Edition Eight Feature
Words by: Cecilia Schiller
Location: Brule, Wisconsin, USA
Photo Credit: ©Cecilia Schiller @crankylady2

I create interactive mechanical sculptures called automata. They’re made from handcut wooden gears, cams and levers that bring carved figures to life when a viewer turns the crank. This obscure artform was first popularised during the Renaissance by clockmakers. Gifted among heads of state, automata were intended to dazzle and amaze. Their fashion waned as the Industrial Revolution made machines commonplace, but in the high-speed, virtual reality of the 21st century, a few of us continue to embrace this analogue world of wonder.

I work in wood and produce all the components for my sculptures, hand-cutting the gears and carving the figures from basswood. I find mechanisms mesmerizing and of equal visual importance to the carved elements. It’s why I leave the gearbox open and often enhance the gears with decorative spokes or make cams and levers from contrasting hardwoods. But perhaps what I enjoy most about automata is the reaction of viewers. Some laugh, others are dumbstruck. Children’s eyes widen, and people have even cried. Once, a woman felt compelled to write to me – I had brightened her day, she said, when she unexpectedly came across my work in a courthouse lobby, on her way to stand before the judge. hand-cutting the gears and carving the figures from basswood. I find mechanisms mesmerizing and of equal visual importance to the carved elements. It’s why I leave the gearbox open and often enhance the gears with decorative spokes or make cams and levers from contrasting hardwoods. But perhaps what I enjoy most about automata is the reaction of viewers. Some laugh, others are dumbstruck. Children’s eyes widen, and people have even cried. Once, a woman felt compelled to write to me – I had brightened her day, she said, when she unexpectedly came across my work in a courthouse lobby, on her way to stand before the judge.