Modern Presence
A replica of Vaucanson's mechanical duck, created by Ian Huynh, is part of the numerous works of art exhibited in the Museum of Automatons in Grenoble, France.
The duck is mentioned as the hero of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Artist of the Beautiful."
A fictitious enhancement of Vaucanson's original duck, the mythical counterpart to the one seen in the image above, figures prominently in Thomas Pynchon's historical novel Mason & Dixon.
The duck is used as the symbol for the software company Automatic Duck, Inc.
A replica of the duck was commissioned privately from David Secrett, an automaton maker known for his archer figure.
The duck is referred to in Peter Carey's novel, The Chemistry of Tears. It is also mentioned in Frank Herbert's science fiction classic of deep space adventure "Destination Void". Page 75, Revised edition June 1984 ISBN:0-425-07465-X.
In 2006, Belgian Conceptual Artist Wim Delvoye introduced the world to his "Cloaca Machine", a mechanical art work that actually digests food and turns it into excrement, finally fulfilling Vaucanson's wish for a working digestive automation. Many iterations of the Cloaca Machine have since been produced; the current iteration sits vertically, mimicking the human digestive system. The excrement produced by the machine is vacuum-sealed in Cloaca-branded bags and sold to art collectors and dealers; every series of excrements produced has sold out.
Read more about this topic: Digesting Duck
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or presence:
“The experience of the gangster as an experience of art is universal to Americans. There is almost nothing we understand better or react to more readily or with quicker intelligence.... In ways that we do not easily or willingly define, the gangster speaks for us, expressing that part of the American psyche which rejects the qualities and the demands of modern life, which rejects “Americanism” itself.”
—Robert Warshow (1917–1955)
“Remorse—is Memory—awake—
Her Parties all astir—
A Presence of Departed Acts—
At window—and at Door—”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)