Here are my thoughts on your questions: 1. While true universal knowledge may not be possible, polymaths demonstrate expertise across multiple domains through diligent study. The breadth of their contributions is impressive, though depth in any one field was likely less than specialists. 2. Algorithms have always underpinned systems - whether natural, social, or technological. Different eras conceptualized and applied algorithms differently depending on available tools and knowledge. But the desire to understand and influence our world through systematic processes is human. 3. For many artists, grappling with science and religion is a way to understand big questions about human existence, purpose, and society. Different historical periods saw these domains converge or diverge in their influences

1. Gunalan Nadarajan
ISLAMIC AUTOMATION: A READING OF AL-JAZARI’S THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE OF INGENIOUS MECHANICAL DEVICES (1206)

2. We are nothing but puppets of kinetic contraptions, mechanical mumbo jumbo and bastardized biology.
- me

3. Rube Goldberg gets his think-tank working and evolves the simplified pencil-sharpener.
Open window (A) and fly kite (B). String (C) lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape and eat red flannel shirt (F). As weight of shirt becomes less,
shoe (G) steps on switch (H) which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in pants (J). Smoke (K) enters hole in tree (L), smoking out opossum (M) which jumps
into basket (N), pulling rope (O) and lifting cage (P), allowing woodpecker (Q) to chew wood from pencil (R), exposing lead. Emergency knife (S) is always
handy in case opossum or the woodpecker gets sick and can't work.

5. AUTOMATA ALGORITHM
MECHANICAL DEVICES KINETIC ART
RELIGION/DIVINITY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

6. Polymaths
Off I fly, careering far
In chase of Pollys, prettier far A Polymath is a generalist who seeks universal knowledge.
Than any of their namesakes are
The Renaissance Man can also be thought of as a polymath.
—The Polymaths and Polyhistors,
Polyglots and all their sisters
- Thomas Moore
List of a few famous polymaths
prodigious polymath… Painter, sculptor, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, biologist, geologist, physicist, architect,
Leornado Da Vinci
philosopher, humanist
Persian physician, pharmacologist, philosopher, metaphysician, aromatherapist, astronomer, chemist, Hanafi jurist
Avicenna
and theologian, physicist, scientist, and universalist
Pythagoras mathematician and philosopher
Aristotle physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology
Al-Kwarizmi persian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer
Arab astronomer, geographer, mathematician, meteorologist, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist,
Al-Kindi
and politician
Omar Khayyam Persian poet, writer, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, and skeptic

7. Thoughts on Gunalan’s Ideas
Untoward Automation(?!!@#$?! ~.~)
Submission in Service to God
Machines serving humans
Are humans ‘God’ to the machines?
Divine knowledge
Knowledge ending in divinity
Science & Religion
Al-Jazari’s Work (some of it as per article)
Automata serving no purpose
(other than)
serving humans
(but not completely controlled by them)
and acting on God’s will.
(Motive power and Animal power)
Random but some sequential control.

16. If every instrument could accomplish its own work, obeying or anticipating the will of others. If the
shuttle could weave, and the pick touch the lyre, without a hand to guide them, chief workmen
would not need servants, nor masters slaves.
- Aristotle
Hero’s Eolipile

17. Diana and the Stag, Joachim Freiss
This automaton, in which the goddess Diana, designed in late Mannerist style, is seated on a hollow-bodied stag
with a removable head, functioned as a drinking vessel. A mechanism in the base causes the automaton to roll
about on a tabletop in a pentagonal pattern and then stop; the person before whom it stopped would have to
drain the contents.

18. Analytical Machine
Charles Babbage, mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer

19. Hindu Myth & Sacred Art & Avatarams
Divinity and arts co-exist in Hindu mythology. I
have learned in school about kings who were
required to be adept in 64 divine arts which I
explain in the next slide.
Krishna and Balarama (Siblings) two ‘avatarams’
of Lord Vishnu who had 10 avatarams in all were
supposed to have studied these 64 arts and an
expert in all the mentioned skills.
Note that they call them art and not skill.
Some Hindus think applying the principle of
reincarnations of God (avatar) to a surrogate,
serving its human alter ego is like equating
yourself to God.
In ‘Reframing Consciousness’ edited by Roy
Ascott, Niranjan Shah and Raman Srinivasan echo
similar opinions on avatars and sacred art.
Matsya(Fish) Kuruma(Turtle) Varaha(Boar) Narasimma(Lion) Vamana(Dwarf) Parasurama Rama Balarama Krisha Kalki

20. 25. paanaka rasa raagaasava yOjanam – preparing palatable drinks and tinging draughts
ஆய கைலகௗ் 64 (64 Divine Arts) with red color;
26. soochee vaaya karmaa – needlework and weaving;
1. geetham – singing;
27. soothra kreedaa – making puppets dance by manipulating thin threads;
2. vaadhyam – playing on musical instruments;
28. veenaa damaruka vaadhyaani – playing on a flute and a small X-shaped drum;
3.nrithyam – dancing;
29. prahElikaa – making and solving riddles;
4.naaTyam – drama;
30. pratimaalaa – capping verses, or reciting poems verse for verse as a trial of memory or
5. aalEkhyam – painting; skill;
6. vi*s*Eshaka-cchEdhyam – painting the face and body with colored unguents and cosmetics; 31. dhurvaachaka yOgaa: – uttering statements difficult for others to answer;
7. tandula kusuma bali vikaaraa: – preparing auspicious designs on the floor with rice and flowers; 32. pusthaka vaachanam – reciting books;
8. pushpaastharanam – making a bed of flowers; 33. naaTika aakhyaayikaa dhar*s*anam – enacting short plays and writing anecdotes.
9. da*s*ana vashanaanga-raagaa: – coloring one’s teeth, clothes and limbs; 34. kaavya samasyaa pooraNam – solving enigmatic verses;
10. maNi bhoomikaa karmaa – inlaying a floor with jewels; 35. paththikaa vEthra baaNa vikalpaa: – making a bow from a strip of cloth and a stick;
11.*s*ayyaa rachanam – covering a bed; 36. tharku karma, spinning with a spindle;
12. udaka vaadhyam – ringing water-pots; 37. thak*s*aNam – carpentry;
13. udhaka ghaatha: – splashing with water; 38. vaasthu-vidhyaa – architecture;
14. cithra yOgaa: – mixing colors; 39. roupya rathna pareekshaa – testing silver and jewels;
15. maalya grathana vikalpaa: – preparing wreaths; 40. dhaathu vaadha: – metallurgy;
16. *s*ekhara aapeeda yOjanam – setting a helmet on the head; 41. maNi raaga jnaanam – tinging jewels with various colors;
17. nEpathya yOgaa: – putting on apparel in a dressing room; 42. aakara-jnaanam – mineralogy;
18. karna pathra bhangaa: – decorating the earlobe; 43. vriksha aayur vEdha yOgaa: – herbal medicine;
19. sugandha yukthi: – applying aromatics; 44. mEsha kukkuTa laavaka yudhdha vidhi: – the art of training and engaging rams, cocks
and quails in fighting;
20. bhooshana yOjanam – decorating with jewelry;
45. *s*uka *s*aarikaa pralaapanam – knowledge of how to train male and female parrots
21. aindhra jaalam – jugglery; to speak and to answer the questions of human beings;
22. kouchumaara yOga: – the art of disguise; 46. uthsaadhanam – healing a person with ointments;
23. hasta laaghavam – sleight of hand; 47. kE*s*a maarjana kou*s*alam – hairdressing;
24. chithra *s*aakaapoopa bhakshya vikaara kriyaa: – preparing varieties of salad, bread, cake and other 48. akshara mushTikaa kathanam – telling what is written in a book without seeing it, and
delicious food; telling what is hidden in another’s fist;

21. 49. mlEcchitha kutharka vikalpaa – fabricating barbarous or foreign sophistry;
50. dhE*s*a bhaashaa jnaanam – knowledge of provincial dialects;
51. pushpa *s*akaTikaa nirmithi jnaanam – knowledge of how to build toy carts with flowers;
52. yanthra maathrikaa – composing magic squares, arrangements of numbers adding up to the same total in all directions;
53. dhaaraNa maathrikaa – the use of amulets;
54. samvaachyam – conversation;
55. maanasee kaavya kriyaa – composing verses mentally;
56. kriyaa vikalpaa: – designing a literary work or a medical remedy;
57. chalithaka yOgaa: – building shrines;
58. abhidhaana kO*s*a cchandhO jnaanam – lexicography and the knowledge of poetic meters;
59. vasthra gOpanam – disguising one kind of cloth to look like another;
60. dhyootha vi*s*Esham – knowledge of various forms of gambling; (so) aakarsha-kreedaa – playing dice;
61. baalaka kreedanakam – playing with children’s toys;
62. vainaayikee vidhyaa – enforcing discipline by mystic power;
63. vaijayikee vidhyaa – gaining victory;
64. vaithaalikee vidhyaa – awakening one’s master with music at dawn.
http://srivaishnavam.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/aaya-kalaigal-64/

22. Heureka
Jean Tinguely

23. Homage to New York (1960)
Jean Tinguely

24. Qn 1: Polymath or dilettante? Is Universal knowledge possible? Were the Hakeems and the Renaissance men truly experts in multiple fields of knowledge?
Qn2: Have algorithms always existed but in different applications and media?
Qn3: Science & Religion. How important is it to artists?
Qn4: Is controlling machines and acting as a creator an obsession for humans? Seems like we’ve been trying to master the art of reproducing ourselves.