On Saturday 12th October the Future Machine was launched in Finsbury Park. The Future Machine Procession in the park aimed to celebrate the Autumn by going on a tour of the park, stopping at five places where people come together in the park including Furtherfield Gallery where it started, Pedal Power at the Athletics Track, Edible Landscapes by the Manor House entrance, the Drumming School at the Finsbury Park Station entrance and Furtherfield Commons by the Seven Sisters Road entrance, where we had food and sheltered from the rain.
Despite the rain over 60 people came to meet the machine, walk alongside it and even help push and pull it around the park. Sadly it was too rainy for the Pedal Power and Edible Landscape members to join us as not unexpectedly most of them stayed home and dry but many others meet us along the way. At each stop Jo Roach, Jo Homan and Alex Dayo kindly told the people on the procession about the work they do in the park and the people they work with, weaving the stories and everyday comings and goings of the park into the event. Many people then came along to the Welcome the Autumn party at the commons from 6pm where wonderful food was prepared by Bijay the chef and a great atmosphere was created with many of the drummers and people who joined the processsion along the way coming along.
The machine played the wonderful sounds created by Alex Dayo, David Kemp and his collaborators, that responds live to the weather data from the weather station as it travelled around the park. Once we arrived at the commons people interacted with the machine choosing their future quests by turning the dials, the lever and turning the hand crank. Many messages were recorded for people to hear in the future about themes as strange and different as hedgehogs, sand dunes and children being free to roam. If you recorded a message and have kept your special code then you can replay it and find out more about your future quest on the Future Machine Login Page.
In the future, we will be developing this website and the online interactions with the machine further, hopefully we will be able to create an interactive map where you can follow the journey of the machine, hear some of the messages left at each place it travels to and find out more about your future quest as time goes by.
