蜜芽传媒

Machines in search of autonomy: today鈥檚 edition of Between the Ears expresses and ponders the world of the automaton; from a miraculous 16th century table-top mechanical 鈥楳onk鈥� designed to rouse penitence, via the artistically expressive trio of 18th century clockwork performers by the Jaquet-Droz family, to the ever expansive and ambitious "m茅tamatics" of Swiss kinetic sculptor Jean Tinguely.

The feature was recorded primarily in Switzerland, in part amongst the array of contrasting and imaginative working 鈥榤achines鈥� exhibited at the comprehensive and colourful Jean Tinguely Museum in B盲sel. Tinguely - the centenary of whose birth we mark this year - was a pioneer of kinetic sculpture and he spent his artistic life focused on the relationship between art, automata and ourselves.

The celebrated life-like trio of "moving dolls" known as The Musician, The Drawer and The Writer were created between 1768 and 1774 by clockmakers Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis, and Jean-Fr茅d茅ric Leschot and are regarded as some of the greatest and most nuanced examples of still functioning historic automata. The technical wizardry that brought them into being mark them as long-distant relatives of the modern computer. The trio still perform just as they did 250 years ago, maintained and housed at the Mus茅e d'Art et d'Histoire in Neuch芒tel.

In our own time, the Swiss artist, Fran莽ois Junot, is one the foremost creators of contemporary automata, designing and building exquisite and ground-breaking work (often from precious and expensive materials) to commission from some of the leading jewellery houses of the world. His spectacular creations include a depiction of two courting birds dancing and singing around a pool, 鈥楩ontaine aux Oiseaux鈥� and a bejewelled water nymph, 鈥極ndine鈥�, floating on a lily pad whilst serenading a dragonfly as it appears from the unfurling petals of a lily's white flower. Junot has even designed and built a 12mm long animated singing bird to sit inside a wrist watch. He creates from his workshop in the historic Swiss town of Sainte-Croix, high in the Alpine valley where the first ever music-box was made.

As well as the 鈥渧oices鈥� of the various machines themselves, today鈥檚 programme also features comment from Andres Pardey of the Museum Tinguely in B盲sel, American sculptor Elizabeth King, co-author of the book 鈥楳iracles and Machines: A Sixteenth-Century Automaton and Its Legend鈥� on the subject of Juanelo Turriano鈥檚 鈥楾he Monk鈥�, Philippe Calame of the Mus茅e d'art et d'histoire de Neuch芒tel, and Fran莽ois Junot.