EVENT 1: Metropolis (1927)

        I attended the watch party for the movie Metropolis. 

            The movie was a silent black and white sci-fi movie and was produced in 1927. When I was watching the movie, I was marveled at how imaginative the creators were. They were able to visualize robots and the utilization of robots for industrialized jobs even before anything remotely that advanced was created. It made me connect to Prof Vesna’s reference on how movies depict certain technologies even before they existed and how that could have led to the invention of these technologies. 

      Additionally, I could see that the robots/ technology that they were depicting were not necessarily very advanced compared to the possibilities today. This reinforced Prof Vesna’s comment on how older sci-fi movies now seem tame compared to the new inventions that are present today.  Furthermore, the scientist depicted in the movie fit the “mad scientist” stereotype that Prof Vesna elaborated on, for he had an eccentric appearance and seemed to act in a “crazy” way. This helped me visualize how the media has always played a role in enforcing stereotypes. 

Many express reservations towards robots. Rodney Brooks claimed that humans have these reservations  because “We don't like to give up our special-ness, so, you know, having the idea that robots could really have emotions, or that robots could be living creatures -- I think is going to be hard for us to accept.” The creators of the movie too seemed to display this bias. I sensed that the creators wanted to convey a message on how robots ultimately were inferior to humans, for they ended on a note where robots were portrayed to be incapable of replacing the human or recreating some human qualities. 

              In the movie, the robots are not portrayed as friendly. They seem very mechanical; hence, I now see the need for the “friendly robots” that people are now working towards creating (Hanson). 

             I feel as though this movie has helped redesign my approach to the midterm. I was going to only include artworks from recent times, for I did not fully grasp how influential artistic work on robots from the last century had been until watching the movie. I will now make sure to include older artworks too. Furthermore, this was a silent movie but it helped me understand how visuals can convey so much to the audience without any words. Initially, I was going to explain everything in extreme detail for my midterm, but now I feel I will also include some visuals and let them speak for themselves and the audience can draw their own conclusions. 

            Finally, I would recommend my peers watch this movie. I feel it would help them visualize older collaborations of art and robots and help them understand the influence of art on robots better. It would essentially help them make better sense of the theory we learned in class.

REFERENCES: 

Vesna, Victoria. “Lecture Part 2.” Math + Art. 12 Oct. 2012. Lecture.  

Brooks, Rodney. “Robots Will Invade Our Lives.” TED, Feb. 2003, www.ted.com/talks/rodney_brooks_robots_will_invade_our_lives.  

Hanson, David. “Robots That ‘Show Emotion.’” TED, Feb. 2009, www.ted.com/talks/david_hanson_robots_that_show_emotion.