In this edition of SPArts’ monthly artist-to-artist series, Lettie Haggard talks to Rusty Oliver, who runs South Park’s HazardFactory, an industrial arts studio specializing in the “artistic re-direction of technology”, where he teaches welding classes and offers open studios. On May 19, 2010, Lettie ventured from her adorable Witch Hat House near Marra Farm northward to the industrial banks of the Duwamish to meet Rusty at the HazardFactory.

Lettie: Hi Rusty, I’m Lettie…

Lettie enters the large warehouse and notices metal things everywhere. The space is very well lit and organized. She can tell this guy is serious about what he does. She spies a structure made of truck gears, a metal shaft and a bicycle wheel attached to the top. It looks like some kind of lightning rod or a work in progress. She knows she has to inquire about the contraption.

Rusty: This is a sculpture that I am working on. The base is a truck gear. It has electricity running through the spokes. The wires of the spokes are tunable, when you turn the crank it creates an electric current and it makes sound.

Lettie: That’s really cool! Could a person ride it like a bike?

Rusty: No, I think you would be electrocuted!

Lettie: Ooh yeah you’d get burned… You said you teach welding classes. Who do you teach?
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