Evan Miles

Background

About Evan Miles

I am a student of Mechanical Engineering at Macquarie University and former student of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Sydney. To pay for my education I work at Ocius as a shop technician and I have previously worked at a local hardware shop. I have regular contact with engineers and tradespeople from many different disciplines, from whose experience I can draw, and I have since acquired many repair, diagnostic and maintenance skills. Being surrounded in my previous job by the physical problems encountered by people in every profession helped crystallise my passion for quality design and the hours of thought that go into the most basic item, and I bring this experience and ethos to my current position. I have a keen interest in science and technology from the cutting-edge to the ancient, and I am fascinated by the myriad of unlikely innovations that brought into being everything from ploughs and aqueducts to cathode-ray tubes and microcomputers. I am particularly inspired by seeing old technologies, techniques and ideas appropriated to solve current and future problems. I love to see ideas liberated from the circumstances of their conception and used for the betterment of Mankind. I am a proficient multi-instrumentalist, playing the horn, piano and reed organ whilst dabbling in other keyboard and brass instruments. I am fascinated by the methods of sound production and reproduction and the effect of technology, materials, design and manufacture technique/artistry on the sound and experience of playing musical instruments. The intersection of art and science is to me an exciting and under-explored area. I am an enthusiastic member of two community ensembles, the Northern Beaches Orchestra and the Northern Beaches Symphonic Youth Band. I am an novice in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and I value the positive effect of martial arts on health, physical and mental discipline, and mateship. I am a serial enthusiast, having delved into and completed many passion projects, from restoring machines as diverse as gramophones, typewriters, accordions and organs to researching and building a custom personal computer. I have numerous other amateur interests including history, architecture, anthropology, philosophy, heraldry, vexillology, tabletop and computer games, mechanical keyboards, vintage computers, typography, calligraphy, languages and linguistics, horology, sound engineering, military strategy and technology, historical language, culture and fashion, science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction, motoring and aviation.