THE MACHINE STOPS
"The Machine Stops" is a personal project of graphic designer Marco Kindler von Knobloch and illustrator Daniel Stolle.
The basis of this project is a short story of the same title by E.M. Forster.
An exhibition of "The Machine Stops" took place from October 5th to October 26th, 2019 at Galleria Kuvitus in Helsinki, Finland.
“The Machine Stops” tells of a future in which people have given away their freedom, agency, and thirst for life in exchange for safety, comfort, and entertainment. Humans have measured themselves and built a machine to fit their needs.
It is at first a disorienting story with its 19th-century technology such as air-ships or pneumatic mail. But it is in its imagined future technologies, like video phone calls, tablets, and smart homes, where we cannot overlook the parallels to our contemporary lives.
We are building our own machine right now. We are connected to many. We talk less and less to only one. We always document and broadcast. We seldom look twice or actively listen. We are endlessly busy. We rarely reflect on what we are doing and why.
This is a project in progress. We are interpreting a text, but we are also exploring our personal and sometimes separate views of the future. Things are dark, but we do not want to show a dystopia – a theme all too common in the entertainment our machines give us lately. Desperation or aspiration – our work is a dialogue to find one voice to walk this line.
