Architecture, Automata, and Artificial Memory

Abstract

Artificial memory is an essential precondition for automata, one with a rich collection of conceptual and technical precedents. This paper frames artificial memory as both a technical media and a mode of spatial experiment, arguing that the intersection of mechanical and spatial invention catalyzed early experiments in automaton memory. More specifically, seventeenth century architects played pivotal and surprising roles in the development of artificial “memory architectures” through their work in the creation of large-scale reprogrammable musical automata. In these early, perhaps original, forms of automata memory, we see not only the provocative roots of autonomous machines but also a powerful and expansive view of the architect as transdisciplinary inventor.