(image: Alan Rorie working on the Dihemispheric Chronaether Agitator. Photo by Flickr user and KSW patron Great!steam)

I've never been so enamored with any character type as I have with the mad scientist. The shop, filled with inventions, doo-dads; explosions from nowhere send machinery flying while (s)he runs yelling equations to no-one. The wide-eyed ecstatic expression of pure insanity; the giant eyebrows. The filthy white lab coat. The giant gloves.
With the exception of the gloves (and possibly the eyebrows), Alan Rorie is that taken from the best of these characters and put into rusty reality. A doctorate student at Stanford, he goes from the precision and white sterile walls of the laboratory to his grimy, rusty, enchantingly-cluttered shop at the west Oakland group art space NIMBY.
I met him first working on the Steampunk Treehouse , and have been since always impressed with his work; firstly the Dihemispheric Chronaether Agitator; and then the Neuron chamber. His exploits, scientific, artistic,  and otherwise- can be followed on his site  Almostscientific.com

He recently was so patient and kind to put down the high-voltage regulators and tell me a bit about himself.  Lots of photos and the interview behind the cut.