Week 3: Robotics + Art

Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"
(from Google Images)

From this week’s lecture, I have learned about how the relation between industrialization and development of art can be a two-way street. For example, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, which is the first work of science fiction, has given the enlightenment of imaginations and possibilities in science and technology. On the other way round, Charles Babbage’s attempt in building mechanical computing device as well as Alan Turing’s efforts in developing algorithm, computation and artificial intelligence have made many new forms of arts possible. As we can see, science, technology and art are complementary in many ways.

However, Walter Benjamin, a philosopher and cultural critic, mentioned in his book “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” that mechanical reproduction is not always beneficial to art because it can destroy the idea of uniqueness, authenticity and aura. The original and tradition of art become less important. This reminds me of an English art critic, John Berger, who has a very similar notion to Benjamin’s. In Berger’s television series “Ways of Seeing” on BBC, he mentioned that reproductions have distorted the true beauty of art in the way that people are satisfied by seeing the reproductions of arts, while originals are indeed incomparable.

John Berger's TV series "Ways of Seeing"
(from Google Images)

One thing I found really interesting in this week’s lecture is robotic, because I am impressed by the talk of Professor Machiko Kusahara, which is about the robotic cultures in Japan and Western countries. I definitely agree to her about Japanese engineers trying to make robots humanoid, and that Japanese robots are very useful in social and domestic aspects. When I was in high school, I joined the team of robotic programming and worked on a Japanese robot called “NAO”. At that time, my aim was to make NAO an interactive robot in order to use it to communicate with children suffering from autism. Now I understand that people’s love for Japanese robots originates from the figure of Astro Boy. Also, we can certainly see the differences between Japanese and Western robotic cultures by comparing Japanese movies like “Cyborg She” and Western movies like “Terminator Salvation”.

Children playing with NAO robot
(from Google Images)

To conclude, art, science and technology are developing in a complementary manner. However, any development could be a double-edged sword. Therefore, it is important for humankind to be aware of potential threats underlying technological advances.

Sources:

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. New York: Schocken Books, 1969. Print.

Blizzardburger. “Outlook On Paintings And Art In John Berger’s Way Of Seeing”, Brightkite. Accessed Apr 18, 2017. Web.

John Berger / Ways of Seeing, Episode 1 (1972). John Berger. Youtube, 2012. Video.

Robotics MachikoKusahara 1. Machiko Kusahara. Youtube, 2012. Video.

Unknown. “Frankenstein”. Wikipedia.