Week 3: Robotics + Art

This week's topic of robotics in conjunction with technology and art brought on mixed feelings because my knowledge of robots and technology (besides phones) is limited. However, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this topic is the movie A Grand Day Out With Wallace and Grommit, which is the earliest movie I can remember watching in my childhood. It's about a man and his dog who want to travel to the moon to sample cheese, so they build a spaceship in their garage to do so. When they arrive, they encounter a robot who immediately becomes agitated by them, but is interested in visiting Earth. The robot tries to manipulate them in order to come back to Earth with them. The incorporation of this concept obviously shows the influence of robotics on media in our world. It also presented to me at an early age that there might be reasons to fear robots and their intelligence. Along with other examples like Transformer, I Robot, and Frankenstein, it is clear the mathematical and technological world have a heavy influence on the works of artists today. 

Mechanization and industrialization are embedded in our history and, as shown in Professor Vesna's lectures, follows a vast timeline of iconic thinkers and inventions. These two subjects also have been show to elicit both inspiration and fear. With the introduction of the production line by Johannes Gutenberg's printing press (which can also be found almost 400 years earlier by the Chinese), mass production has brought ease into our lives but also eliminated the need for human labor. Henry Ford's assembly lines showed an even more advanced stage of this. Walter Benjamin, in his essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, expressed his belief that industrialization strips production of uniqueness and authenticity, as well as its place in history. Charlie Chaplin, in his silent film Modern Times, brings light to the struggle to keep up with industrialization in that time, and the threat of being replaced by machines in the production process, which can be used to support Benjamin's prediction. 

Citations

Vesna, Victoria. "Robotics + Art." DESMA 9. UCLA, Los Angeles. 1 Apr. 2015. Lecture.

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Marxists. N.p.. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm>.

Wallace & Gromit in A Grand Day Out. Oxford University Press, 2004. Videocassette.

Modern times (1936). Warner Home Video/Charles Chaplin Productions, 1986. Film.