Two Ends of Technology: Aviation and Inuit
March 17, 2011
What a delightful life. I am at the same time working on projects about the technology for the greening of the aviation industry, and carbon-neutral technology used by Inuit people in the 1830s. Both are amazing!
I have the good fortune to be working under contract with the Canada Aviation and Space Museum on an exhibit about the ways in which the commercial aviation museum is flying towards the future. Green Skies Ahead! opens in Ottawa on June 16th, 2012 and it’s fun! Lots of talent is going into this exhibit that looks at the shape of planes to come, biofuels, new materials and ways in which air traffic will be directed and more. Not to give too much away, today I learned about Smart Wings, wings that respond to messages received from sensors in the plane’s nose and actually change shape as they meet gusts of wind! How cool is that!http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/about_us/
Pretty cool, but I think for innovation and flexibility the prize goes to the Inuit. I am also researching a book that starts on Baffin Island in the 1830s. One story I read was about improvised sled runners: frozen fish and caribou antlers wrapped up and lashed together with skins. When it thawed, the fish were eaten and the skins were slashed into pieces that became parts of tents.
Each skin was for a different type of clothing: fawn skin for baby clothes. Skins were used in different ways: eiderdown feathers turned inside for socks, perhaps outside for a park. Every part of the animal used: entrails might make sinew for sewing or be attached together to make waterproof garment. Jaw-dropping wonder comes from the ingenuity behind clothing design. Women crafted parkas with seams that did not sit on shoulders, or body parts that strained. A rip at -60 might mean death! The seams were offset: these clothes were made to take it. The book to get from your library on interlibrary loan is Sinews of Survival: Living Legacy of Inuit Clothingby Betty Kobayashi Issenman. I was humbled.
