Throughout my professional life, I do repair automata.
Convinced by the magic of these old-fashioned artefacts the impact of which on generations of public does not weaken, I deliver through these few presentations my searches on the history of these animated figures, my enthusiasm for these mechanical subtleties and my admiration for these objects of power.
Mechanical musical instruments
in the streets of Europe in the 19th century
At first magic objects when the religions use them, then objects of power when they arrive on the table of the princes, musical instruments to mechanics become throughout the 19th century, the new vectors of communication:
We shall see that musical instruments to mechanics evolve and diversify according to technological breakthroughs and according to request of the publics, but also the necessary expansion of metallurgical plants and what it is advisable to call the emulation between amazing inventions of the 19th century.
Presentation in English.
Display of some antique collectibles available, on request.
Approximately one hour and quarter plus exchanges with the audience.
Video-projector with HDMI connections and HF clip-on microphone.
The Breath of Time
First, let us wonder of the durability of artistic themes as these automata flutists.
What the myth of the Human-machine, the watch-making precision of the industrial era can well be the denominator between medieval pages illustrating the alexandrine searches for the last centuries BC, the mechanical whims honoring, the old-fashioned charm of the bourgeois toys or the modern engineering of robotics to make everything?
Doubtless the breath of the Wind which goes from Vaucanson to Waseda robotics...
Presentation in English.
Display of some antique collectibles available, on request.
Approximately one hour and quarter plus exchanges with the audience.
Video-projector with HDMI connections and HF clip-on microphone.
Alexandre-Nicolas Theroude’s Automata flutists
By redrawing the epic of automata flutists, Philippe Crasse discovers what seems to him to be an injustice in the systematic oversight of Alexandre-Nicolas Théroude's works …
By looking for the sectors of manufacturing, he demonstrates by supplying sources, argues and, making undergo a paternity test to the rare copies still of this world, raise the card of the genome of one of them, badly attributed, and so returns to Théroude, bad-known manufacturer, the masterpiece which the offspring deprived to him.
Presentation in English.
Display of some antique collectibles available, on request.
Approximately one hour and quarter plus exchanges with the audience.
Video-projector with HDMI connections and HF clip-on microphone.
The Technique in the service of Art
To check the crown of Hieron, Archimedeus expresses the foundations of the fluid mechanics, at the same time as Ktesibios, designer of the water-organ. Without alexandrine thaumaturges and Vitruvius’s works, how Filippo Brunelleschi would have gone up the dome of Firenze cathedral?
Vasari, Michel-angel and Vinci dissect bodies, to understand the muscle structure and volumes, make progress prospect and colorimetry … Descartes illustrates his speech with Hortus Palatinus design and compares its floods with the blood circulation which William Harvey describes at the same time.
Through some underestimated examples, we shall see how much essential are the links which unite the arts and the technique since the highest antiquity…
Presentation in English.
Display of some antique collectibles available, on request.
Approximately one hour and quarter plus exchanges with the audience.
Video-projector with HDMI connections and HF clip-on microphone.
Automaton, as Object of Power
Since ancient times, moving figures connected to clockwork and music held the masses captivated, - and hence in line. From the Renaissance on forwards, spectacular table ornaments for the heirarchy were devised to hold guests in some apprehension and awe of their hosts’ intellect, all for the same purpose.
Here, we see the animated Devil of Manfredo Settala that rolls his eyes and spits smoke from his mouth. And over there, the guests of Charles V are stunned by a Nef or masted galleon that drifts forward and fires a shot.
Our guides are the experts, restorers and organ-builders, Philippe Crasse and Eve Chaillat of Le Ludion in Toulouse, France.
Presentation in English.
Display of some antique collectibles available, on request.
Approximately one hour and quarter plus exchanges with the audience.
Video-projector with HDMI connections and HF clip-on microphone.
Art in Motion, from Automata to Kinetic Art
This lecture will be presented on next AUTOMATACON 2020
POSPONED to 2022, from 20th to 22th of May
Musiques en Ors
Mechanical Snuffboxes 1770-1820
Aesthetic approach, technological innovations and refined luxury...
Presentation in English.
Display of some antique collectibles available, on request.
Approximately one hour plus exchanges with the audience.
Video-projector with HDMI connections (HF clip-on microphone for more than 50 people).
