Karakuri ningyō (からくり人形?) are mechanized puppets or automata from Japan from the 18th century to 19th century. The word ‘karakuri’ means a “mechanical device to tease, trick, or take a person by surprise”. It implies hidden magic, or an element of mystery. In Japanese ningyō is written as two separate characters, meaning person and shape. It may be translated as puppet, but also by doll or effigy. The dolls’ gestures provided a form of entertainment.
Three main types of karakuri exist: Butai karakuri (舞台からくり stage karakuri?) were used in theatre. Zashiki karakuri (座敷からくり tatami room karakuri?) were small and were played with in rooms. Dashi karakuri (山車からくり festival car karakuri?) were used in religious festivals, where the puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional myths and legends.
They influenced the Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku theatre.Karakuri ningyō (からくり人形?) are mechanized puppets or automata from Japan from the 18th century to 19th century. The word ‘karakuri’ means a “mechanical device to tease, trick, or take a person by surprise”. It implies hidden magic, or an element of mystery. In Japanese ningyō is written as two separate characters, meaning person and shape. It may be translated as puppet, but also by doll or effigy. The dolls’ gestures provided a form of entertainment.
Three main types of karakuri exist: Butai karakuri (舞台からくり stage karakuri) were used in theatre. Zashiki karakuri (座敷からくり tatami room karakuri) were small and were played with in rooms. Dashi karakuri (山車からくり festival car karakuri) were used in religious festivals, where the puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional myths and legends. They influenced the Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku theatre.
Kirsty Boyle has a great site about her Karakuri research
After watching ‘Fellini’s Casanova’ (1976) again yesterday i thought i should post it as it left me with thoughts as to what the film actually means. Specifically the dancing doll automaton and the bird automation - What did they represent?; A reflection of Casanova’s empty and mechanical soul, devoid of real love. We told by Donald Sutherland in the special feature that Fellini detested Casanova’s moral frivolity and compared him to the re-surging ‘well-to do’ scene in Rome at the time. As with other works of Fellini we are left to fill in the pieces.
The doll has definite connections with Olympia from the novel ‘The Sandman’ by E.T.A Hoffman. 1816. Jentsch and Freud used ‘The Sandman’ as the key text in their attempts to define ‘the uncanny’.
(On the psycology of the uncanny, Jenstch 1906),(The Uncanny, Freud, 1919).
Plot: 18th Century Italy. Giacomo Casanova has a reputation as a great lover. He passes through many adventures in search of passion. He meets the aging Marquise d’Urfe who wants him to impregnate her so that she can reincarnate in her child’s body, is jailed as a black magician but escapes, and enters a love-making competition held by the Prince del Brando, along with many other adventures.
I have, once again became obsessed again with the life and inventions of Nikola Tesla. This was fueled by reading Empires of light : Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the race to electrify the world, JONNES, J. (2003) New York, Random House, i Also recently visited Niagara falls. Niagara, is the site of the first hydro - electric power plant. The system uses an Alternating Current polyphase induction motor invented by Tesla and implemented by George Westinghouse. The power station was the first of its kind because it travelled the distance of 28 miles to the town of Buffalo 1896, powering electric lighting and street cars etc. Tesla is called the father of robotics because of his invention of Remote control 1898. He also wished to create an automate of himself, harness free energy for everyone for free, hence his other title, father of free energy, or ‘the man who invented the twentieth century’.
I have decided for my next project i would like to build some autonomous mobile robots. The first kind of these robots was created by Grey Walter (1949), he called them ‘Elmer and Elsie. When they ran out of battery power they went to the recharge station and recharged them selves, how cool is that!
Grey Walter’s most famous work was his construction of some of the first electronic autonomous robots. He wanted to prove that rich connections between a small number of brain cells could give rise to very complex behaviors - essentially that the secret of how the brain worked lay in how it was wired up. His first robots, which he used to call “Machina Speculatrix” and named Elmer and Elsie, were constructed between 1948 and 1949 and were often described as tortoises due to their shape and slow rate of movement - and because they ‘taught us’ about the secrets of organisation and life. The three-wheeled tortoise robots were capable of phototaxis, by which they could find their way to a recharging station when they ran low on battery power.
In one experiment he placed a light on the “nose” of a tortoise and watched as the robot observed itself in a mirror. “It began flickering,” he wrote. “Twittering, and jigging like a clumsy Narcissus.” Walter argued that if it were seen in an animal it “might be accepted as evidence of some degree of self-awareness.”
Recently, one of the original tortoises was replicated by Dr. Owen Holland, of the University of the West of England in 1995 - using some of the original parts. A specimen of a second generation turtle is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Another example can be seen in London UK in the Science Museum’s Making the Modern World gallery.
A short film done in the style of a german expressionist silent film. It is meant to illustrate Freud’s theory of “the uncanny” which is based on ETA Hoffmann’s short story “the Sandman”. It is a work in progress. The final version of this is currently making festival rounds right now, including the Short Film Corner in Cannes, and the Nashville international Film Festival.
Via Hugo Strikes Back (information about the picture found in Book review: Loving The Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots.)via we make money not art
Jin-Yo Mok's and Gicheol Lee's MusicBox is a sound instrument that
integrates an installation with interactions over the Internet. The
physical installation consists of an old-fashioned music box with a
crank handle, in which the pins have been replaced with LEDs and the
notes with photo sensors for user interaction.
Users can draw a shape and pattern on the screen with their mouse and
the same pattern of LEDs will light up on the physical music box.
Turning the crank handle on the LED cylinder, any sensors that detect
light from the LEDs will make a sound. Data submitted by users is
stored in a database and shared by the online and offline music box.
Drawing on Music Box : Users can design the lights on the music box by drawing on the computer screen, April 2004
Greek myths of Hephaestus and Pygmalion incorporate the idea of intelligent robots.
~2500 BC
Egyptians invent the idea of thinking machines: citizens turn for advice to oracles, which are statues with priests hidden inside.
~1400 BC
Babylonians develop a water clock named the “clepsydra.”
This water clock is considered one of the first “robotic” devices in the history of man kind. The water is recycled through a kind of siphoning system.
~700 - 800 BC
First symbolic mention of robots - automatae - appears in Homer’s Iliad(7) - or simulacra as they will be called.
1200 AD app.
Arab authors also designed complex mechanical arrangements. The most famous amongst them is Al-Jazari. He wrote Automata - which is considered the most important text for the study of the History of Technology. This book is richly illustrated and gives the state of the art of technology in the middle ages and shows how advanced technology in that time was compared with the western countries.
This website has a nice collection of 1700’s autonoma pictures
1700’s
Henri Maillardet’s Draughsman-and-Writer
18th century engraving which inspired the Jaquet-Droz family
Cupid and butterfly and a portrait of Louis XV (Draughtsman)
Durand & Decamps - Professor Arcadius writing a sentance
Device of the Duck attributed to Vaucanson: the structure, weights, motor and wheel-work.
Drum with cogs directing the whole mechanism (Duck)
Detail of the Duck
The fourth Writer made by Friedrich von Knaus
The Jaquet-Droz Writer (1774), in the Neuchatel Museum
The Draghtsman by Jaquet-Droz (1774)
Mandolin. Snuff-box by Jaquet-Droz.
Clock with moving Chinese Characters amd waterfall, representing the Scared Mountain
Small musical clock with automata.
English calendar clock, with music and automata, made c.1740.
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