Andrew Alden's Automata - Emily Owen

Automata and Mechanical Curios

Andrew Alden's Automata

While I’ve created a lot of fictional androids in my writing, today we’re shining the spotlight on some real-life automata, created by Andrew Alden from Huddersfield.

Steam Tellurium - left side

Steam Tellurium - right side

First we have a Steam Tellurium (a model which shows the orbit of the sun and moon). I personally love antique astronomical tech, so this got me excited.

Plasmabox

This is a Plasmabox, which features a plasma disc with various moving parts when you open the wooden outer box.

This would look right at home in any steampunk inventor or scientist’s workshop! Even in our digital age, I still think there’s something about electricity that captures the imagination.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Red Shoes, a female android with a steampunk/cyberpunk look.

She’s 45cm tall and her base is approximately 30cm. She is powered by a proximity detector and lurches into action when anyone walks into the room. You can’t see her ‘demonically flashing’ red eyes on the photographs of her here, although there is a red sheen cast over her front. Andrew built her a couple of years ago, his reason being that ‘the great majority of robot representation is either male or male fantasy’, and so he wished to create a female android who wasn’t sexualised.

Red Shoes

[She] is very proud of her newly painted red shoes and waves them about above a post apocalyptic pile of electronic junk including a large Tesla coil.

You do get a feeling of innocence from her, and the almost childlike pleasure she takes in her revamped footwear (I’d imagine one needs such little pleasures in an apocalyptic wasteland). I love the red shoes, and immediately got a vibe of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz (and possibly the Tin Man – or Tin Girl in this case).