Lis "Moose" Bokt is a polymath. This isn't a word that gets bandied about as often as it should, but not many people are accurately described as having diverse and encyclopedic learning. In our age of specialization, multi-talented, multi-disciplinary people are rare. Labeling her an astrophysicist, master machinist, linguist, photographer or web developer fail to encompass her curiosity and expertise.
One of the traits that makes Bokt a polymath is her balance between analytical and creative pursuits. She has a strong background in photography, interpreting the world around her in a creative and meaningful way, but at the same time using technology as the medium to do so. Even though the skill set is radically different, Bokt uses the same type of mental balance by utilizing CNC machinery to bring to wood, metal or plastic whatever design she feels is worth sharing, again utilizing technology to exercise creativity.
The development of Bokt's love for analytic thought is tied to her life long passion for astronomy. Bokt worked on an MS in astrophysics from the University of Toronto, specializing in radio telescopy (think of Jodi Foster and the radio telescopes in the movie
Contact), because it was interesting. "When i went to college, everybody around me told me to study
whatever I [iiked], so that was an easy decision for me," she recalls. This was advice taken very literally. Her dance with astronomy started in high school, learning astronomy in class. Discovering her passion for astronomy, Bokt earned a Girl Scout gold award carting around a telescope and walking down the street teaching people about science and the stars, because astronomy is cool and beautiful at the same time, and Bokt believes that everyone wants to be a part of the beauty of science if given the opportunity.
Completely unrelated to astrophysics, Bokt is also more then casually curious about language. She speaks 11 languages, which is reasonable given she also worked on an MS in linguistics, also from the University of Toronto. Unlike many contemporaries, her multi-lingual abilities are not limited to languages as spoken and written by humans, but also languages used by computers like C++, Java, Air and PHP. It’s not that they’re related, as much as she was curious, and decided to let that curiosity guide her.
But being a polymath scientist also means being an artist, which for Bokt means being a maker. Bokt makes things, lots and lots of things. Pretty much anything that can be made out of wood (let your imagination stretch on that one), posters, pens and just about anything else that she can turn her attention onto or find materials to make. She sells the things she makes on
Etsy.com and through her own
website. Most of what Bokt makes sells online about as fast as she can make it. Many of her works sell well because they capture a sense of nostalgia, or a playfulness that touches her customers. Almost all of her art is strongly influenced by science, and everything is made by her, one at a time. Almost everything is made from recycled and repurposed materials, not because of sustainability necessarily, but because it's often fun and more spontaneous, and spontaneous can also be beautiful. Demand for her work is high enough that she is always comfortably a week or two behind on orders.
Bokt didn't start out a machinist and woodworker. Much of that started when she came to hackerspace The Geek Group, of which she is the Executive Director, after failing to find a good fit doing translation work. It was at The Geek Group that Bokt taught herself how to use a wide range of tools, from saws to lathes. "I had no experience in machining at all," she says. "I had a lot of experience with making things, but all small-scale things. I didn't have any experience with large equipment or machines, or any of the exotic materials I get to work with now. Everything I learned here." Her shock of pale blonde hair is usually mixed with either eye or ear protection, jeans and boots, surrounded by whatever it is that she is making for the day. Many new members at The Geek Group don’t expect to find the marathon-running girl in the shop is also a Haas certified instructor on their industrial machines. Which means she knows more then most machinists do about making things.
Once she masters a machine, she creates art with it. Her work ranges from small wooden plaques for people to hang on their walls to a 3D map of the world, 8 feet long and 4 feet wide, cut into the top of a table. It took 150 hours to program and 300 hours to cut, with accurate scale and resolution. It wouldn’t be cost effective in a traditional machine shop, but it is neither a traditional project, nor does she work in a traditional shop, nor is Bokt a traditional machinist.
Bokt has always been a early adopter, starting with her first camera, which was also a digital camera (which was a big deal in 1998) and her first social media account on AOL, then the biggest chat service on the internet. In many ways, with language, art, craft, photography and science, Bokt seeks out methods to share how she sees the world, and then communicates this message with others. Digital media, and everything that goes with it, has been a part of her creative process since the beginning. Now she’s on most of the major platforms, from
flickr to
facebook, and uses these platforms to share, motivate, inspire and build communities around her. This provides her with a wide range of people spread all over the world, people who have joined her online to help with her projects, many also turning into customers and friends. "I've been very fortunate to visit my friends all over the world," she says. "I've been even more fortunate that have things of mine in their houses that they admire every day."
Sharing what she finds, learns and makes on the internet is an intuitive act for Bokt. Before the Internet, she wrote letters to pen pals by hand, sharing her world with them. Enabling people to learn and explore is a deep goal for her, and reflected in her role as Executive Director of
The Geek Group, the perfect day job for a polymath. Bokt initially found The Geek Group online, visited, and hasn’t left since.
While she is going to continue making, photographing, writing and sharing, Bokt is looking forward to taking what she has learned about production and materials and exploring furniture. Like everything she does, this exploration will be shared online in pictures and video, and like everything else that she does, it will be hands on, one piece at at time.
Adam Bird is the Managing Photographer of Rapid Growth Media, who also writes about people and films them on occasion.
PHOTOS:
First photo: Lis Bokt in the machine shop of
The Geek Group.
Second photo: Lis works the control panel for the sheet router.
Third photo: Lis makes pens, out of exotic wood that she finds (she rarely buys materials).
Fourth, fifth and sixth photos: Lis makes wooden plaques featuring unexpected and delightful things/
Photography by
ADAM BIRD