The installation re-creates the first attempt by the designer to melt mineral and turn it into iron using hair dryers. He later tried with a leaf blower and then used his mother’s microwave and china to finally obtain iron.

I know a certain conceptual artist who’s going to be in big trouble when his mum gets home!

Tom Sukanen, a Finnish immigrant to Canada, decided during the depression he wanted to return home.

Instead of buying a ticket home he decided to build his own ocean vessel, even though he was in southern Saksatchewan. The nearest water with a draught deep enough to accomodate his ship was thousands of kilometers away.

Strangely enough, he rowed to Hudson Bay, got a job on a ship to Finland, went home and then came back to Saskatchewan to start work on his project.

He worked on the ship for six years, but was eventually committed and died in an asylum. Even so people are astounded by the precision in the ship’s hull which he beat by hand from plate steel, and painted with horse blood.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41675329@N00/934597760/
http://sisuthemovie.blogspot.com/2007/06/who-was-tom-sukanen.html
http://www.nordicway.com/search/Places/Places_South%20of%20Moose%20Jaw.htm

I’ve made a solar oven, and made much food in it, but I don’t think it would work for toast.

To me this seems like a delightful undertaking, even if he can’t articulate exactly what he hopes to show before he’s done it, and even if it is impossible. Seems like the discovery would be in the journey. Best of luck to him!

What’s much worse is that so many toasters and other
appliances will be thrown in the garbage instead
of repaired.

It’s a really interesting project. I think I’d skip
the plastic making, though, since plastic is more suited to mass production. I’m sure a reasonable substitute for it could be found.

And you wonder how the US government could spend $400 on a coffee pot? Maybe they made it from scratch…!

http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html

If the purpose is to show the disconnect between the individual an the technology being used, then I suggest the individual make a greater effort to disconnect himself from all the other ancillary (and far more technological) innovations that he is surrounded by.

Suggestions: barter for nickel ore on the island, smelt in a ceramic crucible using coal and forced air, isolate oil from a plant such as soybeans in your plastics attempts. Better yet, use wood or metal, both far more reasonable materials for an experiment of this sort.

Would the project eventually involve EVERYONE IN THE WORLD, including the person who wrote the insurance contract to enable the lubricant manufacturer to grease the axles of the truck that delivered the spare parts to run the mining machine?

Wow, this makes me want to pick something totally arbitrary and attempt to make it from scratch.

I was on a sled ride (strangely enough, drawn by a horse) this weekend and heard my father in law and another fellow talking about the old days, and how any spare parts they needed for tools, carriages and later cars had to be hand-forged. There was no parts store back then.

My mother grew up in a sod hut my grandparents built in Manitoba during the second world war. You might imagine a dank cave, but it looked just like a modern mobile home.

I know turning our inter-connected world back to a bygone era would be near-impossible, but it’s ridiculous to think we are slaves to our technology and cannot make choices to do things more simply.

My point is we-re not talking about caveman days; Even in developed countries there are people who have these low tech skills. If we’re concerned it’s up to us to turn off the computer and go learn some of them, or at least stop complaining about it.

When man first used tools, he made them largely by himself. A good branch and some sinew, and you have a bow. The parts were all found within a few miles of home. That’s the “connection” the author is referring to.

Now, we buy tools made by robots (which were themselves built by other robots) using materials from every corner of the globe. A man’s personal involvement in the creation of the tools he uses is now nonexistent.

You’re absolutely right that the modern method of production requires an intensely connected network of businesses — you’re just looking at a different aspect of “connectedness” than the author.

http://solarcooking.org/plans/

Of course equivalent goods in ancient cultures weren’t made from scratch by single individuals any more than they are today. Division of labor has been around for all of recorded history and trade even earlier than that.

This will probably be an unpopular thing to say around here, but I think what it really illustrates is the awesome power to improve lives of the free market.

Wait, he’s using a microwave??? Is that what they call “scratch” these days?

I’m starting to think he needs to build all the tools that he will use to build the toast. And if he’s taking a helicopter to an oilrig, well, he ought to build his own helicopter, learn how to fly it, and drill his own oil well.