Two great antique automata collections in the United States

Here is a video on automata by CNN. In it you will meet Charles Penniman and the famous Maillardet automaton housed at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Mr. Penniman has been looking after this precious automaton for over 40 years. I had the pleasure of meeting both back in 2009, and am fond of both the man and the machine. I even got to wind the machine -- not something that every visitor gets to do. Here's a blog post about my visit to see the Maillardet automaton in 2009.

You will also get to meet Jeremy Ryder of the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey where he looks after the Murtogh D. Guinness collection of automata. If you have a chance, this collection is worth a visit. Ryder's expertise is a rare thing.

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Cabaret Mechanical Theatre's Winter Automata Fair with expert Michael Start

As you may know Cabaret Mechanical Theatre has an exhibit of automata at Space Station Sixty-Five until January 6th, 2013.

Cabaret Mechanical Theatre has recently announced that they will be having a Winter Automata Fair at Space Station Sixty-Five on November 28th from 5PM to 8PM. An evening for collectors, enthusiasts and the curious, this will be a unique chance to buy archive prints, posters, automata and kits as well as a several push-button exhibits. The complete sales list will be available on the day of the fair.

The Winter Automata fair will also feature automaton expert Michael Start from The House of Automata. Michael served as Automaton & Horological Advisor for Martin Scorsese's award winning film Hugo which features a clockwork automaton based on the famous Maillardet drawing automaton. Michael will talk about his experience working on the film and share some of his work.

What
Cabaret Mechanical Theatre Winter Automata Fair

When
November 28th, 2012 from 5PM to 8PM

Where
Space Station Sixty-Five
65 North Cross Road
London
SE22 9ET

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Profile of the Jaquet-Droz: master watch, clock, and automata makers

If you missed this video the other day over at the excellent Spiel und Kunst mit Mechanik blog, it is a must see. The film documents some of the achievements of the famous Jaquet-Droz family of watchmakers.

The list of accomplishments outlined in this 13 minute film is astounding. Among other things, the Jaquet-Droz are credited with:

• The first sing bird autoamta
• The first singing bird watch
• The self-winding watch
• The Writer automaton
• The Draftsman automaton
• The Musician automaton
• The pump winding system for watches

This is only a partial list to which we must add numerous advances in watchmaking technology, and supreme artistry in the aesthetic elements of watches and clocks. Finally, though the film does not mention it, Henri Maillardet, creator of the drawing automaton that was the inspiration for the one in the film Hugo, spent time as a young man working in Pierre Jaquet-Droz's workshop. Maillardet doubtless learned much of what he needed to know to build his own drawing automaton from the Jaquet-Droz.

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Hugo DVD and Blu-ray with bonus feature about automata

It's been an exciting week for me. The release of the Martin Scorsese film Hugo on DVD and Blu-ray confirmed at last that I was indeed included in one of the bonus features. I am one of the experts interviewed for a featurette titled The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo.

The DVD edition includes only one extra feature, a nice behind-the-scenes piece titled 'Shoot the Moon: The Making of Hugo'. The Blu-ray special features include:

• Shoot the Moon: The Making of Hugo
• The Cinemagician, Georges Méliès
• The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo
• Big Effects, Small Scale
• Sacha Baron Cohen: The Role of a Lifetime

The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo covers the history of automata, examines the human drive to replicate life in mechanical form, and explores why we find them so compelling. Among the speakers on the featurette are:

• Martin Scorsese - Director / Producer
• Ben Kingsley - Oscar winning actor
• Graham King - Producer
• Dick George - Automaton maker for the film Hugo
• Thomas Kuntz - Artist / Automaton maker
• Dug North - Automaton maker

The featurette includes footage from the motion picture Hugo, drawings of historical automata, 3D animations, antique automata in motion -- some without their outer coverings so you can see what is going on inside, and automata by artist Thomas Kuntz.

Clips from The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo can be found here:

• The drive to replicate life in mechanical form
• The automaton the inspired the one in Hugo
• Why people are fascinated by automata

Being in the feature, I may be biased, but I believe the final product to be an interesting and informative look at mechanical automata. Clocking in at about 13 minutes, it is all to brief and cannot claim to be a comprehensive treatment of the topic. I am honored to have been a part. I hope you will enjoy it too.

Here are the various version of Hugo that are currently available:

• Hugo - One disc: DVD + Digital Copy
• Hugo - Two-disc combo: Blu-ray / DVD Combo + Digital Copy
• Hugo - Three-disc combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD + Digital Copy

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Artists speak about the mystery and motion of automata

This is the third video segment from the special feature included on the Blu-ray release of the movie Hugo. I had the pleasure of being interviewed for the feature which is titled The Mechanical Man and the Heart of Hugo. In this clip, I say a few words about the questions that automata raise in our minds. Other speakers in the clip include Martin Scorsese himself and artist Thomas Kuntz, whose incredible automaton art is also shown in various moments in the clip.

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Dug North speaks about the Maillardet automaton for Hugo bonus feature

I was interviewed recently for one of the bonus features for the DVD release of the movie Hugo. A team  associated with Paramount came to my studio to film an hour-long interview. Many of the questions I fielded were about the history of automata. This naturally lead to questions about connections between the automaton in Hugo and any historical automata. As it turns out, the automaton in Hugo is closely tied to a real automaton.

Here is a short clip from the special bonus featurette titled The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo. In this segment, I say a bit about the famous Maillardet drawing automaton at The Franklin Institute. I had the pleasure of seeing the automaton in action during a visit there a few years ago. I think my reverence for the masterpieces comes through in the clip.

I particularly love how my segment transitions to Ben Kingsley's. I do hope that I set him up well.

Here is a web page where you can see the video of Dug North speaking about the Maillardet automaton.

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Dug North speaks about the mechanical man at the heart of Hugo

The DVD release of the Martin Scorsese film Hugo was yesterday. I've been waiting for this day for months. It's not just that I want to see the film again. I do, but there's more to it than that. This marks my debut as an official talking head on the subject of automata!

Last summer I had the pleasure of being interviewed for one of the bonus features for the Blu-ray release of the movie Hugo. A delightful team of four film industry professionals associated with Paramount arrived at my studio in Lowell, Massachusetts. They filmed an hour-long interview with me among my assorted possessions. They asked questions about the history of automata, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Hugo, Georges Méliès, magic, contemporary automata, and the growing interest in automata among the public.

Here is a short clip from the special bonus featurette titled The Mechanical Man at the Heart of Hugo. In this segment, I say a few words about why I think people are fascinated by automata of all sorts. Here is another spot where you can watch my on-screen interview for the Hugo DVD.

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See Hugo? Like Automata? Visit the Morris Museum!

Watch Mechanical Dolls Like Ones in 'Hugo' Displayed at Morris Museum on PBS. See more from WNJT.

With the film Hugo racking up a total of 5 wins at the 2012 Oscar Awards, the public seems more interest in automata than ever. Here's a great news clip from NJToday Online titled 'Mechanical Dolls Like Ones in 'Hugo' Displayed at Morris Museum.' Indeed they are! The museum is home to a huge collection of automata originally owned by Murtough D. Guinness. Guinness -- an heir to the brewery of the same name -- collected over 700 of these fantastic mechanical pieces throughout his life and donated them to the museum. While they may not have a drawing automaton quite as sophisticated as the one in the movie, what they do have will still delight and astound any visitor.

Here is where you can learn more about the Guinness collection of automata at the Morris Museum.

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Mysterious Franklin Institute automaton identified itself in writing!

The Huffington Post published an article online yesterday about the automaton in the Martin Scorsese film Hugo and its connection to a real automaton now housed at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The article covers the fascinating journey of this remarkable machine, created around 1800 my the Swiss watchmaker, Henri Maillardet. The story of the real automaton parallels that of the one in author Brian Selznick's book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, to a remarkable degree -- right down to the automaton identifying its lost lineage by writing a message. This really happened!

Here is a link to the full article from The Huffington Post titled Franklin Institute Automaton Has Link To 'Hugo'.

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