334 Term Project Proposal

Milner Chen
milner.chen@stonybrook.edu
Google Drive
 
Title:

The Draughtsman-Writer (or Maelzel’s Juvenile Artist)

Synopsis:

This automaton was made in the 1800s by Swiss mechanician, Henri Maillardet. At the time, these machines were made to showcase the clock maker’s talent and served as entertainment for the rich. This automaton, the Writer, is thought to have the largest cam-based (content addressable memory) memory of any automaton of its time, able to create 4 pictures and 3 poems. Unlike most of its peers, its movements are very fluid and lifelike due to the valleys and hills of its rotating brass disks. However, due to the damage from a fire in 1851, the Writer had to be repaired and modified many times before it was finally restored. In fact, identify of the creator could not be determined until the piece was able to be wound up to write again. It was within the margins of a poem the automaton had written, that the name “Henri Maillardet” was found. The Writer also went on to inspire an award winning film, “Hugo,” which used a similar mystery message in the plot.

Objective:

To use video and photographic, video, and written references to recreate and convey the fluidity and lifelike nature of the automaton. A 3D model of the Writer will be built and animated.

Audience:

People who are interested in machinery, antiques, and the imitation of life through art and technology are likely to be interested in this project.

Sources: 

Graceful Moves, for a Boy Made of Metal

Ben Russell introduces the ‘Draughtsman-Writer’

Maillardet’s automaton

Hugo (the film)

Jaquet-Droz automata (similar automata)

The Draughtsman-Writer in the Mechanical Marvels exhibition in the MET

Movie clip from “Hugo”

Jaquet Droz The Writer (a similar automaton)