Examination of Al-Jazari's robotic miniatures in the context of 20th century cybernetics and robotic arts

Al-Jazari reflects science and art with robotic and autonomous depictions in the 13th century. It is known that automatons have turned into works of art since ancient times. Gaining momentum in the 20th century, these art movements appear as the arts in which machines and movement play a role and cybernetic and robotic-themed arts. Al-Jazari reflected his artistic style in his works with the figures he chose and the fiction he created in his miniatures. In this study, it is aimed to analyse the robotic depictions in Kitab-ül Hiyel in terms of the cybernetic and robotic effective arts of the 20th century as well as their formal features. In addition, Al-Jazari's futuristic artistic style, which shaped the art, was also evaluated by taking into account the period he lived in. With historical and descriptive research methods, Al Jazari's life, the development of miniature art in his time, the historical adventure of automata and robots were analysed through a literature review. The research is limited to the artistic applications in which robots and cybernetics are the subject in the 20th century, as well as the works with sound, light, movement and interaction features from Al Jazari's manuscript book Kitab-ül Hiyel. In the last part of the study, nine watercolour works inspired by Al Jazari's miniatures were reinterpreted with the themes of tradition and future. It is seen that Al Jazari is an artist who carries the traces of the futurist and technology-themed art approaches that started in the 20th century by depicting the person beyond time in the century he lived in. It is concluded that the depictions of machines that perform mise-en-scene and work in more primitive ways unaware of today's innovations are early sketches of interactive artworks made with cybernetic and robotic systems. In this respect, it is understood that Al Jazari made important contributions to art with his advanced artistic vision and versatility.