If you’ve just stumbled upon this website then you may be wondering what it’s all about and who the man behind it is. If the URL didn’t give it away, my name is Andrew Halliwell. Instead of going into what I do, where I’m from, what my favourite films are (blah, blah, blah), I’ll just formulate a list of what I’m all about (in no particular order).
- Science/Scientific Scepticism
- Music
- Film and New Media Production
- The Internet
To be honest with you, science was something that I found interesting when I was young but the thought of pursuing it as a career in any respect never crossed my mind. In my early twenties I started reading books about science, mainly physics and astronomy, by Isaac Asimov and Stephen Hawking. It wasn’t until I read ‘The Demon-haunted World’ by Carl Sagan that I really found a cause worth representing. One idea in particular seemed to resonate with me: We have a society that is built upon a foundation of science and technology and very few people understand how it works. This is evident when you see the amount of psychics, acupuncturists, chiropractors, new-age gurus, homeopaths etc. with shop-fronts, websites and newspaper ads (and the profit from clients that pay for them!). When you see how many parents refuse to vaccinate their children and the subsequent resurgence of measles, mumps and rubella that result, you know something is awry. Since I had shown an aptitude for astronomy and physics, I decided to go to university in order to become better acquainted with the scientific method, research, writing and communication.
This all seems very unusual in retrospect considering that I started my adult life by earning my certificate in the performing arts. The school that I attended had a multi-disciplinary curriculum, which taught acting, music and dance in equal parts. I was then and still am a terrible dancer, ergo, we can already count 1/3rd of this experience as a complete write-off. It did, however, give me an environment where I could focus on my piano playing and acting, both of which have made me an income over the years since graduating. I’d been writing and recording music since I was 16 and had never felt comfortable writing love songs. A moment of unexpected inspiration came when I began writing music about this newfound interest in science and scepticism. It was this moment when my music finally had a message that I could get behind.
A great deal of my time over the past few years has been spent producing films, mostly with actor/director Juan Riedinger. We’ve been very fortunate to have worked with so many talented individuals. It’s a tough business, although, I feel that it’s been kind to us. Our work has garnered us award nominations/wins, festival screenings, distribution deals and most importantly, the opportunity to work again. I was nominated for Best Short Film and Best Original Score at the 2009 Leo Awards for our film ‘Shark Out of Water’. From the success of that film we were able to make another short film for the national broadcaster Bravo! entitled ‘Float’. It’s been a great career thus far and I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes me.
Why do I love the internet? I have an interest in many things that span across a broad spectrum of topics and with the internet around, I can learn as much as I want, when I want. For example, I built my own guitar as a project. This was an exciting but laborious undertaking. If it was left up to me and books, I’m certain the guitar wouldn’t have turned out as well but with the internet around, I was able to do research, source parts and learn from the mistakes of others thanks to forums. If it wasn’t for the internet, I wouldn’t know what a carbon nanotube is or what cats look like when dressed up in clothes. I wouldn’t have ever figured out how to hack Macintosh’s OSX so that it could run on PC parts. I would have never seen the countless lectures, seminars, debates and interviews that Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Sam Harris, James Randi, Christopher Hitchens or many others took part in. Their commitment to logical reasoning taught me to leave my emotions at the door and let the evidence speak for itself. I have taken a wealth of knowledge from the internet and I do my part to give back.