The Machine

2010, 15 minutes

An Inventor's obsession with hearing again leads him to an invention which hears more than he'd bargained for.

The Machine is a story about an inventor named Bob who is going deaf. He starts to build machines to help his hearing when he gets carried away and makes a machine that can hear plants, or at least that’s what he thinks it does. Bob quickly realises plants have feelings and therefore he cannot harm them which means he isn't allowed to pick them to eat. He has to wait for them to fall naturally. He tries to get other people to understand by letting them listen to his machine but they don't have time for him and he begins to lose his friends. By the end of the film after living on scraps of food, Bob is nearly dead. He is laying in bed one day trying not to give up when he hears a noise. He goes to investigate and when he realises the noise isn't coming from his machine he goes in search of his apple tree. Which after almost killing, it offers him an apple through a new welcoming sound. Bob realises his machine didn’t allow him to listen to plants; it was his ability all along. Bob has gained the respect of the plants through his sacrifice and they decide to let him live by offering him food. After eating his first apple Bob loses his hearing altogether but finally realises it is a good thing and he is able to reconnect with his friend.