Welcome to One Eyed Automata!
This site shows some pieces of Peter Shields' mechanical sculptures, called automata. It also shows details of how to commission an automata for yourself and offers links for other projects including films and events.
For contact, please email: peter.shields@oneeyedautomata.net
Bonsai Workshop Bonsai Workshop.
Here you can find the slides as shown during the last session.
Restoration project:
3 Automata types you can order on-line.
One Eyed Automata is now accepting commissions for 3 standard types of mechanism:
Orrery mechanism
Running Mechanism
Tank in a Box
Orrery mechanism
The first orrery that was a planetarium of the modern era was produced in 1713, and was presented to Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery – hence the name. An orrery is a mechanical model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons, usually according to the heliocentric model.One Eyed Automata makes Orreries that go beyond depictions of the solar system and variations on this mechanism can be seen below in examples from the One Eyed Automata archives, The ORRERY MECHANISM can be ordered – it is not an off the shelf item so notice of at least 1 month must be given before items can be dispatched. However, each Orrery is unique and can be customised to your requirements with flourishes to personalise it as a gift for others. Cost is according to the options chosen, whether the globe is decorated or themed, whether it includes a single satellite or more. Typically these are free standing items and hand cranked. Astronomers and Philosophers will recognise the whimsy. In a world of plastic kitsch, a One Eyed Automata Orrery presents a hand-made alternative which up-cycles life’s tat to a higher idea of authenticity!
Prices start at £250.
Examples of this mechanism can be found in the following examples from the One Eyed Automata archives:
The RUNNING MECHANISM uses the same geometry on the head and legs of quadropedic figures which means it can animate a horse, a rabbit, a chair or a bathtub. Configurations are typically free standing but wall mounted versions can be offered.
The RUNNING MECHANISM can be ordered – it is not an off the shelf item so notice of at least 1 month must be given before items can be dispatched. However, each Running Mechanism is unique and can be customised to your requirements with flourishes to personalise it as a gift for others.
Your friends will recognise and appreciate the whimsy that you put into a commission with One Eyed Automata’s Running Mechanism. In a world of plastic kitsch, this presents a hand-made alternative which up-cycles life’s tat to a higher idea of authenticity.
Cost is according to the options chosen, whether the figure is decorated or themed, whether it includes a rider or is simply primed ready for you to decorate and assemble yourself.
Prices start at £150.
Examples of this mechanism can be found in the following examples from the One Eyed Automata archives:
Tank in a Box
TANK IN A BOX can be ordered – it is not an off the shelf item so notice of at least 1 month must be given before items can be dispatched. However, each TANK IN A BOX is unique and can be customised to your requirements with flourishes to personalise it as a gift for others.
TANK IN A BOX comes in 2 configurations- No.1 is WALL MOUNTED and No.2 FREE RUNNING. They should be handled as ‘object d’art’ rather than a toy.
It is made entirely of copper, brass, wood and aluminium - The item is made to be dismantled in order to make any stress induced adjustments. TANK IN A BOX No. 1 should be attached to a wall or vertical surface, NOT stood on a horizontal surface. Fixings are attached at the rear of the box and the lights are operated by on-off switches on the roof of the box. These are needed to illuminate detail. TANK IN A BOX No. 2 should be run on a hard surface. The on/off switch is at the front of the vehicle. A replacement 6v battery is supplied. Access is achieved by carefully removing the cover on the rear fuel tank.
Tank ‘buffs’ will recognise the faithful features of Tank in a Box . Others will see its whimsy. In a world of plastic kitsch, Tank in a Box presents a hand-made alternative which up-cycles life’s tat to a higher idea of authenticity.
Prices start at £250.
Examples of this mechanism can be found in the following examples from the One Eyed Automata archives:
An international team of 4 friends undertake the Plymouth to Dakar Challenge a banger rally which annually shadows the route of the Paris Dakar Rally. They acquire two old Mercedes vans and take a 3 week route through Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia. They arrange to transport prosthetic limbs for a Bristol based charity to a clinic in Gambia providing help to amputees. Interviewing a number of experts on the 30 year conflict between Morocco and the Saharawi natives, they arrange to meet with Saharawi dissidents in the Western Sahara to expose their oppression by Moroccan authorities who they claim are occupying their land and profiting from their national resources. In doing so they evade detection and expulsion by Moroccan authorities and meet UN envoys who are overseeing the conflict. Struggling to get the vehicles to their destination, they team up with two adventurers driving a fire engine and a crazy Frenchman while crossing the minefields in the Sahara Desert. They encounter a diversity of landscapes, people and cultures enroute whilst exploring the nature of tourism, charity and how a disregard of human rights in favour of commercial interests threatens a new war in the Sahara desert.
Running Time
1 Hour 33 Minutes
An automaton of Missy, my cousin's Jack Russell Terrier, fearless in braving the high seas with her owner fishing the murky depths for mackerel and lobster pots.
Hand operated
Wood, Brass, Steel, Leather
82 cm high
An automata commissioned in 2014 but subsequently rejected because it was too big for the client. A blind French soldier plays his hurdy-gurdy, monkey on his back, and reminisces on the woman he once loved. Famous French marching song.
Hand operated
Mixed media
<SOLD!
A commission for a London barrister.
Hand operated
Mixed media
Hand operated
Mixed media
SOLD
Hand operated
Mixed media with mooing noise
Cows only exist because their genes are useful to man. Selfish little things!
SOLD!
A commissioned Automata for Troska in Lymington. She kindly gave me an eclectic mix, a sort of, "these are a few of my favourite things" exercise. I tried to include them into her desire for a wall hung cyclist piece similar to another I have done. His hat is a folded page from Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca' and his jumper in knitted courtesy of Angel-A. The flags circling the globe represent the countries Troska has lived in and the globe itself represents a map of the Netherlands only. The music is by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and is called Music for a Found Harmonium.
95 cm high
Hand operated
Wood, Brass, Resin, found objects
SOLD!
176 cm high
80 cm wide
22 cm deep
Hand operated
Wood, Brass, Aluminium, Resin, found objects
SOLD!
20 cm high
20 cm wide
15 cm deep
Hand operated
Oak, Brass, Aluminium, Resin, found objects
SOLD!
64cm high
40cm wide
24cm deep
Hand operated
Copper, brass, concrete, found objects
SOLD!
Ihr aber lernet, wie man sieht statt stiert
Und handelt, statt zu reden noch und noch.
So was hätt einmal fast die Welt regiert!
Die Völker wurden seiner Herr, jedoch
Daß keiner uns zu früh da triumphiert-
Der Schoß ist fruchtbar noch, aus dem das kroch.
(Extract from: "Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui". Bertolt Brecht, 1941)
33cm high
14cm wide
10cm deep
Hand operated
Copper, brass, resin, found objects
<SOLD!
…….the young man said. "You just keep your eyes open for any bananafish. This is a perfect day for bananafish."
"I don't see any," Sybil said.
"That's understandable. Their habits are very peculiar." He kept pushing the float. The water was not quite up to his chest. "They lead a very tragic life," he said. "You know what they do, Sybil?"
She shook her head.
"Well, they swim into a hole where there's a lot of bananas. They're very ordinary-looking fish when they swim in. But once they get in, they behave like pigs. Why, I've known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas." He edged the float and its passenger a foot closer to the horizon. "Naturally, after that they're so fat they can't get out of the hole again. Can't fit through the door."
"Not too far out," Sybil said. "What happens to them?"
"What happens to who?"
"The bananafish."
"Oh, you mean after they eat so many bananas they can't get out of the banana hole?"
"Yes," said Sybil.
"Well, I hate to tell you, Sybil. They die."
"Why?" asked Sybil.
"Well, they get banana fever. It's a terrible disease."
With her hand, when the float was level again, she wiped away a flat, wet band of hair from her eyes, and reported, "I just saw one."
"Saw what, my love?"
"A bananafish."
"My God, no!" said the young man. "Did he have any bananas in his mouth?"
"Yes," said Sybil. "Six."
The young man suddenly picked up one of Sybil's wet feet, which were drooping over the end of the float, and kissed the arch.
The young man put on his robe, closed the lapels tight, and jammed his towel into his pocket. He picked up the slimy wet, cumbersome float and put it under his arm. He plodded alone through the soft, hot sand toward the hotel.
He got off at the fifth floor, walked down the hall, and let himself into 507. The room smelled of new calfskin luggage and nail-lacquer remover.
He glanced at the girl lying asleep on one of the twin beds. Then he went over to one of the pieces of luggage, opened it, and from under a pile of shorts and undershirts he took out an Ortgies calibre 7.65 automatic. He released the magazine, looked at it, then reinserted it. He cocked the piece. Then he went over and sat down on the unoccupied twin bed, looked at the girl, aimed the pistol, and fired a bullet through his right temple.
(Extract from: "A Perfect Day for Bananafish". J. D. Salinger, 1948)
52cm high
20cm wide
20cm deep
Hand operated
Copper, brass, steel, lead (painted), found objects
SOLD!
30cm high
29cm wide
13.5cm deep
Sold!
Those who were there say that they saw the Chronic Argonaut, sitting in the toneless electric glare, on a peculiar erection and that he seemed to be smiling at them, half pityingly and half scornfully, as it is said martyrs are wont to smile. Parts were of nickel, parts of ivory and ebony; parts had certainly been filed or sawn out of rock crystal. There was white metal in it that blazed in the noontide sun like incandescent magnesium, ebony bars that drank in the light, twisted crystalline bars and white parts that gleamed like polished ivory. Yet withal it seemed unreal. The thing was not square as a machine ought to be, but all awry: it was twisted and seemed falling over, hanging in two directions, as those queer crystals called triclinic hang; it seemed like a machine that had been crushed or warped; it was suggestive and not confirmatory, like the machine of a disordered dream.
“It defies accepted opinions to mortal combat. Opinions of all sorts, Scientific Theories, Laws, Articles of Belief, or, to come to elements, Logical Premises, Ideas, or whatever you like to call them--all are, from the infinite nature of things, so many diagrammatic caricatures of the ineffable--caricatures altogether to be avoided save where they are necessary in the shaping of results…… we find ourselves no longer limited by hopeless restriction to a certain beat of time--to our own generation. Locomotion along lines of duration--chronic navigation comes within the range.”
(Extract from: "The Chronic Argonauts". H. G. Wells, 1888)
