How To Live No. 17 Spaghetti, of the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

Paul Spooner

Jim Rouse Visionary Center, 1st Floor

Paul Spooner was born in Lancashire, England, in 1948. He exhibited mechanical aptitude early on and by the age of 16 had constructed a clock and a steam engine from wood. He studied mechanical sculpture from 1966 to 1969 and in 1974 moved to Cornwall, where he made weaving looms for his wife and worked as a van driver. He made his first automaton—a whimsical wooden sculpture with moving parts—in 1981, a piece featuring the Egyptian jackal-headed god Anubis. He made small machines at first, which became increasingly larger during his years with Cabaret Mechanical Theater.