Kempelen - Man in the Machine

Bipolar, a project initiated by the Federal Cultural Foundation, supported cooperative ventures between German and Hungarian cultural partners. One of its largest joint exhibitions was an exhibition dedicated to the multi-talented Wolfgang von Kempelen (1724-1804) who was a renowned scholar, engineer, artist, showman and public official. In addition to Kempelen's most significant inventions, the chess automaton and the speaking machine, the exhibition also featured some of his lesser known works and inventions. The historical perspective on Kempelen and his times was supplemented by a focus on how other artists have regarded his inventions and an overview of two hundred and fifty years of technical apparatuses, ranging from Kempelen's mechanical automatons to the first Disney audio-animatronics to today's robots and supercomputers.

Participating institutions:
ZKM - Center for Art and Media Technology, Karlsruhe (Dr. Bernhard Serexhe, Prof. Peter Weibel)
C3 - Center for Culture and Communication, Budapest (Miklós Peternák, Dóra Maurer)

Schedule:
22 June 2007 - 19 August 2007, Opening: 22 June 2007, ZKM - Center for Art and Media Technology, Karlsruhe