Project with Robby the Robot at the Story Museum

Last week, we announced that our Rumble robots had started to speak for the first time, and that The Year Eight Museum Council students and Sixth Form Museum Volunteers had been in the know for a number of weeks, and have kept the plans veiled in secrecy, while inventing stories for the robots to tell when they finally spoke. You can listen to their stories here.

The Story Museum caught wind of our project, and were inspired to think about giving a voice to Robby the Robot who lives at the Story Museum. Robby the Robot starred in the 1956 sci-fi film The Forbidden Planet. He was groundbreaking at the time, though not an actual robot, but one operated by a human inside.

The Story Museum team invited our Museum Council team to visit their amazing museum this week to meet Robby and to start to think about the sorts of things that Robby might see and hear in the museum when he is there after opening hours. Students were able to explore the Whispering Wood and the Enchanted Library, where they were able to step inside some very well-known stories such as Narnia, the Snowman and Noughts and Crosses, while thinking about what stories Robby might tell.

After a magical tour of the galleries, including getting to see the real alethiometer created for the Golden Compass film, and having a disco, the students returned to the common room to think about their ideas. Some students thought about portals and characters from the wall of posters where Robby now stands, and others had ideas of Robby trying to get through the wardrobe into Narnia!

The Story Museum have taken in all the ideas, and over the coming months, we will be continuing to develop them, to see where they take Robby and us! We are very excited and grateful to be involved with this exciting project, and are really looking forward to welcoming the Story Museum team to hear our own robot stories this coming Friday at our Pick 'n' Styx launch event!.