{"product_id":"the-uncanny-muse-music-art-and-machines-from-automata-to-ai-by-david-hajdu","title":"The Uncanny Muse: Music, Art, and Machines from Automata to AI By David Hajdu","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content a-expander-content-expanded\" data-expanded=\"true\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-expanded=\"true\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content a-expander-content-expanded\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-expanded=\"true\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content a-expander-content-expanded\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eOne of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e's Most Anticipated Books of 2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn acclaimed critic, journalist, and songwriter-musician tells the story of art’s relation to machines, from the Baroque period to the age of AI.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat does it mean to be human in a world where machines, too, can be artists? \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Uncanny Muse\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e explores the history of automation in the arts and delves into one of the most momentous and controversial aspects of AI: artificial creativity. The adoption of technology and machinery has long transformed the world, but as the potential for artificial intelligence expands, David Hajdu examines the new, increasingly urgent questions about technology’s role in culture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the life-size mechanical doll that made headlines in Victorian London to the doll’s modern AI–pop star counterpart, Hajdu traces the fascinating, varied ways in which inventors and artists have sought to emulate mental processes and mechanize creative production. For decades, machines and artists have engaged in expressing the human condition―along with the condition of living with machines―through player pianos, broadcasting technology, electric organs, digital movie effects, synthesizers, and motion capture. By communicating and informing human knowledge, the machines have exerted considerable influence on the history of art―and often more influence than humans have been willing to recognize. As Hajdu proclaims: “before machine learning, there was machine teaching.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWith thoughtful, wide-ranging, and surprising turns from Berry Gordy and George Harrison to Andy Warhol and Stevie Wonder, David Hajdu takes a novel and contrarian approach: he sees how machines through the ages have enabled creativity, not stifled it―and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Uncanny Muse\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e sees no reason why this shouldn’t be the case with AI today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e23 black-and-white images\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Wide Genre","offers":[{"title":"Soft Cover","offer_id":47505473405148,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hard Cover","offer_id":47505473437916,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0809\/2044\/5148\/files\/13_5651e0f8-ab89-46b3-8205-0669776d4816.png?v=1769702469","url":"https:\/\/widegenre.com\/products\/the-uncanny-muse-music-art-and-machines-from-automata-to-ai-by-david-hajdu","provider":"WideGenre","version":"1.0","type":"link"}