Week 3: Robotics and Art

In this week’s lecture, Professor Vesna once again shows how art can be applied to disciplines otherwise regarded as completely irrelevant to art itself. The lecture raised several questions that piqued my interest and guided my understanding to how robotics and art intertwine. How do artists use mechanization in their work?

One of the earliest examples of technology and science merging with art traces back to the invention of movable type and the printing press. These breakthroughs changed the way people would see the world by introducing mass reproducibility and ushered in the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution (Vesna, 2015).

Reproduction of  Hadrian Bust

Through the lens of Walter Benjamin, however, the age of Mechanical Reproduction has caused art to lose its uniqueness and authenticity, its “aura” and “its presence in time and space, [and] its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (Benjamin 2). While I understand Benjamin’s opinion, I believe the reproducibility of original pieces has allowed the masses to develop a newfound appreciation for art by making original pieces more accessible around the world. Personally, I found an interest in Greek and Roman art and architecture only because I was able to see pictures in my classes and reproductions at the Getty Villa in Malibu.

BayMax from Big Hero 6

Mechanization opened up possibilities and venues for the arts and science to come together in unprecedented ways. The idea of robots was born out of the mechanization of labor and has become a popular theme in many forms of art today. For example, the animated movies Big Hero 6 and Wall-E utilize robots and portray them as conscious beings. These movies follow the Japanese portrayals of robots as human friends as opposed to the American portrayals of robots as invasive inventions as described by Professor Kusahara (Kusahara, 2015).

Another clear example of the intersection between science, math and art is through Dr. Mari Velonaki’s Diamandini statue, which was installed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Diamandini statue’s primary goal was to gather data on how visitors of the museum interacted with the installations and attempt to make an emotional connection to engage with humans (Lim, 2013).

These examples show how art and science are converging in today’s society and are tell-tale signs of how they may be associated with one another in the future.

References:

1. "Art | Getty Villa." The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles. Http://www.getty.edu/. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://www.getty.edu/visit/villa/art.html>.

2. "Baymax/Gallery." Disney Wiki. Http://disney.wikia.com/. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Baymax/Gallery>.

3. Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Marxists. 1936. N.p. Web. 19 Apr  2015. <http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm>.

4. Lim, Angelica. "What Roboticists Can Learn From Art, and What Artists Can Learn From Robots." IEEE Spectrum. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 July 2014. <http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/what-roboticists-can-learn-from-art>.

5. Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics MachikoKusahara 1." Cole UC online. Youtube, 14 April 2012. Web. 19 April 2015. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=137&v=xQZ_sy-mdEU