Week 3: Robotics + Art

In Professor Vesna's lecture this week, it was fascinating to learn about the different aspects art and technology have intersected in history. One topic that fascinated me was industrialization, and how robots have steadily but surely been taking over various aspects of production in factories.
A factory full of robots (https://fsmedia.imgix.net/22/6c/06/1c/d24d/4a1f/b46f/836d61c5cfb2/image-20141215-24297-6jsbmpjpg.jpeg?rect=0%2C0%2C1673%2C836&auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&w=650).
The fear that people have of robots replacing humans is understandable, but in movies like Alita: Battle Angel we see that robots and humans can also live harmoniously. Also, the way robots and technology are portrayed in the movie shows off how beautiful they can be. For instance, Alita's first body was designed intricately, as it was meant to be the body of the creator's daughter. There were amazing designs and science behind it, making it both aesthetically wonderful to look at and functionally superior.
In Alita, there are humans, cyborgs, and robots living together in a city.
In Benjamin Walter's book, he talks about how the notion of art changes throughout the times as new technologies develop. This concept of change was also mentioned in Professor Vesna's lecture, as she talks about how cars used to be inaccessible to the general public, and was seen as the highest form of art. However, as technologies as such became more accessible, cars are not longer conventionally seen as an art form, but it doesn't mean that it isn't art at all. Just like Walter believes, art is a fluid form that adapts to the centuries. What we consider as abstract or modern art today maybe would not have been considered to be art in the past. In today's world, as 3D printing and artificial intelligence are on the rise, the definition of art is to be changed again.
Cars are the perfect example of technology being an art form (https://car-images.bauersecure.com/pagefiles/22543/1040x0/top10_06.jpg?scale=down).
1) Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.
2) Brooks, Rodney. "Robots Will Invade Our Lives." 16 April 2019. TedTalk.
3) Gilchrist, Todd. Alita: Battle Angel Producer Explains How the Tech Behind the Movie Will Help the Avatar Sequels. <https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/alita-battle-angel-producer-explains-how-the-tech-behind-the-movie-will-help-the-avatar>.
4) Norman, Jeremy. From Gutenberg's Movable Type to the Digital Book, and Other Studies in the History of Media. <http://www.historyofinformation.com/narrative/index.php>. 
5) Vesna,Victoria. “Lecutre Part 1.” Robotics + Art. 15 April 2019. Lecture.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 8: Nanotech + Art

Image
As a premed student, this week’s topic was quite fascinating, as I’ve definitely encountered research on nanotechnology in the past. The various ways that nanotechnology applies to medical advancements is deeply impactful, as these methods often minimize the invasiveness of traditional treatment methods. One such application is seen in Dr. Yang’s research at UCLA that utilizes nanotechnology to treat complex brain tumors. Therefore, this week’s topic ties in with the past few weeks, such as neuroscience and medicine. This illustrates the wide range of applicability of nanotechnology.   Example of a nanoparticle Furthermore, the fact that we can separate individual atoms to form meaningful words and images at a microscopic scale truly opens up a new world of art. We can use this method to create paintings at an atomic level. With this method, the produced art is not only intricate, but also extremely precise. The art that can be produced are unlike any via traditional media of ...
Read more

Week 9: Space + Art

Image
The Power of Ten is a perfect example of how space can be seen as a form of art, as it truly fascinating that our universe is so vast. The dimensions are meaningless without a comparison, because the numbers are too big for human comprehension. Because of how mysterious and boundless space is, it has become a point of interest for both scientists and artists alike. Our universe in proportions In Professor Vesna's lecture this week, she mentioned novels about space such as Beyond the Planet Earth. A more well-known example today is The Martian, which is a novel that was adapted into film in 2015. Both the novel and the movie were huge hits, and reflect people's curiosity in the limitless posibilities that space offers. There are more huge hits, like the movie Interstellar, which explores the idea of other planets as possible habitats for humans in the future. This idea is something that current scientists work on as well, as they continue to look for different life forms an...
Read more

Event 2: SOUND + SCIENCE Workshops

Image
Let There Be Light; and Sound was a fascinating workshop that illustrates the intersection of art and science. As someone who has learned about things like the electric field, pressure, and vectors in general in my physics class, it still caught me off guard that this topic would come back in a North campus class. While I struggled to understand the entirety of the content, as it was a lot of scientific information I had not encountered in my previous science classes, I was still able to see the beauty and art in the work that he presented. I thought the demonstration of the tube that utilized sound waves to produce light was incredibly interesting. The next talk, In Search of Light: Wadada Leo Smith’s “Creation” in Sound, Symbol, and Breath was also a great talk that relates back to the main idea of our class. This workshop talks about the flux of sound and how she forged it with the world of art. I’ve always thought of music as a form of art, so this symposium i...
Read more