Dug North And His Amazing Automata
I’ve been fascinated with automata ever since playing Syberia and reading Gaby Wood’s intriguing (if not occasionally out-of-focus) book “Edison’s Eve” nearly 10 years ago. There’s just something weird and peculiar about automata that goes beyond your average robots. I think it’s because most are meant to imitate human life, and often do so in very uncanny ways.
These hand-cranked, clockwork machines have recently garnered mainstream attention thanks to the film Hugo, and the above video is a short tour of the works of Dug North, who appeared in one of the movie’s behind-the-scenes features.
In it, you can see a variety of North’s automata, including a monster that pops out of a top hat, and a beast reminiscent of King Kong fighting to escape his shackles. “My work is more of a contemporary form of automata,” North says, “there is a hand crank in which you actually turn the mechanism, and bring the thing to life that way.”
Thanks for the post!
Hey, no problem! Your automata really are awesome. Keep up the great work!