inspired by jeff vandermeer’s current guest blogger today I offer for your consideration: automata. mechanical androids filled with clockwork gears, springs, pulleys, pneumatics, and hydraulics rather than electronics and computer chips. androids covered in leather, papier-mâché, and wood rather than molded plastic. powered by water, gravity, air, or steam rather than electricity. dancing, chess playing, music making, and in some cases defecating machine automata, made by folks who still themselves shat in bedside pots and tapped veins to bleed away “foul humours.” 18th and 19th century automata, the a.i. of our forerunners, mimicking nature in function and creation myths like man from dust, and athena, promethius, and the gollum from clay in practice. this stuff is amazing.
where as now automata as such have been split into those strictly for amusement (tickle-me-elmo, robosapien, etc) which are consumer items, and those strictly for scientific study (robotics, a.i.) which are expensive but generally raw and unfinished looking, automata of the 18th century were marvels of both science and entertainment, drawing astonished crowds and illiciting thoughtful reaction from philosophers and natural scientists.
“The modern robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) industries use technology which is typically less than a hundred years old, and yet what they are trying to achieve cannot properly be understood without delving much more deeply into history. Two thousand years ago, for example, automata were reputedly already capable of rudimentary synthetic sound, and legends of metal men and statues coming to life can be found in the works of Homer, Plato, Pindar, Tacitus, and Pliny.” -a brief history of automata by Derek J. Smith.
“The genuine automatons were born in the middle of the Age of Enlightenment, thanks to the art of watchmaking. This period, which was dominated by scientific spirit, and more precisely, by the biomechanical conception of the human being, corresponds to the birth of numerous artificial creatures, which were intended to be exact replicas or copies of nature. Androids and mechanical animals were thus manufactured by watchmaking technicians who were very interested in medicine and natural sciences. They did not aim at entertaining but rather at contributing to the progress of science.”
“today’s researchers have an extraordinary amount in common with the automata creators of the 18th and early 19th century. they believed that new technologies might let them bridge the gap between machines and life—a belief that has led modern researchers to build artificial insects, fish, gorillas and even people.” -stanford report by etienne benson.
A study of the history of automata clearly reveals that several of the basic inventions produced for these attempts to imitate life by mechanical means led to significant developments culminating in modern automation and cybernetics. The invention of cams, for example, which governed the movements of the androids, is applicable to numerous modern automatic machines. Although the cam is a far older invention, attributed originally to Archimedes, its employment in automata, however, resulted in the first machinery having multiple combinations and opened up tremendous possibilities for a great variety of applications. It is reasonably safe to state that cybernetics was already in a stage of potential realization in the creations of some of the mechanicians of the seventeenth century.” -The role of automata in the History of Technology By SILVIO A. BEDINI
in some ways, certainly artistically, and taking into account the times in which they were made, i think the mechanical automata are more impressive than the modern day equivalents like honda’s asimo, which seems little more than a walking, stair climbing brand recognition generator. if you take their creators’ level of knowledge and compare it to the level of amazement generated isn’t it odd that our robots today hardly garner an oooh or ahhh. back then a mechanical bird that could shit, or a mechanical woman that could “play” the harpsicord were almost impossibly fantastic. why is it our modern day androids are so disappointing somehow? is it the lack of convincing physical mimicry? or do we just feel, by now, we really ought to have robot nannies and butlers, rendering the better functioning robotic creations underwhelming?
check out these links for further reading, lot’s of great images, and other goodies:
history of automata. this site is the best visual reference i’ve come across. many images and flash animations. breaks down automata into important creators. click all the links for many rewards.
automata gallery from 1700-1814. a few gems.
japanese page with some historic automata images.
list of plates from the most famous historical book on (pre-android) mechanical wonders called “le diverse et artificios machine” by italian engineer agostino ramelli. i want this fucking book (hint hint)
modern automata creators. check out the “gli artisti” link for modern designers of simple hand operated automata.
lot’s of automata for sale. antique and modern. scroll down.
caberet mechanical theater’s virtual exhibitions of simple modern automata. exhibition 1 and exhibition 2. also links to artists.
lots of automata for sale here. mostly antique, as well as clockworks, wind-ups, etc.
download your own moving paper model and automata kits.