By: Erik Davis

Machines can be absurd, surprising, ridiculous, sublime.

By: Alix Lambert

Visionary inventor infamous for her on-screen nudity.

By: Alix Lambert

Machines that evoke an emotional response.

By: Annie Nocenti

Brilliant, prescient, and obsessive, even in his disorder he was ahead of its time.

By: David Smay

His elegant electronics gave us the soundtrack of a fractured and funky tomorrow.

By: Erik Davis

Child of St. Petersburg, bug-maker for the KGB, and husband of the African-American dancer Lavinia Williams, LÉON THEREMIN (1896-1993) achieved immortality through the eponymous electronic instrument he invented in 1920. Originally called the “aetherphone,” the […]

By: Patrick Cates

When most people hear “Steve” and “Apple” mentioned in the same sentence, they think of Steve Jobs, ringmaster of technology fetishists, evangelizing about the latest sleek iToy. They forget about the “Other Steve,” STEVE WOZNIAK […]

By: Peggy Nelson

A New England scion twice kicked out of Harvard for nonconformity and “apathy,” R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER (1895-1983) went on to invent the geodesic dome (he said he got the idea while watching the bubbles generated […]

By: Joe Alterio

Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist RUBE GOLDBERG (1883-1970) pulls string (A) which activates bellows. Bellows (B) compresses, inflating balloon (C). Expanding balloon causes glass of water (D) to tip, soaking sponge (E). Sponge, due to increased weight […]