This week's lectures focus on the relationship between robotics and art. When watching the lectures the first things that came to mind was Star Wars. It is one of the most iconic movie series of the 20th century. The movies are set in space in a science-fiction display of an interaction between humans with machines such as landspeeders, starships and light sabers. Two characters that are essential to the story are R2-D2 and C-3PO; these two are droids (robots) that rescue and aid Padme, Luke and others in their various space adventures. C-3PO in particular is aesthetically built like a human and expresses human qualities such as empathy and anger as well. This is relevant to the section where Professor Vesna mentions cyborgs. The following clip shows the first encounter between R2-D2 and C-3PO with Luke Skywalker:
Walter Benjamin has influenced people in terms of giving them a cultural belief in “creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery” (218). He believe in traditional aestheticism and being able to take old/new ideas and put them into different contexts. This belief can be applied across many different subjects from robotics to film to art.
Nikola Tesla was a pioneer for the wireless world that we live in today, where information passes across distances without wires. He once gave a demonstration where he held two gas tubes (early light bulbs), one in each hand, and they emitted light. He explained that electricity was passing through the air between the two metal sheets on either side of the stage. “He went on to speculate how one might increase the scale of this effect to transmit wireless power and information over a broad area, perhaps even the entire Earth” (Bellows).
A small-scale example of his idea of a wireless world mixed with robotics is the robot cleaner. It is designed to find dirt and debris, doesn’t require any wires, has sensors that detect obstacles and cliffs (stairs), etc. This is just a small example of wireless technology that was developed to make simple tasks easier for people.
References
"C-3PO (See-Threepio)." StarWars.com. TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://www.starwars.com/databank/c-3po>.
"Star Wars IV Selling the Droids." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MspVCc0_R3g>.
Bellows, Alan. "Tesla's Tower of Power." Tesla's Tower of Power • Damn Interesting. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://www.damninteresting.com/teslas-tower-of-power/>.
Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. 1936. Print.
Rose Mary. "Wireless Communication and Types." Engineers Garage... Inspiring Creations. EngineersGarage, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.engineersgarage.com/articles/wireless_communication>.
Hi Robin,
ReplyDeleteStar Wars is a fabulous example of Robotics and Art. I enjoyed your video as it displays this connection between the interaction of humans and machines. this example proves first hand that robotics and art is a world wide fascination. The impact that robotics has on art and vice versa for many many years has created some of the most successful and well known movies of all time.