Automata, androids, and clocks of the 18^th-19^th centuries

The Museum "Collection" holds one of the world's largest collections of clocks, watches, and automata – mechanical figures capable of mimicking the movements of birds, animals, or humans, thereby creating a striking illusion of life. The museum’s holdings comprise more than 2,000 masterpieces crafted across all major centers of production, spanning from Renaissance Augsburg to Belle Époque Paris. Thanks to the museum's specialized restoration center, these intricate masterpieces are meticulously preserved and kept fully operational. The new exhibition, "The Mechanical Heart," spotlights the golden age of this phenomenon – the clocks and automata of the 18th century – while tracing their enduring impact on technology, literature, and music through the centuries. In the display, these unique clocks and automata are presented alongside artworks and source materials connected to such prominent figures as Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, Vladimir Odoevsky, and Jacques Offenbach.

The 18th century, known historically as the Age of Enlightenment, marked the golden age of automata. In their simplest form, they permeated the material culture of the era, adorning everything from musical instruments and clocks to furniture, tableware, snuffboxes, and fans. They were integrated into dance cards, walking sticks, smelling-salt bottles, and an endless variety of jewelry accessories.

The pioneer of automaton-making was Jacques de Vaucanson. In the 1730s, he captivated the public with a mechanical duck capable of flapping its wings, quacking, and simulating the "digesting" of grain. He followed this success by debuting two mechanical musicians – one who played the tambourine, and another who played the flute. One of these musicians was featured in the article 'Android' in the renowned Encyclopédie, which Denis Diderot concluded with an enthusiastic declaration: 'If this article described not a machine already built, but the project of a machine yet to be built, how many people would treat it as a chimera!' The rapid advancement of horology during this 'age of mechanics' allowed such chimeras to be brought to life. Androids, the most awe-inspiring of these creations, remained consistently at the center of public attention. They were exhibited at royal courts and academies of science, celebrated in the press and literature, traded as prized luxury items, and debated by the leading philosophers of the day.

French literary scholar Aurélia Gaillard proposes viewing the android as a unique "mediator" or, in cybernetic terminology, an "interface." By blurring the boundaries between creator and creation, nature and art, human and machine, these entities became catalysts for reconfiguring the discourses of philosophy, natural science, and technology.

Ultimately, androids were not merely material artifacts, but profound cultural ideals. This duality explains their remarkable capacity to transcend their own era: while most Enlightenment androids have long been lost, they achieved a second life within the imaginations of mechanics, restorers, writers, philosophers, artists, and musicians of subsequent centuries.

"The Mechanical Heart" exhibition offers a captivating journey through the history of horology and automata, standing as a testament to the human ambition of transcending the boundaries of the possible. But who were the masters behind these intricate mechanisms? Who acquired them, and in what lavish settings were they displayed?

Which of these very objects might have sparked the imagination behind Vladimir Odoevsky's ‘The Town in a Snuffbox’ or Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann's ‘The Sandman’? How did these automata weave themselves into the fabric of literature, theatre, and music, culminating in the spellbinding operas of Jacques Offenbach?

In an era where technology can speak, write, and generate images, the 18th-century ‘mechanical heart’ beats once more, drawing us back to the timeless debate: can a machine ever truly equal or surpass its creator?

As part of the exhibition, the "Collection" Museum has prepared two new guided tour programs.
Their launch is scheduled for October 20.
The duration of each tour is 1 hour.
Registration for the tours is available on the museum's website in the "Contacts" section.