Week 3 Blog: Robotics + Art


This week's topic is about the relationship between robotics and art as well as the societal impact of industrialization, which is argued by Walter Benjamin in his inspiring work, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", in which he propounded the theory that "mechanical reproduction strips the 'aura' from an artwork —its unique presence in time and space" (Benjamin, 1935). His perspective is thought-provoking, especially with the advancement of technologies such as artificial intelligence, and makes me ponder: does the occurrence and development of industrialization and robotics reduce the sparks and creativity in art?



One example of such consequence is represented by the movie Ex Machina, in which the main character, a humanoid girl, creates an amazing drawing, indicating the potential future where robots participate in and alter the landscape of artistic creation. Such instances challenge the future of art in terms of originality and inventiveness, which echoes with the concern posited by Walter Benjamin.



One other widely spreading phenomenon that puts the artistic creativity at risk is the prevalent use of  machine learning and artificial intelligence in the process of creating art works with tools like chatgpt and other powerful search engines. In my opinion, these highly advanced machines are double swords for the artistic development. On one hand, people with limited artistic knowledge are able to create drawings and music that express themselves, or use these tools to aid with their art learning. On the other hand, with the increasing power of these technologies comes the high likelihood of people ending up relying too much on the machines' help for creating art works, leading to a foreseeable diminish of artistic authenticity and originality. Such complex and controversial position of robotics in the progress of artistic creation is something that we should take into consideration when aiming to develop a more industrial future.



Reference List

1. Benjamin, Walter, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1935.

2. Ex Machina. Directed by Alex Garland, performances by Alicia Vikander, 2015.

3. Movie Scene from Ex Machina: https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/movies/2015/04/23/review-ex-machina-passes-test/26189825/

4. Jo Lawson-Tancred, A.I.-Generated Versions of Art-Historic Paintings Are Littering Google’s Top Search Results. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ai-versions-of-art-historically-significant-paintings-flood-google-top-results-2313747

5.Fintelics, AI and Art: Exploring the Intersection of Creativity and Technology. https://fintelics.medium.com/ai-and-art-exploring-the-intersection-of-creativity-and-technology-40405f9156ab


Comments

  1. love, jaela 💗April 21, 2024 at 3:25 PM

    Hi Tiffany. I like your stance on how AI can be seen as a double-edged sword. I feel like AI only gets bad representation which although is warranted, very one-sided. AI can enhance photos, bring in new perspectives, or help someone understand art; but yes, it should be just a tool rather than something we employ to make art. Walter Benjamin brings in an important issue with AI lacking the context of the art's intention which explains a lot of AI art being lifeless and disconnected.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 4 Blog: MedTech + Art

Image
This week, we focused on discussing the intersected relationship between the field of medicine/medtech and arts, which is highlighted by their shared nature of creativeness and abundance of pioneers that help push forward and evolve their respective fields.   One example of such intersection is the concept of design thinking, which stems from the creative process of art making, but has also been more and more widely used in the field of medtech to improve user-friendliness in the medical devices that are been developed. Moreover, there has been a stronger emphasis on the aesthetics of these devices, making them less intimidating and thus easier for the patients to use them. The influence of arts is not only shown in the improvement of medical devices,   but also the increased effectiveness in patient treatments.  Arts therapy, for example, is a well established phychological treatment through which the patients’ emotional and cognitive traumas are relieved. Additionally, ...
Read more

Week 7 Blog: Neuroscience + Art

Image
This week's topic is about the relationship between neuroscience and arts. It seems to be that one of the biggest similarity shared by neuroscience and arts is that they both focus heavily on human perceptions and their mental responses to (both psychological and artistic) stimulations. And with the booming of digital technologies like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, the intersection between neuroscience and arts has become unprecedentedly huge, making the intermediate fields like cognitive science and UI/UX to grow at an accelerated rate.                “10th April: The Neuroscience of Art – How the Arts Transform Us.” How To Academy , howtoacademy.com/events/the-neuroscience-of-art-how-the-arts-transform-us/. Accessed 13 May 2024. One major aspect that neuroscience centers around is the study of brain, which as underlined by the article " Art and brain: insights from neuropsychology, biology and evolution" shares inspiring ins...
Read more