Week 3 Blog Post DESMA9

 The subject of this week’s material focuses on the relationship between robotics and art. Originally robots were just a fictional product of art from an era of increasing industrialization. As this industrialization has evolved, robots have become a part of daily life in our society; albeit not so many humanoid ones such as those depicted in movies like Metropolis.

       That said there has become an increasing demand for more human-like robots, as mentioned by Professor Machiko Kusahara. In part of her lecture from this week's resources, she mentions how humanoid or even animal-like robots are beneficial for numerous tasks, including rescue missions; as to be friendly to those who are being saved by these machines [2]. Another example of humanoid robots interacting with people was from Electric Circus’s “Dirk, The Homeless Robot” [3].


This remote controlled, life-like robot pushing a shopping cart received mixed reactions like joy and confusion from the crowd.

Another example of art we examined that requires robotic pieces is Fujiko Nakaya’s fog art.         Her “fog sculpture” was the most notable attraction from Experiments in Art and Technology’s 1970 Expo; and required the collaboration of many engineers and artists [5]. This collaboration reminded me of how I assisted my friend who was working on producing music with his Arduino [4]. He was able to code instructions for the machine to play the notes that I helped him to arrange. I refute Walter Benjamin’s notion that the aura, or authenticity, of a piece of art is lost in the industrial process [1]. I believe it is clear that machines and art go hand in hand, and will continue to produce great, unique art. 

Works Cited

[1] Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.                                     From https://bruinlearn.ucla.edu/courses/129896/files/8660210/download?wrap=1


[2] Kusahara, Machiko. On Japanese Robotics

         From https://bruinlearn.ucla.edu/courses/129896/pages/unit-3-view                  module_item_id=4852504


[3] mirenfred. Dirk the Homeless Robot/www.electric-circus.eu. YouTube. 
           From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HfmKXfp394&t=235s

[4] Team Arduino. Archived library examples: Arduino documentation. Arduino Documentation | Arduino Documentation. From https://docs.arduino.cc/library-examples/

[5] Wikimedia Foundation. Experiments in art and technology. Wikipedia. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiments_in_Art_and_Technology

Images Cited

First Image: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8564807/replica-of-maria-robot-from-fritz-langs-1927-film-metropolis-with-fragment-from-replicas-leg-and-replicas-object-label-replica


Second Image: http://www.electriccircus.nl/


Third Image: https://hero-magazine.com/article/171200/fujiko-nakaya

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