Week 3 | Robotics + Art
This week’s discussion of Robotics and Art was not what I expected. I envisioned learning about the ways in which artists and scientists use robotics to create. Instead, we viewed robotics from a cultural perspective, focusing on the history of industrialization and robotics, the implications of such technologies on society, and how these robots and mass-produced media later connect the arts and sciences. One of the works I studied was Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, in which he explores society’s perception of art in the age of mass production. According to him, mass reproduction eliminates the originality and authenticity of art, thus "changing the reaction of the masses toward art." (Benjamin) He describes people who go to films as passive participants to exemplify how reproduced art ultimately results in the “liquidation of the traditional value of the cultural heritage”. (Benjamin) His description of the public as an "absent-minded" observer immediately caught my attention. This week I attended Linda Weintraub's workshop, which was centered around removing ourselves from our world, which is plagued by the effects of mass-production. Weintraub’s ideas are almost an extension of Benjamin’s ideas: to counteract the effects of mass production, one must get in touch with themselves.
References
Benjamin, Walter. "The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction." (1936): n. pag. Web.
Clark, Laura. "Scientists test out tiny robots meant to travel inside a human body."
Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, 19 Jan. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
Gao, Wei, Renfeng Dong, Soracha Thamphiwatana, Jinxing Li, Weiwei Gao, Liangfang Zhang, and
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| Linda Weintraub's newest book related to Benjamin's work |
On another note, Marshal McLuhan argued that the development of the printing press greatly transformed our society by "[creating] nationalism, dualism, the automization of scientific research, the standardization of culture, etc". (Vesna) I recently watched a science-fiction anthology on Netflix, called Black Mirror. The series provides a satirical analysis of society’s dependency on technology, similar to how McLuhan analyzes the implications of what was considered modern technology then.
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| Promotional image for Black Mirror |
Finally, I also learned how robotics can unite art and science. For instance, Hod Lipson’s TED talk on "Building 'self-aware' robots” presented robotics in terms of evolution. Lipson argues that we should engineer these robots, but allow them to evolve and learn like children. Listening to Lipson’s talk , I thought of the use of robotics in science. Researchers at UC Berkeley are finding ways to make micro-machines for drug delivery within the human body on a nanoscopic scale.
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| Examples of micro-robots in the body |
References
Benjamin, Walter. "The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction." (1936): n. pag. Web.
Clark, Laura. "Scientists test out tiny robots meant to travel inside a human body."
Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, 19 Jan. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
Gao, Wei, Renfeng Dong, Soracha Thamphiwatana, Jinxing Li, Weiwei Gao, Liangfang Zhang, and
Joseph Wang. "Artificial micromotors in the mouse’s stomach: A step toward in vivo use of
synthetic motors." ACS Nano 9.1 (2015): 117-23. Web.
Lipson, Hod. "Building "self-aware" robots." TED Talk. Mar. 2007. Ted.com. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
Vesna, Victoria. "Robotics Pt. 3" Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
Weintraub, Linda. To Life. 2017, http://lindaweintraub.com/tolife. Accessed 23 Apr. 2017.
Lipson, Hod. "Building "self-aware" robots." TED Talk. Mar. 2007. Ted.com. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
Vesna, Victoria. "Robotics Pt. 3" Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
Weintraub, Linda. To Life. 2017, http://lindaweintraub.com/tolife. Accessed 23 Apr. 2017.
I like how you touched on Benjamin's observation that because of the way we now mass produce art, people have simply become passive audiences. I've seen that more and more in the way many people watch films these days - most seem to only see a film for its entertainment value rather than for it's value as a work of art. I love being able to dissect a film after watching it with friends who can appreciate the work of art that it is - everything from the filmography to the music score to the acting to the nuances within the plot.
ReplyDeleteYour first comment about how this week was not what you expected was my exact reaction to this week's material. I like how you then went in to incorporate the event you attended with your discussion of Robotics and Art, that added more depth of understanding to your take on the material as well as a relatable topic. Also, I agree with your comparison of Black Mirror and McLuhan and technology during his time because I believe the debate about where the line is with technology has become a pressing topic as of late and Black Mirror does a great job of exposing it. Great job bringing in outside knowledge such as the researchers at UC Berkeley that was a nice touch.
ReplyDeleteI found Walter Benjamin's description of the public being "absent-minded" about art consumption nowadays particularly intriguing, because it really got me thinking about exactly what he meant when he said that they had become passive observers. If we think about movies as a form of storytelling in which the story is told through a combination of the movie's visuals and sounds, what makes it so different from a good story being told to you verbally by friends or family? As far as I'm aware, I've never heard a comparison in which the audience of a verbally-told story has become "passive" and is therefore devaluing the story's artistic merit. Thus, I think it's somewhat interesting for Walter Benjamin to have made that claim, and I'm curious to read any more of his works in which he may elaborate on the exact meaning of his words. Great thought-provoking post!
ReplyDeleteI was equally positively surprised at the direction of the discussion on robots and art in this course. It truly examined the consequences of the intermingling of two different fields and how it can create both something beneficial and hurtful. While robotics has widely expanded what is capable with art, at the same time it has taken something away from the raw form of the field. I was also intrigued by the idea of letting robots essentially go through evolution. It's a crazy thought as it begs the question, what if they evolve ahead of us? Is this artificial evolution that will be controlled or to what extend will robots become self-aware and consciously make decisions for themselves. It's a interesting time in robotics right now and I'm excited to see where it goes.
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