Machine & Myth

Several ancient myths are played around machines and other artifacts: the Trojan horse, the golden apple of Atalanta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atalanta), the Icarus artificial wings, the Sun chariot, the spindle and the loom of the the sexual machine built by Daidalos for Pasiphae who generated the Minotaur (http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Pasiphae.html).

The mythological origin of the water wheel for corn milling is reported by Antipatros of Thessaloniki, a Greek poet of the first century b. C., among the poems of the Palatine Anthology, cited also by Karl Marx in chapter 15 of the first book of Das Kapital.

"Spare the hand that grinds the corn, Oh, miller girls, and softly sleep. Let Chanticleer announce the morn in vain! Deo has commanded the work of the girls to be done by the Nymphs, and now they skip lightly over the wheels, so that the shaken axles revolve with their spokes and pull round the load of the revolving stones. Let us live the life of our fathers, and let us rest from work and enjoy the gifts that the Goddess sends us. "

This myth is a wonderful ante litteram example of women emancipation by technology, the same that will appear when washing machines, in the ’50, changed the domestic life habits. It is remarkable how technology, often considered as a masculine affair, reveals so many feminine presences.
The myth of Atalanta and Ippomenes returns in the alchemical baroque music composed by Michael Maier: Atalanta fugiens (Frankfurt, 1617).

Some electronic examples of the musical variations of Atalanta fugiens have been reported in the hypertext of the exhibition "Un sistema periodico da Amedeo Avogadro a Primo Levi" (Torino, 2001).

http://www2.polito.it/strutture/cemed/sistemaperiodico/s15/e15_1_01.html

Reinvent the Nature?

Why not to read Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181? Look at the Cyborg Manifesto.
The Italian translation of the book has been published by Feltrinelli.

A detailed excerpt can be found at the address: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html

A Forum with Braidotti, Haraway, Scott, and Mitchell has been organized by "Reset":
http://www.caffeeuropa.it/attualita/114femminismo-forum.html

The Sex of the Machines

With reference to the novel La manufacture des machines by Louis-Philippe Hébert, Canadian writer, see: La fiction illimitée, an article written by Robert Morency and appeared on the Review "Voix et Images", Louis-Philippe Hébert, Volume 4, numéro 3 (avril 1979), sous la direction de Noël Audet, p. 357-371.
In this text some interesting considerations around "le sexe des machines" and "les machines célibataires" appear related to the Louis-Philippe Hébert works.

References:

• "VoixEtImages", vol.4, n.3, (avril 1979): http://www.erudit.org/revue/vi/1979/v4/n3/index.html
• Robert Morency, La Fiction illimitée: http://www.erudit.org/revue/vi/1979/v4/n3/200166ar.pdf
• Ghislain Bourque, La Manufacture de machines de L.-P. Hébert : Une machination du texte dans ses effets: http://www.erudit.org/revue/vi/1979/v4/n3/200169ar.pdf
• Textes inédits: Louis-Philippe Hébert, Manuscrits trouvés dans une valise: http://www.erudit.org/revue/vi/1979/v4/n3/200167ar.pdf

Scent of Machine

Remember the movie Profumo di donna (directed by Dino Risi, 1974; with Vittorio Gassman and Agostina Belli), the archetype of the more known Scent of Woman (directed by Martin Brest, 1992 ; with Al Pacino)
The connection between sexual attraction and olfactory sensation is clear.
But what is the role of smell in technological attraction? Is there a connection that links the gender of machines? Is it possible to speak about of a gender classification of machines? Which is the role of the five senses (and expecially of the sense of smell) in the technological choices?
Memorable is the scene when Arnie Cunningham mets the car Christine (see the movie Christine directed by John Carpenter, 1983, on a novel by Stephen King):

"George LeBay: Her name's Christine.
Arnie Cunningham: I like that.
Dennis Guilder: Come on Arnie, we gotta get goin', huh?
George LeBay: My asshole brother bought her back in September '57. That's when you got your new model year, in September. Brand-new, she was. She had the smell of a brand-new car. That's just about the finest smell in the world, 'cept maybe for pussy. "

In the very poor bibliography and webography of Macine & Gender, even if the olfactory sensations receive always a minor attention, we can find:

• Floating Gender, by Eleonora Oreggia http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=639


• Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Il sesso delle macchine, in "La Stampa - Tuttoscienze" 700 (10 gennaio 1996), http://www.vialattea.net/odifreddi/altri/macchine.pdf


• Tunnel e Sessi, Seminario di ricerca, 2003/04, http://www.t-room.ch/t-it/t2_liste_it.html


• Caroline A. Jones, The Sex of the Machine: Mechanomorphic Art, New Women, and Francis Picabia's Neurasthenic Cure in: Picturing Science, ed. by Caroline A. Jones and Peter Gallison, Cambridge University Press, 1998, p.145.


• Interesting Technology & Gender links in Swizerland: http://www.t-room.ch/t-it/Gruppe_links_it/links_it.html

A seminar about Machine & Gender will be held in Turin, Italy, Politecnico, Historical and Documentation Center (www.polito.it/cemed) on monday, February 12, 2007.