Politics, assistance, and aesthetic aspects in Kempelen’s speaking machine

Abstract

The paper explores an important trajectory in the prehistory of mechanical and/or virtual assistance, focusing on Wolfgang von Kempelen's “speaking machine”, which proved to be the most advanced of its kind for a long period, and, in a sense, can be seen as a precursor to natural-language user interfaces such as Siri. Four main contexts of Kempelen's invention are discussed. First, the linguistic-phonetic considerations that preceded the creation of the speaking machine. Second, the political implications of the argument in his treatise Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache (1791), inspired by Enlightenment ideas and, further, shaped by the then lively discourse on the origin and evolution of language. Third, the role of his ideas on assistance and the forms of human-machine interaction in the concept of the envisioned tool. Finally, the sensory-aesthetic specificities of the speaking machine with regard both to its production and the operation principles: from the ghostly sound of its replicas to contemporary reflections in the contemporary art exhibition Kempelen – Man in the Machine (Budapest/Karlsruhe, 2007–2008).