Automata May Judge Us Once Autonomous

Box of Men is a piece by artist Ken Feingold using animated ventriloquist dolls. The automaton is funny, creepy, and thought-provoking all at once.

From the Ace Gallery Web Site:
Box of Men is a work for display on a large flat-panel screen. The piece
is not pre-recorded. The dialogue is synthesized speech generated in real
time by a computer program that assigns a "character" to each of the
puppets. Their conversation goes on infinitely, as long as the program is
running. The narrative circles around an "unknown" crime. Those accused are anonymous. Those who judge are puppets, controlled by unseen forces, and assuming an uncanny life of their own.

Here is a link to the page featuring Box of Men, complete with transcript of their conversation.

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Dunninger's Encyclopedia of Magic in MAKE

I'm thrilled to have played a small part in MAKE Magazine's latest issue, Volume 13. The theme of the issue is magic. I review a classic book on the subject: Dunningers Complete Encyclopedia Of Magic.

Magicians have a long history of being exceptional makers. Just to assure you that this post is on-topic, the book contains details of one of Hero of Alexandria's automata and instructions on marionette construction.

The book is out-of-print, but available used online.

Pick up a copy of MAKE, Volume 13 to read my concise book review. The issue also has a TON of articles on magic, makers, and cool things to make for yourself.

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Make Ball and Socket Armature Joints

Armature joints are useful for model makers and stop-motion animators. If you've ever tried to locate ball and socket joints, you'll know it isn't easy. When you do find them, you will find that good quality ones can be very expensive.

Here is an entire site dedicated to showing you how to make them yourself. It is a very complete step-by-step guide, with each section set up in slide-show format. Thankfully, the author has also included a list of suppliers for the required parts.

Model makers and animators: Make your own brass ball-and-socket armature joints

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The Little Girl Giant - Enormous Marionette

This astounding video is of a very large and very beautiful marionette. She requires a troop of puppeteers, dozens of block-and-tackle, and a crane to operate. The sum is far greater than the parts, I assure you.

Here's a link to The Little Girl Giant on YouTube. [Thanks, Aaron!]

Addendum
The folks at The Mechanical Blog provide some context. The show is called The Sultan's Elephant and was performed by a group called Royal de Luxe.

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Automata / Puppet Circus

Alexander Calder created a miniature circus using handmade characters that are part automaton and part puppet. He would then manipulate the figures to perform certain acts of the show. The figures include jugglers, clowns and animals -- all made from odd bits of wood, cork, wire, yarn, paper, string and cloth. I am simply astounded by these four clips of Calder on YouTube (all from a 1961 film by Carlos Vilardebo).


See Alexander Calder's automata / puppet circus

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The Secrets of Making Marionettes

Here's a link to a 1934 edition of Popular Mechanics entitled The Secrets of Makeing Marionettes. The site features scans of the original article as well as an HTML transcription. There are some valuable tips on figure-making for all automata artists in this article. If you're not sure how, check out the work of Tom Haney who makes key-operated marionettes machines.

You may also want to look into the book Making and Manipulating Marionettes

This book is a complete guide to the design, construction, and control of string puppets.

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