The Bricoleur

Claude Levi-Strauss  referred to more esoteric ideas, including analysis of mythology, in his book The Savage Mind.   I must admit that I have not been able to read this book; however, I did pick it up a few times---I think I even bought it---and somehow (perhaps by osmosis?) I picked up a term from his native French, "Bricoleur," which perhaps in some more unsophisticated way shed light on my own interests, in Micronesia.    The Savage Mind. The book was TLDR for me, and I was unable to grasp even those passages I was able to understand;  but I took with ferocity to his discussion of the Bricoleur---at least the practical description.   I recall the advice of my Anthropogist Mentor, Tom Harding, who was fond of quoting "A man's reach should exceed his grasp." 

A simplistic definition of Bricoleur, in English, is Handyman.  However, the translator of an English edition of The Savage Mind left the following compelling note: 

The “bricoleur” has no precise equivalent in English. He is a man who undertakes odd jobs and is a Jack of all trades or a kind of professional do-it-
yourself man, but, as the text (see the following) makes clear, he is of a different standing from, for instance, the English “odd job man,” or handyman.

I have extracted a short part  of Levi-Strauss's discussion in which he references the bricoleur, because I think it is relevant to the philosophy of Making Do, and I hope to share it here:

The bricoleur is adept at performing a large number of diverse tasks; but,
unlike the engineer, he does not subordinate each of them to the availability
of raw materials and tools conceived and procured for the purpose of the
project. His universe of instruments is closed and the rules of his game are
always to make do with whatever is at hand, that is to say with a set of
tools and materials which is always finite and is also heterogeneous because
what it contains bears no relation to the current project, or indeed to any
particular project, but is the contingent result of all the occasions there have
been to renew or enrich the stock or to maintain it with the remains of
previous constructions or destructions. The set of the bricoleur’s means
cannot therefore be defined in terms of a project (which would presuppose
besides, that, as in the case of the engineer, there were, at least in theory, as
many sets of tools and materials or instrumental sets, as there are different
kinds of projects). It is to be defined only by its potential use or, putting
this another way and in the language of the bricoleur himself, because the
elements are collected or retained on the principle that they may always
come in handy. Such elements are specialized up to a point, sufficiently for
the bricoleur not to need the equipment and knowledge of all trades and
professions, but not enough for each of them to have only one definite and
determinate use. They each represent a set of actual and possible relations;
they are operators but they can be used for any operations of the same
type.

 I fear it is much to my discredit that I have not digested his work.  I just stumbled upon the following page in the Web-o-Sphere, that may be helpful: 

https://literariness.org/2016/03/21/claude-levi-strauss-concept-of-bricolage/

 

 

In search of a cork borer

 

What's the point?

   I need a cork borer, possibly two.  The other option is to build a slide-ringing turn-table.  Any sharp tube would do.

 Someone sent some material to me some years ago, a small jar of "General Electric Silicon Gum, SE30".  It is marked as non-toxic, and the use is for making little wells on microscope slides that can be covered with a coverslip, and kept for a long time with a drop of water full of protozoa and small aquatic (and marine) animals.  The procedure is like this:

1. roll up a small ball of silicon gum, about the size of a pea

   2. wet another clean slide, and smash the ball between the two slides

   3. Flatten the material evenly. 

   4. With a cork borer or other means cut a circle clear though the pancake of silicon gum.

   5. Peel away the hole to form a well.
   

   6.  Place a drop of water (or sea water) in the well with the organisms.

    

   This material is permeable to air, so the organisms can potentially live for days.  I recently kept a number of rotifers in a preparation made in this way, for over a week.  

    

Solution(s) maybe to the need for a cork borer

• This web page discusses some solutions from a broader perspective. 
  
• I may have to sharpen a piece of copper or brass tubing.
• Maybe the bricoleur's approach: whatever happens to be at hand.  (I have not found anything yet!)
• Build a slide ringing turntable and use a sharp scalpel blade to cut a circle of the desired diameter.  
•  
•  
  

 

Uses

•  I plan to apply Methylene Blue, a granule or two at most, or better a little bit of a dilute solutoin, to stain the nervous system of living rotifers.  
  

Tool Lending Libraries

 Oakland's Tool Lending Library: one of the experiences in one's life that tends to restore faith in human nature, like Free Software, pretty much.  

Here are a couple of links to explore, on some future, deeper dive:

• Wikipedia: "Tool Library"
• Friends of the Oakland Tool Lending Library
• Wikipedia: Library of Things
• On a similar vein: Ace Makerspace  (formerly Ace Monster Toys)

 

Instructions for DIY prescription diving mask

For years and years, minute invertebrates were pretty much off the table: given my minimal (at that time) visual deficiencies, I just could not see them clearly. Photographing them with the Canon poitn and shoot (in a case, of course) was an act of faith. IO just could not afford a dive mask costing hundreds of dollars, especially since masks are another perishable element, and with prescriptions changing over the years. I lived a life of simplicity.

Boloceroides sp.

Whatever the actual reasons, my studies of invertebrate life and other aspects of marine biology were limited.

 

As for 2020, orbiting into 2021, living in N. California I see (pun unintentional) little need to consider a prescription mask, at least now. There may come a time. A bucket list item of mine is to photographBoloceroides spp. swimming sea anemones with an excellent photographic rig. Of course, corners would need to be cut. And money that would be used for a top-shelf prescription mask might better be spent for some enhancements for my macro setup. This idea, from the instructables web site, appeals to me. I have wondered whether I can order lenses from Zenni or whereever, and glue them into an existing mask. 

Here is the Instructable. I like this.

Good News on Open Access

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6524/16

In 2018, a group of mostly European funders sent shock waves through the world of scientific publishing by proposing an unprecedented rule: The scientists they funded would be required to make journal articles developed with their support immediately free to read when published.

Stainless Steel Staples & Related Topics

 This post was copied over froma 2008 post on My blog "Found Objects"

All of a Sunday Morning, I was a-searching about on the Internet for stainless steel staples. What did I find? I found Found the Early Office Museum . Monel staples are used in the archival departments of museums and libraries. 

Found a good discussion of archival document fastening at the U. S. National Archives. Another page listed supplies. Very good stuff. 

Stainless paper clips are de rigeur. 

A search led me to an old friend, I will not link to here---Light Impressions---for Archival treatment of photos. That's an expensive process. My family threw away several boxes including negatives that I had stored in special archival materials, that had never been printed of my first trip to Majuro and Kiribati. In particular, my first experiments in black and white in-water photography. 

Another page on the Office Museum site covers early Staplers, Paper Fasteners, Paper Clips. I am interested in the "paper welder." I have actually seen a broken one on Saipan, and I saw one once in Santa Barbara at an office supply, in Goleta. But I can't find on on ebay! They are just off the map on the Inet. Except at the Office Museum, where pictures can be found. There do exist paperless staplers that punch holes and loop and piece through to bind paper. Perhaps just as good? And cheap. Here's one on Think Geek. 

Monel Staples on Gaylord Supplies (library, archive, furniture, etc.) were about US$30-40.00 a box. One site was a bit cheaper. Interestingly, the mainstream staple producers produce monel staples only for staple guns and large, heavy duty staplers. Same for stainless. That's a pricey little corner of the universe to shop in. Anti-Entropy doesn't come cheap. 

 Thomas is the place to find manufacturers.

Stolen idea: Adding tactile feedback to the F and J keys.

Here is a link to an interesting idea, I might try one of them.

Here is the link