my web site like high-end Opti-Transcripticon scanners made of real bookbinding leather hides, some more Steampunkish jewellery, case mods, art pieces, knickknacks, gimcrack, and other assorted frippery.

There has been a blossoming across the globe of Steampunk builds, have any of them caught your admiration?

I’m quite pleased to see the recent burst of interest in the Steampunk and Victorian aesthetic. It seems every week or two, there’s a new gadget or new builder popping out of the wainscoting. Some of my favourites are the etchings, lamps, school bus and other assorted projects of Jake Von Slatt, The Telecalculograph by Jake of all trades Hildebrandt, the multipledigression Underwood typewriter mod, the ElectriClerk by Andrew Leman (co-creator of the Call of Cthulhu silent film -2005), the Japanese raptop mod (though I’m not entirely convinced it’s functional), and just recently, the case mod designs of Slippery Skip.

How secure is your facility, have you patented any of your inventions and do you have the assistance of minions in the lab/shed? Got to keep a monocled eye on those blighters!

Ha ha ha, I’m a few years away from being able to officially command “minions”, but my roommate Dominick helps me out occasionally with parts acquisition, marketing, and by being an intelligent sounding board for my ideas (aka kind enough to tolerate my incessant mad ramblings). I also have to thank my friend Jacob. Without the generous and lengthy loan of his beautiful Snap-On mig welder, my ’56 Ford Pickup would still be a pile of old refrigerator steel and the Espada Suena(and about a dozen other small projects) wouldn’t exist at all.

I don’t have any design patents yet, but I’ve got some solid trade marking and copyrighting in place on most of my designs, logo and name. This was a preventive necessity to keep companies from stealing my designs outright. If another tinkerer wants to make something similar to one my designs, I don’t see anything wrong with that. I would actually be a bit flattered to be the inspiration for their project. I just don’t want to see Espada Suenas on the Home Shopping Network Sword Extravaganza one day, or Opti-Transcripticons on sale at a computer show in distinctively nondescript Hong-Kong knock off packaging.

And finally of course, what is your definition of Steampunk?

I see it as a reaction to the utter soullessness and disposability of modern tech. There are only so many garish space-eggs and tech. bubbles you can look at before you just stop appreciating them. Steampunk harkens back to a time when technology was still novel and romantic, when the world was still marvelling at its own cleverness with childlike pride and wonder, looking hopefully toward a strange and wonderful future.

One interesting development is that slowly but surely, Steampunk seems to be evolving from an obscure and ill-defined literary/film aesthetic, into a full-blown subculture. Now we’ve got musical acts like Abney Park (who perform in full Steampunk regalia), and Vernian Process who are doing a lot of interesting things to nail down a Steampunk sound . Music is powerful. Once you’ve got a soundtrack, the subculture can’t be far behind. I just hope it doesn’t eventually morph into something we all regret later, like hair metal and bell bottoms.

For more of Datamancer go here.