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Eden Project's Dead Cat brought back to life

Lisa YoungCornwall
News imageEden Project Nick Murdoch is kneeling and grinning as he watches the automaton cat dipping its head in a food bowl which has CAT printed on it. Nick is holding the orange and yellow striped tube which forms the machine's back. The cat has white paws and a white stomach. They are in the Plant Takeaway. There is a chair nearby with a screwdriver on it. There is a fridge with SMUG printed on it and a mannequin wearing a shirt printed with carrots. There is a mantelpiece and a pair of curtains with strawberries printed on them. On the wall is a print of the cat leaning over its food bowl.Eden Project
Engineers from The Repair Shop on the Road refurbished the moving exhibition

A 25-year-old exhibition featuring moving mechanical devices has been repaired in a BBC TV show.

Engineers from the The Repair Shop on the Road refurbished the automata which feature in the Plant Takeaway at the Eden Project.

Known by staff as the Dead Cat, the exhibit depicts what would happen if plants disappeared forever by showing what would happen in a kitchen which features food, a family, a dog and a cat.

Nick Murdoch, the creative engineer who led the restoration attempt, said it had been "a huge undertaking" because, after nearly a million performances, every part of the machine needed repair.

News imageEden Project The Plant Takeaway is like a small stage holding a kitchen. There is an audience watching it. On the stage are a female and a male mannequin. The female one is wearing a dress printed with aubergines and the male a shirt featuring carrots. There is a table with two glasses and a bowl of fruit and there is a fridge with SMUG printed on it. There is a window with strawberry printed curtains and a mantelpiece.Eden Project
The Plant Takeaway has carried out nearly a million performances over the past 25 years

The original installation was made by Will Jackson, Paul Spooner and Patrick Bond from an idea students at a nearby secondary school dreamed up of a kitchen scene showing humans' reliance on plants.

Paul Spooner said: "When we first built the Plant Takeaway back in 2000, we were simply trying to make a complex idea approachable and a bit mischievous.

"A quarter of a century later, the real question has been can it be restored so that its humour and message may continue to resonate?"

In the show each item in the kitchen disappears as plants become extinct until even the garments disappear from the mechanical puppets.

After the food vanishes, the man, woman, dog and cat automata die.

Andy Jasper, Eden Project chief executive, said: "This iconic exhibit was one of the very first ways we used theatre and storytelling to engage visitors with serious scientific ideas.

"Two decades on, the importance of this exhibit cannot be understated, its message about our fundamental dependence on plants is as relevant and as urgent as ever," he added.

News imageEden Project The automaton cat is in pieces laid out on a table and pictured from above. The yellow head is separate to the orange and yellow striped body and there are various tools laid next to the parts, including a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.Eden Project
The Eden Project staff call the Plant Takeaway the Dead Cat after one of the automata

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