Taking the original speaking machine, kept in the Deutsches Museum, Munich, and a late 20th-century reproduction of the chess automaton as its starting points, the exhibition looks at the current relevance of Kem­pelen’s ideas, while trying to give a depth to the image of the age and its “margins.” However, what the exhibits are hoped to add up to is not an exhaustive reconstruction of Kempelen’s lifework, but its interpretation, and this purpose is served by the introduction of new images. This is not a linear and didactic digest of history, but an instructive display of certain choice topics: we tried to visualize the actors of the age and their ideas.