01 Final Project Proposal
Urban Factory
A time machine traditionally - if there is anything "traditional" about a time machine - transports a body through time. A time travel vehicle. By considering a time machine as a different kind of machine, a technical tool that transforms energy or produces work, we can frame time as fuel. Thanks to this fuel, the machine transforms energy from one form to another - from today into the future. In the post-industrial era in factory cities around the globe, the silencing of industry leaves workers with a lot of time on their hands. Cities transform from production into information hubs, where the building of networks, service delivery and knowledge production award slippery skills like innovation and imagination over streamlined assembly. The time machine forms the prototype of a new Urban Factory, in which time leads to the production of social relationships, the building block of this new society. For the first time in history, there is no shortage of the means of production.
The Urban Factory is the size of a semi-trailer platform, which will allow it to travel across various locations. It is built of cut pvc tubing joined by molded plastic joints (with some kind of weather protection). At the start of each shift, visitors are invited to become 'workers' for a shift in the factory. Workers clock in using a touch pad. They enter their name, and the time is automatically logged. A motion sensor at the door connects to a large display at the other end of the factory, which projects "The year is ####, what are we doing?" With each person who enters, the year displayed moves forward a set amount. Force increases with accelerating mass so that, treating time as fuel, the more workers that enter the factory at a time, the more forcefully into the future the clock tumbles.
Various activities take place in the factory, which take time and interaction, if not collaboration between workers. Particular events may include a re-staging of Andy Warhol's "Silver Clouds," a picnic, or a cigarette break - familiar events.
At the end of each shift, workers clock out at the and receive a customized document reporting their shift in the Urban Factory. They have produced no material good, but through their social engagement have transformed a moment in time that propels the factory into the future.
Below: rough sketch of factory elevation and clocking in experience.
Components:
- plastic mold made from 3d printed joint
- cut pvc/other tubing to fit into joints
- motion sensor that drives programmed LED display
- programmed touch pad that prints custom receipts
Inspiration:
Andy Warhol and his studio, the Factory
Francis Alys - "Sometimes making something leads to nothing"
writings by Manuel Castells, Henri Lefebvre
The time machine will be shown in the post-industrial city of Lodz in Poland!
