To what extent does automation contribute to a healthy society?
Mechanical Garden is an object theatre performance based on automata that are activated by the performers.
Automata were originally self-operating machines, usually without a functional use, and experienced their heyday between 1848 and 1914. In the past, they were exhibited, among other places, at funfairs in order to amaze people. While, on the one hand, they were lovingly built by craftsmen at the beginning of the 20th century, the industrial revolution, on the other hand, meant that artisanal production had to make way for the assembly line. It is precisely that work process that has alienated us from the things that we produce and from the natural resources that we are now depleting.
It has now become clear that automation is driven by a desire for efficiency, but because machines are taking over more and more jobs and tasks, a sense of alienation has arisen in society; machines are so complicated that it is completely unclear how everything works. Lightning-fast technological developments are making our society increasingly effective, but are also robbing us of a lot of sensory pleasure and social contact. The technology that, on the one hand, provides quick and easy connection, fosters feelings of alienation and isolation on the other hand.
Mechanical Garden seeks connection with the audience by making the mechanics behind the performance visible. Mechanical Garden is an investigation into what it means to live in an automated society where humankind seems to be increasingly enslaved by its self-designed systems and machines.
Enter our universe and marvel at a hand of branches that has been brought to life, a meditating robot, nodding heads, a walking bench and more beautiful automata made using traditional methods.
