AutomataFest features two days of presentations, Friday and Saturday. The displays of artists and vendors will also be featured. You are welcome to attend any or all of the presentations or wander around the display halls at will during these days.

Collect your passes and programmes

9.00 - 10.15

Introductions from Sarah Alexander, Marc Horovitz, and Dr. Jess Steele OBE, CEO of Hastings Commons

10.15 - 10.30

I’ll be examining the state of automata in the world today. However, to know where we are, we must know where we’ve been, so I’ll also be presenting a kind of light survey of automata history, replete with lots of pictures.

For my talk, I think people might be interested in the way I make things, unusually using programmable logic controllers and industrial automation parts, and also how my coin-op machines have evolved over the years.

I will start by giving a brief history of how I got hooked on making automata. I’ll then demonstrate, with examples from my collection, how different sound effects can be created and incorporated into automata and how they can add an additional dimension to the final pieces.

My talk will be less about making automata as not making them! After years of automata making, combined with an obsession for charity shops and junk collecting, the old toys and Automata parts tat that I bought, which were supposed to be for automata, have become the subject themselves.
In dismantling them, seeing how they work, how their parts could be used and misused, doing a bit of surgery here and there, I found this to be completely absorbing, and it’s oh-so-much quicker to get a result than building you own mechanism. So I give in to temptation, skip the engineering fiddle, and, instead, hijack an existing toy—mechanical or static—and put it under the spotlight on the dissecting table.

with Marc Horovitz, Tim Hunkin, Ivan Morgan, and Stephen Guy. A chance to ask questions of all the mornings speakers.

12.45 - 1.15

Choose from the Observer Building Cafe or one of the many local eateries detailed in your programme.

1.15 – 2.15

The House of Automata’s presentation will talk about our beginnings in London, the challenges of bringing a multitude of skills together for difficult restorations, the quirky clients who collect automata, and some of the highs—like teaching Jude Law automata making for the film Hugo—and the regular film and television work that provides a welcome change to the workshop. The automata themselves will then perform and display their skills and rich characters gleaned from their remarkable histories.

There will be a lot of pictures of past work that I hope I’ll be able to talk interestingly about. Unless I discover something new in my work, it will be just one thing after another, without a coherent theme or plan. I could stop when the last member of the audience falls asleep.

My joy of making has lasted over 30 years. I will show my inspirations and explain how I stay creatively refreshed. I’ll take you through my process when working on bespoke commissions to create a good outcome. My mechanisms are simple and I often reuse other old items to add charm.

4.00 - 4.30

My presentation will touch on a variety of topics. I’ll discuss my first encounter with CMT in London and what it was ultimately like working for CMT, including interacting with visitors of all ages to CMT, meeting collectors, what Sue Jackson was like as a person, and CMT in general, with Sarah of course. I’ll also talk about my own work after CMT, and life in Cornwall with other automatists.

with Michael and Maria Start, Paul Spooner, Lisa Slater, and Carlos Zapata. A chance to ask questions of the afternoons speakers.

5.00 - 5.45