Week 3 - Robotics + Art


Week #3 – Robotics + Art
When I was growing up.  I always imagined robots being larger-than-life sized figures made out of heavy metal and stainless steel.  I never considered robots as a form of art or that there was any sort of connection between these two entities.  Robots looked cold on the outside and I assumed they were cold on the inside too.   However, after watching David Hanson’s TED Talk about robots showing emotions and being able to respond to other people’s emotions, I started to think differently.   Perhaps robots aren’t so cold afterall?
In Professor Machiko Kusahara’s lecture, she discusses Japan’s infatuation with robots and how robots are not nearly as well received in Western cultures.  This may be because Western cultures have not been exposed to humanoid robots as much as the Japanese.  Osamu Tezuka created Astro Boy, an animated robotic child with super strength.  Astro Boy merged Japanese animation, entertainment, and art with robotics.  Walter Benjamin states, “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element:  its presence in time and space…”  In the case of Astro Boy, he gave the Japanese hope as he was created right after World War II.  The Japanese have always been more comfortable with robots while Westerners have always been more afraid that robots will take over one day.   
Another example of robotics and art merging can be seen in the futuristic Terminator movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cyborg assassin.  These movies were enormously popular and drew Western culture closer to robotics than ever before.  Filmmakers routinely use visual effects and other technologies in their craft to create robots.  The lines between robotics and the arts are constantly blurred.  
Sources
"Astro Boy." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Apr. 2017. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. 
Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Walter
    Benjamin. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017. 
Hanson, David. "Robots That "show Emotion"." David Hanson: Robots That "show
    Emotion" | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., Feb. 2009. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. 
Lipson, Hod. "Building "self-aware" Robots." Hod Lipson: Building "self-aware"
    Robots | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., Mar. 2007. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. 
Kusahara, Machiko.  “Lecture Part 3 – On .”  Math + Art.  22 April 2017.  Lecture.
"News." Freerk Wieringa. N.p., 22 Oct. 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. 
"The Terminator." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Apr. 2017. Web. 22 Apr.
    2017.

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