Week 3: Robotics + Art

Robots are all around us. We have smartphones that allow us to communicate with others, vehicles that make it possible to travel, and even toasters to heat up pop tarts. And yet, when we think of robots, we are almost immediately drawn to cyborgs, androids, and artificial intelligence.

At fault for this is cinema, in particular movies such as Robocop, Terminator, and my personal favorite, Ex-Machina. Directed by Eric Garland, Ex-Machina elaborately portrays the complex interaction between AI and humanity. Most important is the climax; kept isolated is the main android, Ava, who is undoubtedly intelligent but ends up killing the main antagonist and betraying the protagonist. This remorseless behavior made for a frightening realization about AI, thereby giving one terrifying answer to Nick Bostrom’s question “What happens when our computers get smarter than we are?”


Figure 1. Ex-Machina Poster, 2015.

But is this fear really unjustified? While no artificial intelligence of that level exists yet, there are certainly instances wherein robots of today have caused havoc. Consider the contemporary case of Willie Lynch; a black man named Willie Lynch was wrongfully arrested when a photo of him that underwent facial recognition incorrectly identified him as a criminal (Satariano). A similar case occurred when Rekognition - a leading facial recognition system by Amazon - recognized Super Bowl champion Duron Harmon as a criminal (Holmes). Joy Boulamwini explains this further in her TED talk below.


Figure 2. Joy Buolamwini. How I'm Fighting Bias in Algorithms, 2017.

Much like anything else, however, robots can be both a bane and a boon with respect to art, and the latter seems more likely. Keeping with the narrative of the movie industry, robots have really ameliorated special effects in films. Jurassic Park was a film icon that stunned audiences with the most realistic dinosaurs seen up to that time thanks to a brilliant combination of animatronics and stop-motion. Still, when Jurassic World hit the cinemas in 2015, it went even further by using computer animation and motion capture that adopt actors to play dinosaurs, most notably the T-Rex and raptor squad. For comparison, the original had about 14 effects whereas the newer one utilized over 2000 individual visual effect shots. In doing so, this has allowed audiences to acquire a more real experience nowadays. And yet, people still prefer the original, which supports Benjamin’s belief that the value of art comes from tradition (IV).

 

Figure 3. Jurassic Park vs Jurassic World.

Still, it is because of such advances and applications that I believe robots are the future of art.

Works Cited

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

Bostrom, Nick. "What Happens When Our Computers Get Smarter than We Are?". TED, Mar. 2015, https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_bostrom_what_happens_when_our_computers_get_smarter_than_we_are?language=en

Buolamwini, Joy. "How I'm Fighting Bias in Algorithms." Youtube, uploaded by TED, 29 Mar. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG_X_7g63rY

El-Mahmoud, Sarah. Jurassic Park Video Reveals How the Dinosaurs Went from Stop Motion to CGI. 17 Oct. 2020, https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2557073/jurassic-park-video-reveals-how-the-dinosaurs-went-from-stop-motion-to-cgi.

"Ex-Machina Poster". IMDB, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2022.

Gomez Cubero, Carlos, et al. “The Robot Is Present: Creative Approaches for Artistic Expression with Robots.” Frontiers in Robotics and AI, vol. 8, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.662249.

Holmes, Aaron. Patriots Player Duron Harmon Is Speaking out after Amazon's Facial-Recognition Tech Falsely Matched Him to a Mugshot. 23 Oct. 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-facial-recognition-falsely-matched-nfl-players-duron-harmon-mugshots-2019-10.

"Jurassic Park vs Jurassic World". https://www.reddit.com/r/JurassicPark/comments/344gn4/jurassic_park_cgi_vs_jurassic_world_cgi/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2022.

Satariano, Adam. “Real-Time Surveillance Will Test the British Tolerance for Cameras.” The New York Times, 15 Sept. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/technology/britain-surveillance-privacy.html#:~:text=the%20main%20story-,Real%2DTime%20Surveillance%20Will%20Test%20the%20British%20Tolerance%20for%20Cameras,than%20any%20other%20Western%20democracy.

Vesna, Victoria. "Robotics pt1." Lecture. Youtube, 9 Apr. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJcPtv7tnKY&list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7&index=28.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

Image
One of my best friends has long been interested in the field of neuroscience so this topic somewhat resonates with me. He once told me that the human brain holds the key to our nature as conscious beings. Still, I was shocked to hear that neuroaesthetics - a combined discipline involving neuroscience and art - is a flourishing field. Among the factors motivating this new collaborative venture is the epiphany that artists have made groundbreaking discoveries about the human brain that scientists are just beginning to unearth. According to Zeki, “most painters are also neurologists” (2). Given that artists have been a proponent of studying the way in which the world is perceived, it isn’t surprising that they have uncovered certain characteristics of the way we sense shapes, colors or depth. Interestingly, this is nothing new. Patrick Cavanagh, an eminent vision researcher and professor, claims that line drawings likely date back to our ancestors tracing lines in the sand and realizi...
Read more

Week 8: Nanotechnology + Art

Image
When Marvel’s “Ant-man” came out in 2015, the geek in my 14-year-old self decided to make an appearance. Although the wolverine was my favorite character at the time, ant-man was a close second as his ability to change size at will came across as a devastating yet epic ability. So, it came as a wonderful surprise when I found out that the nanotechnology aspect of the movie and comics could be explained - and by UCLA scientists, no less! Figure 1. Marvel University, Ant-Man & The Wasp and Nanotechnology, 2018. According to Laurent Bentolila, the scientific director at the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute, their technology “paints” cells such as neurons and immune cells with colored dyes, shines a laser on them, and with this, they can track every cell in space and time like a GPS. As a result, they could, in theory, use this to track someone like ant-man (Horan). In 2002-03, Vesna and Gimzewski presented interactive artwork featuring nanotechnology that allowed individuals ...
Read more

Week 4: MedTech + Art

Image
Think about medicine for a second. What comes to mind? Hospital? Ambulance? Doctor, perhaps? Whatever you thought of first was undoubtedly not related to art. Thus, it was shocking to learn that thousands of years ago, art and medicine were nearly indistinguishable disciplines. Since ancient times, humans have been dissecting bodies as part of a larger artistic performance (Vesna). The ancient Egyptians, for example, were pioneers in art and medicine and integrated their anatomical knowledge and mythological stories into art. Among these works includes the infamous eye of Horus, otherwise known as “The Third Eye”. While it remains one of the most baffling secrets of ancient human history, one established interpretation of the symbol is anatomical. The eye itself comes in parts and when superimposed over a mid-sagittal image of the human brain, each component corresponds to human neuroanatomical features (ReFaey). Figure 1. The Eye of Horus Fitted in the Mid-Sagittal Section of the Hu...
Read more