Rediscovering a once very popular, now forgotten performance routine from the popular stage from around 1900 in Central Europe, this new article explores the “Human or Machine?” shows that appeared in circus arenas, on variety (vaudeville) stages, funfairs, village festivals, and similar venues, between about 1900 and the 1930s. It identifies a curious, comic genre of popular performance that seems to have eluded cultural debate. The article also shows how “Human or Machine?” performances played their part in how technological advancement was approached through humor and wonderment at a time that Michael Thomas Carroll termed “popular modernity”. We aim to add new facets to the notion of popular modernity by providing a better sense of the stories, cultural work, and aesthetic achievements emerging from the interplay of popular arts and (imaginaries of) technology, and by clarifying how the braiding of (an idea of) machinery and clowning contributed to creating new comic forms.

You can read the article online: ‘“Human or machine?” performing androids, “Elektro-Homos,” and the “Phroso” and “Moto Phoso” manias on the popular stage around 1900‘!