On my recent trip, I ferreted out the location of an interesting destination.   I had seen an advert for the place on a friend’s website, so I decided that it was a must see.

And what might Novelty Automation be?   Well it’s got coin-operated machines inside, but they are not like regular commercially produced arcade machines.    They are all artist created, satirical machines (the only similarity to arcade machines is that it takes one’s coin).

Right inside the front door was this machine.   You put in the coin, crank the handle, and the spinner above the figures whirls around while the lamb on top shakes it’s head.  And then the decision.

The diorama spins up or down to show the final disposition of the lamb.  I got ‘pet’ which is how I would treat a lamb.   The other diorama has the lamb as the main course for dinner.  (Noooooo).

This artist has made a variety of machines, I hope that this one was not based on personal experience.

Of all the machines, this one was my favorite.   It is the art critic who will give a yea or nay as to whether something is art (note the plastic cow encased in lucite on the side, obviously it must be art).  I could not resist the challenge and so I put Pteri into the little box on the side of this machine.  Pteri rose up to be judged by this critic, how could he not be impressed?   Well it just goes to show the fickle nature of art criticism, Pteri was declared to be not art.  The judgement was obviously flawed, I assert that any picture (or art) can be improved with the addition of a pterodactyl.