Week 3. Robotics + Art

 This week’s topic seems controversial for people as there is still debate whether technology is good or bad. As Walter Benjamin said mechanical reproduction changed art and caused it to lose authenticity. With the growth of technology and machinery, it is easier now to copy the work of art, but Benjamin also mentions that “even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (Benjamin, 1). However, Douglas Davis argues that even though society is leaning toward logic and machinery, people still value works of art. He explains that people still bid at auctions and are searching for the original pieces (Davis, 5). 

Another example of controversy of the effect of machinery on art and our lives is the way we perceive machines. As professor Machiko Kusahara explained in her lecture, Eastern cultures portray robots as helpers, as devices or gosmos that defend and protect people from danger while Western cultures depict robots as evil. Compare Astro Boy and Gundam mobile suit, which were built as weapons to help people, and the Terminator, who was against humanity. Different cultures portray machines differently; hence, different perceptions on the topic. 

Gundam statue in Tokyo

Terminator movie

American science fiction writer Philip Dick depicted the struggle of a person, who tries to understand whether androids are humans or not, very masterfully. He distinguishes robots from humans by having empathy. The main character gets confused as the robot starts to act empathic, so the reader is left with uncertainty whether the robot was actually feeling empathy or was faking it perfectly. The author shows how people change their perception of industrialization's impact on art, so it is hard to judge if industrialization had a negative or positive impact on art. One thing can be said with confidence that industrialization and machinery affected art a lot. Take a look at Hayao Miyazaki movies. All of them are inspired by some type of machinery from the bathhouse in Spirited away to Howl’s moving castle. We can see pipes, screws, steam, and metal. Even the castle itself contains a lot of different details, and it was inspired by a weaving machine in motion, which makes it an interesting fusion of art and machinery. Its heart is powered by a demon Calcifer who keeps the house “alive” much like Dick’s android’s empathy. 

Howl's castle

Sources:

Barder, Ollie. “The Life-Size Gundam in Tokyo Will Be Replaced by the Unicorn Gundam This Fall.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 5 Mar. 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2017/03/05/the-life-size-gundam-in-tokyo-will-be-replaced-by-the-unicorn-gundam-this-fall/?sh=9b22d88f0d99. 

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

Bradley, Jazmine Sky. “Catching up with Classics: The Terminator (1984).” Critical Popcorn, 14 July 2020, https://criticalpopcorn.com/2020/06/29/catching-up-with-classics-the-terminator-1984/. 

Davis, Douglas. “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction (An Evolving Thesis: 1991-1995).” Leonardo, Vol. 28, No 5, 1995, pp. 381-386. 

Dick, Philip K., and Tony Parker. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Boom! Studios, 2011.

“Howl's Castle.” Ghibli Wiki, https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Howl%27s_Castle. 

“Howl's Moving Castle.” Ghibli Wiki, https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Howl%27s_Moving_Castle#Moving_Castle. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Professor Machiko Kusahara on Japanese Robotics.” MyUCLA, https://www.my.ucla.edu/.