Week 3: Robotics + Art

Mechanical reproduction and distribution allowed the public to access art, which used to only be available to artists, critics, and the rich. The mass production of art has degraded the "aura" of the original. Benjamin's "The Work of Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction" mentions how Dadaist works were a source of "distraction by making works of art the center of scandal. One requirement was foremost: to outrage the public." In modern society you can see works of art that are similar to what the Dadaists attempted to create. Hit songs like Nicki Minaj's Anaconda, an ode to the female posterior, have no contemplative value and serve merely as distraction for the public.

I have always been interested in robots, and whenever I saw Japanese robots, I thought that they looked somewhat silly. The guest lecturer, Machiko Kusahara, explained the difference of the views of robots in Western and Eastern culture. Eastern culture views robots as friendly helpers, whereas Western culture views robots as our potential demise. I was unaware of this drastic difference of views.

Real Footage - Atomic Bomb- Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Astro Boy

Tezuka Osamu's Astro Boy was created to be humanoid and friendly to restore people's hope in technology, especially after Japan's defeat in World War II, when it was demonstrated that technology could be immensely destructive and frightening. Astro Boy's power source is a nuclear reactor to show that nuclear technology could be harnessed for good as well. Influenced by Osamu, Japanese engineers have designed their robots to appear cute and friendly. 

Terminator T-800

In the Western world, the industrial revolution replaced workers with machines or forced them to become parts of machines by having them in mechanized assembly lines. Machines were more efficient and more powerful than humans. People feared that robots would take over. In Western popular culture, movies like The Terminator show robots making humans obsolete, and eliminating them.

Works Cited

Astro Boy. Digital image. Caamfest. Web.
<http://caamfest.com/2013/files/2013/02/astroboy21.jpg>

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.

Minaj, Nicki. Anaconda. Four Glocks Ent., 2014. MP3.

Real Footage - Atomic Bomb- Hiroshima and Nagasaki. YouTube, 2011. Film.

Terminator T-800. Digital image. Blastr. Web.
<http://www.blastr.com/sites/blastr/files/styles/blog_post_media/public/Terminator-Salvation_0.jpg?itok=lXTh-VWK>

"Tezuka Osamu and Astro Boy." University of Colorado Boulder. University of Colorado Boulder, 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.colorado.edu/cas/tea/curriculum/imaging-japanese-history/late-20th-century/pdfs/handout2.pdf>

The Terminator. Perf. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield. Orion Pictures, 1984. Film.

Uclonlineprogram. "Robotics MachikoKusahara 1." YouTube. N.p., 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.