Automation, a short Play
As an exercise about storytelling we were asked to write and act-out a short play about our ideas. The play revolved around a guy who is being awaken by it’s friends talking about his old and broken coffee machine. They would argue about how old and bad it is. Up to the point where the guy would tell them to shut up and do their work. At this point the audience realizes that the “friends” he was talking to actually where automated devices, a vacuum cleaner and a computer. He then bought a new coffee maker which started talking to him too. The goal of the whole play was to think about personification of machines and when it’s too much.
The Interviews
After long idea generating sessions about how we could bring the essentials of project into a video we decided to make complementing interviews to the objects in the room.
In the filmed interviews one user who does not see any problem whatsoever with automatization talks about how great the object he owns is and how nicely it works. The viewer should from the subtly satirical way understand that something must be wrong. I started writing the scripts while Carlo Natter laid out the first sketches for the objects’ design.