Week 3 - Robotics + Art

 ROBOTICS + ART

        This week as we talk about robotics and art as one, something that really stands out to me is the use of a robot to sort and hand out packages that I discovered when scrolling through TikTok the other day. I feel as though this is something that can be looked at as both art and robotics. I see it as a form of art because this display was being shown at a convention that this robot could do manual labor and continue to function over time. This display could be looked at as a work of art, as this is the first of its kind and the overall technology of it all is still being worked on. 

        While we continue to think through this idea and analyze how robotics, art, and even AI have to do with one another. Walter Benjamin makes some amazing points about the importance of art and robotics working hand in hand. Benjamin's take on art and the world of technology and mechanics is that art can be done and created through the work of machines. I think that this approach can be used a lot today, when we talk about AI being used to create art online. I think as AI continues to grow, the overall idea of the form of art will continue to change. 

 

        Finally, when looking at the difference and impact that art has on robotics and vice versa, we can look at some children's movies that really do have both art and robotics aspects. Throughout the film, Wall-E, we get a look into the life of a little robot who is left on Earth to clean the entire planet. Wall-E develops a personality, is able to look at the world from a new perspective, and there's even a scene in the movie that shows Wall-E looking at different pieces of art. In the movie, Robots, we see how the animators are able to make these robots come to life and have human like personalities which is something that we see happening before our eyes today. In conclusion, I believe that both films, whether or not they are about art and robots, have both aspects of art and robotics being tied to them. It took artists to create the films and it took machines and technology to make the films come to life. 

Works Cited:

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 1936.

Davis, Douglas. Leonardo, Vol. 28, No. 5, Third Annual New York Digital Salon. (1995), pp. 381-386.

“Robot in Popular Video Didn’t Deactivate Itself.” Edited by Associated Press, AP News, AP News, 17 Nov. 2023, apnews.com/article/fact-check-video-robot-deactivates-itself-526120080628.

Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics + Art Lecture Part 1"

Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics + Art Lecture Part 2"

Picture/Video Sources:

Disney. “Wall·E.” Disney Movies, 27 June 2008, movies.disney.com/wall-e.

“Robots.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 11 Mar. 2005, www.imdb.com/title/tt0358082/.

Global News. “Stressed like the Rest of Us: Robot Collapses under Pressure at Exhibition.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Apr. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kp5qrCExps.