Week 3 - Robotics and Art

This week, I learned how mechanization has changed the way our society creates and consumes art. Walter Benjamin, a twentieth-century philosopher, theorized that original artwork had an "aura" about it, which was unique to its time of creation and the artist's intentions (Robotics). With the incorporation of technology into art, however, Benjamin argued that art was losing its aura. Benjamin applied this theory specifically to film, which turns live performances of a script into a single, stagnant recording. Whereas each performance is a single work of art in itself, with its own variations and aura, a film is identical in every copy that is made (Osborne). 

Another example of how the creation of art has changed is the use of computer graphics in film and television. Before, animations were drawn by hand. That’s consistent with my mental image of an artist sketching away at a pad. Now, many animations can be automated with a few lines of code. Then, the programmer becomes the artist (Woodford). I think that’s really interesting, since most people probably don’t think of computer scientists as artists. UCLA actually offers a computer graphics course, CS 174A, that teaches students how to use OpenGL, a computer graphics library, to create 3-D animations. The description of the class can be found here: https://ccle.ucla.edu/course/view/15S-COMSCI174A-1 (Friedman).

The video above is a demo of the capabilities of OpenGL (Jungle).

Not only does the production of art change, our appreciation of it changes as well. This is depicted in the Pixar movie Wall-E. In Wall-E, society has become completely automated, resulting in all the humans becoming lazy and unproductive. No one creates or appreciates art, choosing the most accessible, “mindless” entertainment instead:

There’s no culture or community in the society, either. As the movie progresses, though, Wall-E uses different art forms (e.g. a sculpture, a video cassette, dance, etc.) to connect with others:

In this video clip, Wall-E bonds with Eve, another robot, through watching Hello Dolly and dancing.(WALL-E).

The point of the movie is to show that the creation and existence of art is what makes a society more than just a group of bodies performing just the necessary functions (Mcgovern).

Sources: lecture video, plato, computer graphics course, wall-e blog,

images/vids: wall-3, computer graphics, 

Works Cited

Friedman, Scott A. "Introduction to Computer Graphics." Introduction to Computer Graphics. UCLA, 
Apr. 2015. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Human Dystopia. Dir. Andrew Stanton. Wall-E. N.p., 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Jungle - OpenGL 3D Engine/viewer Project - UTBM. Dir. Thibaut Despoulain.YouTube. University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard, 26 June 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Mcgovern, Bridget. "Wall-E: Pixar’s Lasting Tribute to the Power of Art." Web log post. Tor. Macmillan, 19 June 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Osborne, Peter. "Walter Benjamin." Stanford University. Stanford University, 18 Jan. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Robotics Pt1. Dir. Victoria Vesna. YouTube. UCLA, 15 Apr. 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

WALL-E MEETS EVE. Dir. Andrew Stanton. Wall-E. Pixar, 21 June 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Woodford, Chris. "Computer Graphics." Explain That Stuff. N.p., 10 Aug. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.