By: Anna Adamek
Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation
Finding creativity and innovation through world travel
Being a historian of technology, by profession and by heart, I always look for examples of human ingenuity during my travels. These creative solutions — which employ available tools and materials — offer a unique glimpse into the lives of communities, the choices they make, and the challenges they face. Here are a few examples.
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Anna Adamek
Nomads, who take their yak herds to the grasslands around Lake Namtso in Tibet, do not have many fuel options.
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Anna Adamek
Their solution is to dry yak dung into patties that can be stored and used for heating and cooking. This is a traditional, easily available, and inexpensive source of fuel, but it does decrease indoor air quality in high altitude — especially in winter.
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Anna Adamek
Can you spot a llama? The caretakers of the Machu Picchu complex in Peru, a fifteenth-century Inca site, use llamas to keep the grass neat and short.
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Anna Adamek
The topography of Machu Picchu makes it difficult to use modern lawnmowers, which would also increase the pollution on the fragile site. Llamas do the job!
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Anna Adamek
This amphibious excavator — or dredger — has a somewhat home-made look. Yet this combination of a boat and a backhoe is perfectly adapted to clearing a small lake in the Summer Palace in Beijing, China.
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Anna Adamek
The community of approximately 2,000 residents of the remote Taquile Island, located on the Peruvian Lake Titicaca, reuses and recycles its limited resources. Hinges of several gates on the island are made from the rubber soles of old shoes.
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Anna Adamek
The Uros islands — which float on Lake Titicaca — are a technology in themselves. They are constructed by the residents of the islands, and have to be constantly maintained. But despite the hardship, the President of one of these islands told us this lifestyle offers residents the ultimate freedom.
Author(s)
Anna Adamek
Anna Adamek is the Director of the Curatorial Division at Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation. As both a historian of technology and a public historian, she believes in the importance of always putting her audience first. Anna specializes in the history of natural resources, with a focus on the history of mining in Canada, the process of electrification of the country, industrial technologies, and the material culture of technology. Over her 27-year career with Ingenium, she curated a number of exhibitions such as Energy: Power to Choose, Potash: Feeding the World, and From Earth to Us. Anna was a founding member of the International Federation for Public History, and also served as its interim President. She sat on the Board of Directors for both the National Council on Public History and the Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association. Anna earned an MA in History from the University of Ottawa. Before coming to Canada in 1990, she studied literature with a specialization in Romanticism at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
