Week 3 | Robotics and Art | Asha Agarwal

WALL·E is a childhood staple in most homes across the country. I myself have watched it so many times I’ve now lost count. The beauty of this movie comes from the idea that a robot, a seemingly simple assembly of metal and gears, is a complex being capable of real emotions like joy, curiosity, compassion, and love (“Character Design”). WALL·E is incredibly inquisitive and finds art and beauty in the objects and trinkets around him, otherwise deemed as trash.

Orr, Christopher. “The Movie Review: 'WALL·E'.” The New Republic, 26 June 2008, https://newrepublic.com/article/62739/movie-review-walle.

What is so interesting about this movie as well is its commentary on how humanity responds to greater mechanization and the increasing amounts of technology in their midst. In WALL·E, humans use technology and robotics in a negative way, allowing robots to do everything for them and letting their lives pass them by. This film “mobilizes the masses” as described by Walter Benjamin to explore the ideas of climate change, increasing mechanization, and honestly scare people a bit about what our future could become by showing images of the earth like the one below (Benjamin 6).

Terrill, Brian. “Brian Terrill's 100 Film Favorites – #30: ‘WALL-E.’” Earn This, 3 Sept. 2013, https://earnthis.net/brian-terrills-100-film-favorites-30-wall-e/.

In addition, as Davis touches on, the creation and adaptation of photography, film, and robotics opens up the collective creative space that exists to new media that can be considered art (Davis 382). In essence, the increasing abilities of robotics in this mechanical era mean that robots can both create art and be the art themselves, as depicted below. As evidence of this, artist Rinaldo uses robots in his installation, Automatist Robot Drawings, to make new art and pull something beautiful out of nothing with the clever use of gravity and robotic knowledge (Rinaldo).

Rharbaoui, Younes. “The Future Da Vinci Is a Robot: AI and Artistic Creation.” The Family, 22 Nov. 2016, https://salon.thefamily.co/the-future-da-vinci-is-a-robot-ai-and-artistic-creation-51001f12149d.

Robots are intricate, meticulous, and very thoughtfully created, all defining features of art as well. In fact, this combination of robotics, technology, and art is something known and celebrated by artist van Bon in addition to Rinaldo (van Bon). Robotics and art seem like two parallel paths never crossing, but the intersectionality of the two is fascinating and becoming more and more common with the robust mechanization at present.


References:

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

“Character Design.” Pixar Animation Studios, https://www.pixar.com/feature-films/walle.

Davis, Douglas. Leonardo, Vol. 28, No. 5, Third Annual New York Digital Salon. (1995), pp. 381-386.

Rinaldo, Ken. “Automatist Human Drawings.” Ken Rinaldo, http://www.kenrinaldo.com/portfolio/automatist-human-drawings/.

van Bon, Gijs. “About.” Gijs Van Bon, http://www.gijsvanbon.nl/.

Comments

  1. Akhil April 17, 2022 at 3:15 PM

    Hi Asha! Really interesting blog on a classic film and the idea of robots being used for creative purposes like generating art. I do wonder though if such art is genuine given that it stems from what one would call an artificial place. Furthermore, the effort put into art adds to its appeal - if a robot made the Mona Lisa, the focus of its adoration would be the fact that a robot made it and not the actual art and its subtle meanings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AaronNoahDESMA9April 17, 2022 at 5:34 PM

    I agree that the seemingly disparate areas of robotics and art share interesting commonalities. Regarding both the blog post and the previous comment, I think there is certain level of subjectivity here: Wall-E finds meaning and beauty among heaps of trash, and some people find the mechanical sophistication of robotics fascinating and beautiful like art while others may feel detached and uninterested. I also personally wonder whether there is no psychological role played by the existing fame and high monetary value of pieces of art in determining an "artistic" value of those pieces.

    ReplyDelete
  3. angelina kimApril 17, 2022 at 8:25 PM

    Hi Asha, I really like your historical and fictional connection to WALL-E. To add onto your point about how the intersection between art and technology brings this new "creative space," it makes me realize how vast and multidisciplinary art is and how this traditional definition and ideal of art is transformed through different medias and time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jack FilbyApril 17, 2022 at 10:45 PM

    Hi Asha, I too think WALL-E is a great example to look at and most defiantly fits into this weeks overall themes and information. This movie does a great job of introducing the robot like figure and makes it normal for there to a robot and gives it a personality and allows for it to experience several concepts of life. Your comment about Walter Benjamin is a perfect contrast into the fact that not all people think robots are the best and those who are hesitant about them.

    ReplyDelete

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