Don’t be a robot, exhorts visual and music artist Spocka Summa of Providence, the cover artist of Motif’s Fall Guide in concert with several Anti-Robot Club members. Together, they designed this issue’s artwork: “Break free and be yourself!”
In today’s media-driven, celebrity culture, it’s easy to become programmed, “Like a computer that does XYZ, and that’s about it,” he observes. “Don’t get lost inside the system. Stay creative, and find your way.”
That’s the theme of his latest EP project and limited clothing release: I Am Not A Robot. Having come up with the name, Summa is working on the artwork for the EP’s cover. It shows a character running and breaking out of a robot suit. Next, he’ll write the hip-hop lyrics based on that cover and, in collaboration with producers and engineers, set the music score.
The polar opposite of a cog in the machine, Summa founded the Anti-Robot Club in 2019. It went into hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic and restarted in 2023. Every third Saturday, the Club sponsors THE MARKETPLACE, featuring 60 or more creatives and small business vendors, from 4 – 8 pm at Farm Fresh RI on Sims Avenue in PVD.
Artists and other contributors of Anti-Robot are always available to assist Summa in his creative endeavors. More than 3,000 people have shown up to support his projects over the years. “We all identify as Anti-Robot,” he explains.
For the Fall Guide’s cover, Summa and his team collaborated on creating an Afrofuturistic view of what a section of PVD would look like, with vendors, shops, and a community of people coming together, “The color palette has the season’s colors, mostly different tones of green,” Summa details.
“What inspires me is everyday life,” Summa says, “Especially the idea of what creativity looks like as a community, a future influenced by comic books and a cross between fact and fiction.”
Summa started drawing when he was about 7 years old. Thanks to the support of friends and family, he worked on posters and yearbooks at school. “I became the go-to to draw things,” he adds.
His artwork had a Steampunk feel to it, he relates. “You take trash and build something that works. I drew spaceships and cars from found objects. And I dialed in on their design a bit more as I got older.”
Summa created comic books to give the backstory of the world his characters live in: The Live Wire issue #1, starring Spocka Summa, and Live Wire issue #2 The Valley of Wires, with story by Spocka Summa and artwork by Jamison King.
“I think I have multiple ways of presenting a story. My projects give people another opportunity to look at the stories I’m trying to tell,” the artist says.
Summa uses paint, paper illustration and digital, in his worldbuilding.
His music takes it a little bit deeper, and on a more personal level. “I dig down into myself and say exactly what I’m thinking. Through my art and music, I hope to give people a better feel of the whole world.”
In addition, Summa is co-owner, with his fiancée, Casandra Inez, of Public Shop & Gallery in Olneyville, which also sells such merchandise as hats, T-shirts, and tote bags.
“I do a lot of things,” he concludes, emphasizing that the concept of Anti-Robot was always there in his art and music from the beginning.
Summa’s projects can be viewed at his website spockasumma.com and on Instagram @ispocka. Events are listed on anti-robotclub.com.