Androids in the Enlightenment – Mechanics, Artisans, and Cultures of the Self

Name: Androids in the Enlightenment – Mechanics, Artisans, and Cultures of the Self
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ISBN: 9780226034164

Adelheid Voskuhl

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English

University of Chicago Press
05 March 2015

History of science; History of engineering & technology; Robotics

The eighteenth century saw the creation of a number of remarkable mechanical androids: at least ten prominent automata were built between 1735 and 1810 by clockmakers, court mechanics, and other artisans from France, Switzerland, Austria, and the German lands. Designed to perform sophisticated activities such as writing, drawing, or music making, these “Enlightenment automata” have attracted continuous critical attention from the time they were made to the present, often as harbingers of the modern industrial age, an era during which human bodies and souls supposedly became mechanized. In Androids in the Enlightenment, Adelheid Voskuhl investigates two such automata—both depicting piano-playing women. These automata not only play music, but also move their heads, eyes, and torsos to mimic a sentimental body technique of the eighteenth century: musicians were expected to generate sentiments in themselves while playing, then communicate them to the audience through bodily motions. Voskuhl argues, contrary to much of the subsequent scholarly conversation, that these automata were unique masterpieces that illustrated the sentimental culture of a civil society rather than expressions of anxiety about the mechanization of humans by industrial technology. She demonstrates that only in a later age of industrial factory production did mechanical androids instill the fear that modern selves and societies had become indistinguishable from machines.

By: Adelheid Voskuhl
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 151mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 446g
ISBN: 9780226034164
ISBN 10: 022603416X
Pages: 296
Publication Date: 05 March 2015
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Adelheid Voskuhl is associate professor in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University.

Reviews for Androids in the Enlightenment – Mechanics, Artisans, and Cultures of the Self

A fine-grained study with a bold argument: that the history of machines and the history of emotions are deeply connected.Adelheid Voskuhl breaks apart hackneyed associations of man and machine by looking at women and machines in the context of music, artisanal industry, and Enlightenment culture. After you spend time with the piano-playing automata featured in this book, you will never see androids in the same way again. --Rosalind Williams, Massachusetts Institute of Technology