Media Archaeology, Cultures of Automata, and Mechanized Cognition Ayhan Ayteş Ph.D., Communication and Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego
Allah’s Automata ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Curators: Siegfried Zielinski, Peter Weibel The Elephant Clock by Al-Jazari (1206 AD) from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.
A Media Archaeology of Ingenious Designs: Middle-East Pasts and Futurisms 3rd Istanbul Biennial, Are We Human? (2016) Reconstruction of the Water Serving Automaton, from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by Al-Jazari (1206 AD)
Chess Playing Automaton Copper engraving from Karl Gottlieb von Windisch's 1783 book Briefe über den Schachspieler des Hrn. von Kempelen, nebst drei Kupferstichen die diese berühmte Maschine vorstellen.
Artificial Artificial Intelligence
Imaginary Media Image from the book: Freiherr Joseph Friedrich zu Racknitz, Ueber den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen, Leipzig und Dresden 1789
Enlightenment Automata Image from the book: Freiherr Joseph Friedrich zu Racknitz, Ueber den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen, Leipzig und Dresden 1789
Oriental Automata Image from the book: Freiherr Joseph Friedrich zu Racknitz, Ueber den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen, Leipzig und Dresden 1789
Self-regulating Automata Image from the book: Freiherr Joseph Friedrich zu Racknitz, Ueber den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen, Leipzig und Dresden 1789
Muslim as ‘mechanicum’ Water Serving Automaton, from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by Al-Jazari (1206 AD)
Mammetts Lord Capulet to Juliet: And then to have a wretched puling fool, A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender, To answer 'I'll not wed; I cannot love, I am too young; I pray you, pardon me.– Romeo and Juliet Act 3 scene 5, lines 184-188, in Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Lauren M. Davis (Juliet), Dave Gamble (Lord Capulet), and Mimsi Janis (Nurse). Photo courtesy of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.
Orientalism The Odalisque, 1913 (oil on canvas), Tanoux, Henri Adrien (1865-1923)
Automated Cognition Image from the book: Freiherr Joseph Friedrich zu Racknitz, Ueber den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen, Leipzig und Dresden 1789
The Writer The Writer, Jaquet-Droz automata, musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Neuchâtel
The Science of Calculation An animated example of a Knight's tour in Chess, with the visited squares shaded
Division of Mental Labor Difference Engine constructed by the Science Museum based on the plans for Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2
Pure Machine “There is then no analogy whatever between the operations of the Chess-Player, and those of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage, and if we choose to call the former a ‘pure machine’ we must be prepared to admit that it is, beyond all comparison, the most wonderful of the inventions of mankind.” Edgar Allan Poe, Maelzel’s Chess-Player, Southern Literary Messenger, 1835
Imaginary Media Image from the book: Freiherr Joseph Friedrich zu Racknitz, Ueber den Schachspieler des Herrn von Kempelen, Leipzig und Dresden 1789
Workshop: Speculative Design and the Middle Eastern Futurism Tevatur by Gokhan Mura and Onur Cayli