Automatown

Welcome to Automatown, a made-up place, where we write stories and fashion machines we've invented. We explore what kinds of robotics might make our lives easier, and then we seek to represent our ideas in words and pictures. By investigating our current relationship to technology, we think about the benefits and consequences of living with machines. Automatown is a project of Big Class (www.bigclass.org/) supported by Akili Academy (www.akiliacademy.org/).

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The Founding of Automatown

We'd been talking about this place, but we hadn't yet thought much about how it formed. Cities, as we discussed in workshop, usually develop out of a common interest or need. Here are some of our hypotheses.

Kailynn imagines Automatown was founded by robots after they were spewed from a volcano. 

Edwin's Automatown, where he is in fact elected king, began in a weird storm from the pizza sky and people fleeing New Orleans. 

Cowanna wrote that the first creatures of Automatown were giants who had to work out their want to find gold. These big people eventually learn to share to make a better community.

Maurice thought Automatown was created by Umpa-lommpaz "because it had a lot of cocoa nut and it have a lot of chocolate in it." The naming part was easy as their leaders name was Tom, and they really liked the word "town."

[automatown]

Winding up the Watch

We're excited to be entering a new phase of Automatown, as we prepare for our final showcase on May 29th at Akili Academy.

We'll be sharing our works-in-progress, but for now, here's a look-back at our initial brainstorming process.

Edwin envisioned a food party with story-sharing and robot dance-making.

Jahron, our resident artist, sketched out his final showcase plans.

Ja'den, an author in the Big Class publication Animals Lost in Paris, imagined a project similar to what we put together for the winter showcase. 

Cowanna, a kitten fanatic, could not help but incorporate furry friends into her dream for our final project.

Once we'd jotted down some concepts in our notebooks, we came together to discuss and list our thoughts, each of us signing our names by the idea we presented. 

We're really excited to reveal our project. Stay tuned!

[automatown]

Today's Writing Prompt—The Gift of Giving

What do you think of when you hear the word, "gift"? 

In many cultures, gifts are given and received in relationships of love, honor, and respect. They are, in a way, an invention of the heart to show a person how much admiration we have for them, who they are. Sometimes, too, gifts are given in thanks, when a person realizes a kindness shown towards them by another.

What is the best gift you've ever received? 

Let's take some time today to consider gifts. What could Automatown give to the people in our lives that matter the most to us? What sort of invention of the heart could you fashion to show love and thanks to someone or many people?

[bigclass]

Prompt: Write a blues poem that expresses a particular frustration of yours.

Blues poetry, the brotherly and sisterly lyric of blues music, is a powerful writing form. It emphasizes the human spirit of willpower in the face of great odds. Considered by many to be healing songs, blues music can...

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Today's Writing Prompt--What's in a Name?

Hello Automatowneers, 

Why do we have names? What do they help us do or know about ourselves or others? 

If you think about it in a certain way, even the letters we use to build up our name, our identity (somewhat), can be thought of as a kind of machine. In Automatown, we've been thinking about all kinds of creations. A name is a creation granted to you by family. As we live, we might go on to answer to nicknames given to us by friends. Some people even desire to change their names, authoring new documents of creation.

If you take the opening letters of our cities names, we can begin to see an important part of the naming process too.

The letter "A" can stand alone and be sophisticated as an individual letter, but it can also join other letters, such as "u," "t," and "o," to form the word "Auto." This word means self. How can we connect this to our city's name?

Our names and the letters that make them up can mean a great deal. In older days, names were decided by a person's job or function in society. For instance, my last name "Chappell" was once used to describe those people who lived near churches or chapels and took care of the grounds. 

Let's turn to a fresh page in our notebooks and consider the story of our names. Why are we called what we are called? Do you know a real story behind your naming or could you make one up?

Your Blogger,

Ms. C

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Today's Writing Prompt--Origin Stories

Greetings Automatown,

In another effort to understand the task of working together towards a final project, we might need to consider more what unifies us already. 

We've been talking about Automatown, but we've never really identified or given a description of this place. All cities, townships, states, and countries have an origin or founding story, a series of events and peoples, symbols and needs that inspired the formation of their homeland. 

Why was this place created? What kind of people or creatures or things live here? What does the past of this place look like? The future?

Let's turn to a fresh page in our notebooks and write the story of how Automatown came into, is, and will be.

Your Blogger,

C

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Carli invites you all to the enjoy the pleasant weather of her Automatown.

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Cowanna presents her piece, "The Weather," a story that arrived in several scary versions! Here is one.

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In Tyrell's Automatown, people breathe chlorine air, school is out, and he's about. 

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If I Lived in a Shoe, I'd Have to Spray Lots of Air-Freshener...

Last Tuesday we imagined alternative housing and lifestyles after we watched two artists recreate an apartment in the model of a giant hamster wheel. Here are some of our creations:

Edwin imagined living with his mom in Lebron Jame's shoe.

In Tyrell's human dog house, kids attend school underground and have the noses of bloodhounds.

Destinee considers a question she and her friends have pondered before--what is it like to live in a nest?

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Today's Writing Prompt--A City for All Seasons

Hello Automatowners,

Last Thursday we began our brainstorming sessions for our final project, and we came up with some very interesting, even bizarre, ideas. What will be most important for us as we continue is to consider all the details—the very particular elements of our nature and understanding of our imagined place.

Because we are headed into a new season in our real home of New Orleans, let's take a moment to consider the weather, how it affects us—our mood, our sense of clothing, our wishes, and our frustrations.

Let's turn to a fresh page in our notebooks and begin a story about the weather of Automatown. What does it look like here? What color is the sky? The grass? Is there grass or some other ground?

Are there trees, and if so, what color are they?

What creatures live in them?

When the weather changes in Automatown, what happens? Does it rain? Does it snow? Does some other substance come from the sky?

What seasons does Automatown know?

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Today's Writing Prompt--Fun in the Time of Brainstorming

Dear Automatites,

For several weeks now, we have been exploring the ideas of automata, robots, machines, and community. Now, we are nearing the time when we should begin discussing ideas for our final project. 

What can you remember about our first conversations about Big Class? For those of you who have been a Big Classmate before, what can you tell your friends about working towards a major project?

Let's take some time in our notebooks now to brainstorm ideas for our final project. Keep in mind that writing can lead to all kinds of exciting projects like songs, movies, plays, etc.

De'Airres writing about a community for humans built in nests.

[automatown]

Robot Zines!

We've been working hard on making our robot zines. Today, we'll make our final touches so that we can begin copying and distributing them.

[automatown]

Today's Writing Prompt--Imagine a City of Human Anthills

Now that we've watched the video below, let's take some time to consider our homes, our houses. Could they exist in any other way? Could they be built to look like or represent another kind of creature's home? Would this take away anything human about us?

The men in the video (http://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/79596221772) below were inspired by the "entertainment system" of the hamster, at least so far as the human has domesticated this creature. 

Imagine a city of human anthills or a place where all babies slept in nests. Or what if we went to school underground with the worms and moles? Today, let's begin a story about a city of different kinds of houses or homes. What would be different there? Would a different architecture of our houses or businesses change our behavior? How would it look, smell, and sound?

[thekidshouldseethis]

For ten days in a Pierogi Gallery space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, artists Ward Shelley and Alex Schweder lived in “a giant hamster wheel,” a large installation called In Orbit. From Animal New York: 

This is the fourth collaboration between Shelley and Schweder in a series they call “The Social Relationship Architecture Project.” Each time they’ve built a different dwelling space that requires them to work together in order to live. This time, they’ve arranged the various components and furnishings of a home on a giant wheel. “In Orbit is a two bedroom apartment, in a sense,” Schweder says. “One is on the inside and one on the outside.”

In the archives: more art installations, more architecture and more wheels, including the Event of a Thread, la casa ecológica de botellas, and the unusual Dynasphere.

via Design Boom.

[automatown]

Today's Writing Prompt--Why Do Humans Create Machines?

Dear Automatown,

Welcome back! We've been thinking a lot about how machines are designed to perform one job or many jobs perfectly, how they are designed to operate without a glitch. 

However, we might need to return to an earlier question to really understand our projects.

Why do humans create machines? Why is perfection and the completion of a task without a glitch something we, as a group, would strive for? 

To think about this, we might need to consider even further the relationship between inventor and invention.

If humans create machines and humans can sometimes "glitch" or mess-up, why wouldn't a product of human creation be in likeness imperfect?

Let's consider our robot creations from before Mardi Gras and have fun imagining the day or time they might mess-up or break.

Create a story wherein your robot malfunctions. What would happen? How would it sound? What would it look like? Would anything happen to the world if your robot hit a glitch or got a virus? 

Afterwards, we will try to find a way to incorporate this part of the story into our zines.

[automatown]

My Robot's Name Is Roby

We had a lot of fun inventing robots last Monday. After Carnival, we'll take our stories and build them into zines. 

Cowanna created a friend that could support her love for chocolate. However, this "robtot" has many other talents. You, too, can meet this robot "in your imagination!"

Jahron's robot, Rody or Rudy Jr., is a pancake-serving-jump-shot maker. The adventures of this machine will be unlocked in the pages of Jahron's zine. And until then, Jahron hasn't decided yet if the bot will sport a feature-free "face."

Carli's friendbot, Briana, can cheer and, bascially, do "everything perfect."Briana has many accoutrements, including a puppy and a puppy bed. 

Cowanna composing.

Edwin inventing Edwin, Jr. This machine can feed Edwin up to 1, 200, 517, 170 pieces of pizza.

Kailynn (left) works on the design of her robot, a perfect singer whose favorite song is Ciara's "1, 2 Step." Na'shey (right) adds details to her bot, a husky dog that can help her write better just by pointing at objects with his paw-arm.