Week 3 Art and Technology

This week I wanted to demonstrate the relationship between technology and art that we see in our society today. As technology continues to advance, we often ask ourselves where this technology will go in the future and to what extent it will have an influence in our lives. We wonder whether there will be robots taking the place of humans and if these robots or other form of technology will be leading our lives. These ideas are present in many of the TV shows and movies that are being directed today. 

One movie that caught my eye a few summers ago was Pacific Rim. This 2013 movie directed by Guillermo del Toro calls for humans to develop robots capable of destroying enemy aliens. The robots that are created are very futuristic and put into perspective perhaps the future of us on Earth. It can also be questioned whether this movie or art piece is attempting to mimic what we believe to be the future of technology, or whether technology will attempt to follow this art and our society will eventually create similar robots. Either way the creation and depiction of these giant robots is very impressive and something that is a direct reaction to the advancements in today's technology and where it might move in the future. 

The movie Pacific Rim with one of the robots that the humans developed to fight

A counterexample of Art and Technology meshing together

A quote by Bauhaus demonstrating his belief in the co-existence of Art and Technology

Relating this movie to Benjamin Walter's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" brings up other perspectives on the art and technology. Walter states "Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be". When reading this, we think about if art can really replicate technology. The movie Pacific Rim is certainly out of the right time and space. The technology present may never be available to us as humans and is certainly 100 or more years away. For this matter, I believe that attempting to combine technology and art is not a very fruitful or smart endeavor.

Finally, Douglas Davis shares this idea that art and technology are not on the same page. Davis believes that technology should not be reflected in art and makes artwork unoriginal. He could be speaking about mostly paintings and not so much movies or tv shows. 

Works Cited:

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

Davis, Douglas. “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction.” The MIT Press, 1995. Web. 19 April. 2015.

"Pacific Rim (film)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 19 Apr. 2015                        <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Rim_(film)>.

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_Mechanical_Reproduction>.

Vesna, Victoria. "Robotics Pt1." YouTube. UC Online, 15 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.