From Workshop to Library: How the Machine Learned to Think

Can a made thing think, feel, and appear alive? This lecture explores the long prehistory of media art and artificial intelligence through the lens of ancient legends and early engineering. Program highlights: - Medieval legends of speaking brass heads attributed to Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon - Vaucanson’s Digesting Duck and the punched cards of the Jacquard loom - Literary machines: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s Tomorrow’s Eve - Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine Led by Taguhi Torosyan — Yerevan-based curator, artist, researcher, and Founder of Ars Techne. Language: Armenian Free entry with registration.