MetaFilter posts tagged with automata

Vintage Mouse Porn

kuujjuarapik — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:25:42 -0800

Vintage Mouse Porn (NSFW). Pre-1970 pornography, redrawn with cartoon mice. Tempe, AZ artist Jon Haddock (previously) shows us the seedy side of classic cartoons. Some of his other projects include a strangely Davey and Goliath looking automata called Andrew Meyer (Don't Tase Me, Bro) and the grin suppressing Cartoon Violence, very traumatic events retold as cartoons. (via Hallwalls).

The Automata Art of Steve Armstrong

twoleftfeet — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:22:23 -0800

The Automata Art of Steve Armstrong. Part I, Part II, Part III.

Penny Arcade: "Automata" inspired works

filthy light thief — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:01:27 -0800

The guys at Penny Arcade often refer to their sequential comics as "dreaded continuity," but some of their storylines have created their own microcosms apart from the usual commentary on things in the broad world video games. Prime examples of these storylines include Cardboard Tube Samurai and Song of the Sorcelator, the latter has spun into a world made by its fans. The newest sequential work started from one of three short "treatments," set in a nineteen-twenties crime fiction which unfolds in a time where "machine intellect" has been outlawed. The first page of Automata was set to music that was composed and performed by Christoph Hermiteer. The second fan creation is a short radio program, based on a script written by the Penny Arcade folks.

When Steam Wasn't Punk.

The Whelk — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:41:54 -0800

The Brazen Android by William Douglas O'Connor, is a 19th century science fiction story based on the myth of the Brazen Head, a steam-powered head that told fortunes. It's available as an audio book from the Internet Archives. (Via)

Special-snowflake Bots: A List

taz — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:36:27 -0800

60+ One-Of-A-Kind Robots From Science Fiction. "You'd think a major advantage of robots is you can mass-produce them. They're just metal-and-circuit bodies. But science fiction is full of one-of-a-kind bots. Here are all the bots for whom they broke the mold."

Be fruitful and iterate.

fatllama — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:41:03 -0800

Researchers discover gigantic "Caterpillar" spaceship that travels at (17/45)c. Just another exciting development in the Game of Life (previously).

audio memories of the world

nickyskye — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:25:12 -0800

Sound glimpses into the past. The Phonogrammarchiv was founded in 1899 and is the oldest audiovisual research archive in the world. There are some fascinating sound samples listenable online from the Historical Collections-1899 to 1950, including: The First Expeditions 1901 to Croatia, Brazil and the Isle of Lesbos; Zulu Recordings 1908; Papua New Guinea (1904-1909) and some lovely recordings of old Musical Boxes from Vienna and Prague. The Austrian Audiovisual Research Archive For the sound samples of the musical boxes, click on the images.

Al-Jazari's Elephant Clock and other Islamic Inventions

Kattullus — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:14:54 -0800

Al-Jazari is the best-known Islamic inventor of the Middle Ages, famous for his waterclocks and automata. The wonderful History of Science and Technology in Islam has articles on him as well as other subjects. A medieval manuscript of Al-Jazari's masterwork, a book generally known in English as either Book of Knowledge of Mechanical Devices, can be perused in its entirety in flash form. It includes 174 illustrations. If you want to see working copies of his most famous automaton, the Elephant Clock, you can go either to the Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai (Flickr pictures), the Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle in Switzerland (Cabinet of Wonders post about visiting the museum) or Institute for the History of Arab-Islamic Science in Frankfurt (article about the institute from a feature in Saudi Aramco World magazine called Rediscovering Arabic Science).

"..watched him seize a silver fish from under the water and hold up his head and go through the customary and elaborate motions of swallowing it..."

fire&wings — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:02:44 -0800

The Silver Swan is a life-size musical automaton built in 1773 from silver and glass, now housed in the Bowes Museum in County Durham. The clockwork swan rests on a "stream" of glass rods in which little silver fishes swim. When activated the swan preens itself then appears to catch one of the fish before swallowing it in a display which lasts around 40 seconds. The mechanism, built by John Joseph Merlin (who also brought us the rollerskate) includes "six camshafts, a quadrant-and-pinion, chains running up the slender neck and a pair of spring-operated lazy tongs." While this 235 year old swan is still eating fish daily, its real life counterparts prefer underwater plants and cereal crops.

Vintage androids

nickyskye — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:51:52 -0800

Karakuri automata are representative of the highest technology in the Edo period (1603 to 1867). Automata were also crafted hundreds of years ago in Europe: The Dulcimer Player by Pierre Kintzing , made in 1772; The Singing Lesson, created by Robert-Houdin; three androids by Jaquet-Droz; the Pooping Duck by Vaucanson (the first link at the top). Ancient robots. The first automaton was created by Al-Jazari: video of his clock. The history of automata [pdf]. Contemporary toy automata. [more inside]

automata

crunchland — Mon, 14 Apr 2003 22:28:17 -0800

Automaton \Au*tom"a*ton\, n.; pl. L. Automata, E. Automatons. [L. fr. Gr. ?, neut. of ? self-moving; ? self + a root ma, man, to strive, think, cf. ? to strive.] 1. Any thing or being regarded as having the power of spontaneous motion or action.

ookamaka — Wed, 27 Mar 2002 17:56:00 -0800

Fellow DJs, it seems as though we'll soon be out of a job

costas — Wed, 29 Nov 2000 18:28:12 -0800

"One of the most esteemed documents of modern paleontology is Stephen Jay Gould's doctoral thesis on shells. According to Gould, the fact that there are thousands of potential shell shapes in the world, but only a half dozen actual shell forms, is evidence of natural selection. Not so, says Wolfram. He's discovered a mathematical error in Gould's argument, and that, in fact, there are only six possible shell shapes, and all of them exist in the world. " A must-read article.