Curious Child
‘Sony Watchman’ - 1986
My curiosity as a child evolved into that of an obsessional teenager with a focus on electronic systems and wearable technologies. It has served as the foundation for why I have been involved in the research, development and direct application of wearable technologies in the education, training and information communication technology context since 1982.
Throughout secondary school I invented, tested, manufactured and sold devices as stand alone creations or in combination with other systems ‘completed’ a circuit, resolved or performed a task that I could otherwise not perform without some electronic circuitry. My earliest recollections are disassembling cameras, electronic hand held games and using simple circuitry boards and building devices that could ‘automate’ the capture of photos. One such contraption, in 1983 I invented a a device with manual activation of a circuit using CB radio systems which digitally triggered and captured a photo using one of the first electronic shutter triggers I could purchase.
It was in fact a rudimentary CCTV camera and I recall taking it to the local high school on the weekend when the place was locked down and placing the camera in differing locations such as the third floor of E block and pointing it down into the adjacent courtyard, taking a photo of myself from an aerial perspective, triggered remotely by the CB radio, a selfie in fact. Another occasion I took the contraption for a ride on the roof of Michael McPherson’s LX Torana Hatchback taped down and took photos through Cronulla shopping centre before it was turned into a Boulevard.
I recall feeling in some strange way empowered by what I had invented and at the time feeling like a covert police officer in the car at that time even if there was no crime I was investigating!
As a teenager I carried around almost constantly a battery powered hand-held small transistor radio and whenever possible upgraded it to the very latest of features including a small hand held television in 1984, a silver Sony Watchman VHF UHF FD-20A Flat Black White Portable TV Silver complete with body carry case.
So it seems my ‘inner geek’ had emerged very early on as a teenager and with that an avid interest in photography, optics, image capture and the power of that image in a socio-ethical context.
