Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-05-31T23:08:25.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 1 - The Mimetic Faculty at Work

The Golden Age of Automata

from Part I - Mechanical Automata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2024

Suzy Anger
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Thomas Vranken
Affiliation:
University of the South Pacific
Get access

Summary

This chapter analyses Golden Age Automata exhibited in the International Expositions as fetish commodities and argues that consumers enjoyed the glamour of celebrity by purchasing them. French Golden Age automata are mimetic copies of popular performers of the day. An analysis of several key automata, such as those of Loïe Fuller, Little Tich, and Wild Buffalo Bill Cody, demonstrates how the automata display the fascination with performers in the era. The chapter also looks at the shift to electrical advertising automata at the turn of the twentieth century. In every case, the automata display the creators’ mimetic faculty at work.

Type
Chapter
Information
Victorian Automata
Mechanism and Agency in the Nineteenth Century
, pp. 33 - 47
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×