What more human pursuit is there than trying to create new life? Though this life began not between the bed sheets but on the work bench.
Today we have patented mice, what will tomorrow bring? Think this is a contemporary problem? Think the Japanese were the only ones obsessed with robots? Think again. The French began their obsession over 400 years ago. They even have the museum to prove it. Within the wonderful and beautiful walls of the Musée des arts et métiers in Paris, is the creepy Theater of the Automatons. It may sound like a Radiohead song but throughout Europe, many cities have a Theater of Automatons. Not just French courtesans of the sixteenth century got their kicks from automated life, but so too did North Americans in the form of the twentieth century carnival games (remember the mechanical wizard in the film "Big"). One Saturday in San Francisco, I stumbled upon a large collection of carnival mechanicals that pre-dated our Dreamcast, Playstation, X-Box lives by half a century.
[image: Mechanical Basketball Players, San Francisco] Continue...>> |
