Desktop Wars

A few years ago, Kaden Harris was engraving brass nameplates for a manufacturer of “ employee-recognition products” — signs, trophies, and other desktop expressions of institutional gratitude. Now his scaled-down medieval siege weapons bring heart, soul, and serious brains into the otherwise bland genre. The Vancouver-based artist handcrafts each piece out of hardwood and salvaged metal artifacts, cooks up wood stains from traditional vegetable sources, and culls antiquated hardware from swap meets and dumpsters.

Harris’ post-authentic reproductions evoke a parallel universe where castle-buster gear sports brass hot-rod flames and laser sights. And because his designs follow standard formulas for optimization, they hurl their payloads (mouse balls, golf balls, bolts) impressively far — especially the ballista, which uses two tightly strung, twisted skeins that don’t require heavy mass to inflict heavy damage,

unlike the counterweight-based trebuchet. Meanwhile, Harris has built prototypes for heavier-gauge artillery, including a spud gun powered by a standard butane lighter and a motorized machine that rapid-fires pencils via two counter-rotating tires, like a pitching machine. Harris’ lawyer advised against selling the latter because it was just too dangerous. As Harris admits, “It’s all good fun until somebody loses an eye.” —Paul Spinrad

Left: 18-inch floating-arm trebuchet. The fulcrum is on wheels, making it much more efficient than standard trebuchets.

Right: 17-inch guillotine. The blade is weighted with a ½- pound block of lead.

>>Eccentric Genius: eccentricgenius.ca

Photography by Kaden Harris

Make: 17