Robotic Art and Cultural Imagination

In this article, I aim to accentuate the importance of the cultural imagination about robots, observing it ‘as a mixed register of fantasy and an actual practice’ (Kakoudaki 2007, 165). I emphasise the field of robotic art, which, I argue, is in a fluid state of exchange with other areas of robotic research, equally benefiting from the larger context of the cultural imagination about robots. Furthermore, I discuss artworks that offer a valuable commentary on robots even though they are not defined as robotic art in a narrow sense (Penny 2013), given that they feature only the representation of robots or robot-like characters. Nevertheless, these artworks contribute to the circulation of symbolic registers that revolve around the multifaceted figure of a robot.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Bojana Romic

Conference

Publication date: May 2018

Publication date (Print): May 2018

Pages: 1-10

Affiliations

[1 ] School of Arts and Communication

Nordenskiöldsgatan 1, 211 19 Malmö, Sweden

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVAC18.48

SO-VID: d751c32b-ecab-4a6e-ba80-edcafa0235d8

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Politics of the Machines - Art and After

Conference acronym: EVA Copenhagen

Conference number: 7

Conference location: Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Conference date: 15 - 17 May 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Digital arts and culture

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVAC18.48

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

References

D Bagnal 2011 A filmmaking robot Available from: http://halo.gen.nz/robot/ 15 06 2018
S Ballard 2014 Cloud-Watching Robots: Douglas
Bagnall's Machine Aesthetics Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 20 3 352 368
G Bell 2018 Making life: a brief history of human-robot interaction Consumption Markets & Culture 21 1 22 41
Gunhild Borggreen 2011 Cute and Cool in Contemporary Japanese Visual Arts The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 29 1 39 60
A. Broeckmann 2016 Machine Art in the Twentieth
Century Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press
J Bruner 1990 Acts of Meaning Cambridge,Massachusetts Harvard University Press
A Bruns and J. Schmidt 2011 Produsage: A Closer Look at Continuing Developments. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 17 1 3 7
M Coeckelbergh 2011 Humans, Animals, and Robots: A Phenomenological Approach to Human-Robot Relations International Journal of Social Robotics 3 2 197 204
D Davis 1973 Art and the Future New York EP Dutton
S Dixon 2004a A Brief History of Robots and Automata The Drama Review 48 4 16 25
S Dixon 2004b Metal Performance: Humanizing Robots, Returning to Nature, and Camping About The Drama Review 48 4 15 46
U Eco 1989 The Open Work Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press
F EysselL. de RuiterD. Kuchenbrandt 2012 If you sound like me, you must be more human: On the interplay of robot and user features on human robot acceptance and anthropomorphism Proceedings of the 7th ACM/IEEE Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2012)Boston, 5-8 March 2012 Boston: MA
S Fiemnes 2006 The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema. (documentary) Manuscript: Slavoj Žižek, Sophie Fiennes Amoeba Film, Kasander Film Company, Lone Star Productions, Mischief Film
C Geertz 1973 The Interpretation of Cultures New York Basic Books
K Goldberg 2000 The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press
M Hansen 2004 New Philosophy for New Media Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press
D Harraway 1991 A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature New York Routledge 149 181
R Hoetzlein 2009 What is New Media Art? Available from: http://www.rchoetzlein.com/theory/2009/what-isnew-media-art/ 15 06 2018
T N. Hornyak 2006 Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots Tokyo Kodansha International
H Jenkins 2006a Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide New York New York University Press
H Jenkins 2006b Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture New York New York University Press
E Kac 1997 Origin and Development of Robotic Art Art Journal 56 3 60 67
D Kakoudaki 2007 Studying Robots, between Science and the Humanities The International Journal of the Humanities 5 8 165 181
F Kaplan 2004 Who is afraid of the humanoid? Investigating cultural differences in the acceptance of robots International Journal of Humanoid Robotics 1 3 465 480
L Kavner 2012 Robotic Butt SHIRI Expresses Emotions, Terrifies (VIDEO) Huffington Post Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/robot-butt-shiri_n_1524229.html 15 06 2018
M Kim and Kim, E. 2013 Humanoid Robots as “The Cultural Other”: are we able to love our creations? AI & Society 28 3 309 318
J Lacan 2006 Écrits New York, London W.W. Norton & Company
J. Lövgren and B. Reimer 2013 Collaborative Media: Production, Consumption and Design Interventions Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press
F Lunning 2008 Giant Robots and Superheroes: Manifestations of Divine Power, East and West: An Interview with Crispin Freeman Mechademia 3 274 282
S Magnet 2013 Gender, Sexuality and Engagement in 'Mixed Societies' of Cockroaches and Robots Women Studies Quarterly 41 3&4 38 55
PK McClure 2018 “You’re Fired,“ Says the Robot: The Rise of automation in the Workplace, Technophobes, and Fears of Unemployment Social Science Computer Review 36 2 139 156
WJT Mitchell 1998 The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon Chicago University of Chicago Press
H Moravec 1999 Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent MindOxford, New York Oxford University Press
M Mori 1970 The Uncanny Valley Energy 7 4 33 35
M Mori 2005 The Buddha in the Robot: A Robot Engineer's Thoughts on Science and Religion Tokyo Kosei Publishing
Motherboard 2013 A Robotic Exoskeleton Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25c1hiBKxeE 15 06 2018
Obvious-art.com 2018 Obvious Art Available from: http://obvious-art.com/about-us.html 01 09 2018
I PiconeJ. KleutT. PavličkováB. RomicJ. Møller-HartleyS. de Ridder (forthcoming) Small acts of engagement. Reconnecting productive audience practices with everyday agency New Media & Society (under peer review)
B. J. Pine II and J. H. Gilmore 1998 Welcome to the Experience Economy Harvard Business Review July– August 97 105
S Penny 2013 Art and Robotics: Sixty years of Situated Machines AI & Society 28 2 146 156
I Reichle 2009 Art in the Age of Technoscience: Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary ArtVienna, New York Springer
Reuters 2012 Japanese man's childhood dreams give birth to giant robot 28 November Available from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/29/us-japan-giantrobot-idUSBRE8AS04D20121129 15 06 2018
H Rheingold 2002 Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution Cambridge Perseus Books Group
H SamaniE. SaadatianN. PangD. PolydorouN OwenR. Nakatsu and J. Koh 2013 Cultural Robotics: The Culture of Robotics and Robotics in Culture International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems 10 400
JP Telotte 1995 Replications: A Robotic History of the Science Fiction Film Illinois University of Illinois
The Economist 2014 Rise of the Robots: A 14-Page Special Report 29 March – 4 April
S Turkle 2011 Alone Together: Why We Expect More from the Technology and Less from Each Other New York Basic Books
The Franklin Institute Maillardet’s Automaton Available from: https://www.fi.edu/history-resources/automaton 15 06 2018
S. ŠabanovićC. Bennett and H. R. Lee 2014 Towards Culturally Robust Robots: A Critical Social Perspective on Robotics and Culture Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Workshop on Culture-Aware Robotics (CARS) Germany 3-6 March 2014 Bielefeld
S. Šabanović 'Emotion in robot cultures: Cultural Models of affect in social robot design' (D&E2010) Chicago IL October 2010
E VlachosE. JochumH. Schärfe 2016 Head Orientation Behavior of Users and Durations of Playful Open-Ended Interactions with an Android Robot J. KohB. DunstanD. Silvera-TawilM. Velonaki Cultural RoboticsLNAI, vol. 9549 Springer: Switzerland
S. Žižek 2004 Organs Without Bodies: Deleuze and Consequences New York Routledge

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] D Bagnal 2011 A filmmaking robot Available from: http://halo.gen.nz/robot/ 15 06 2018

[2] S Ballard 2014 Cloud-Watching Robots: Douglas

[3] Bagnall's Machine Aesthetics Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 20 3 352 368

[4] G Bell 2018 Making life: a brief history of human-robot interaction Consumption Markets & Culture 21 1 22 41

[5] Gunhild Borggreen 2011 Cute and Cool in Contemporary Japanese Visual Arts The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 29 1 39 60

[6] A. Broeckmann 2016 Machine Art in the Twentieth

[7] Century Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press

[8] J Bruner 1990 Acts of Meaning Cambridge,Massachusetts Harvard University Press

[9] A Bruns and J. Schmidt 2011 Produsage: A Closer Look at Continuing Developments. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 17 1 3 7

[10] M Coeckelbergh 2011 Humans, Animals, and Robots: A Phenomenological Approach to Human-Robot Relations International Journal of Social Robotics 3 2 197 204

[11] D Davis 1973 Art and the Future New York EP Dutton

[12] S Dixon 2004a A Brief History of Robots and Automata The Drama Review 48 4 16 25

[13] S Dixon 2004b Metal Performance: Humanizing Robots, Returning to Nature, and Camping About The Drama Review 48 4 15 46

[14] U Eco 1989 The Open Work Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press

[15] F EysselL. de RuiterD. Kuchenbrandt 2012 If you sound like me, you must be more human: On the interplay of robot and user features on human robot acceptance and anthropomorphism Proceedings of the 7th ACM/IEEE Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2012)Boston, 5-8 March 2012 Boston: MA

[16] S Fiemnes 2006 The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema. (documentary) Manuscript: Slavoj Žižek, Sophie Fiennes Amoeba Film, Kasander Film Company, Lone Star Productions, Mischief Film

[17] C Geertz 1973 The Interpretation of Cultures New York Basic Books

[18] K Goldberg 2000 The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press

[19] M Hansen 2004 New Philosophy for New Media Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press

[20] D Harraway 1991 A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature New York Routledge 149 181

[21] R Hoetzlein 2009 What is New Media Art? Available from: http://www.rchoetzlein.com/theory/2009/what-isnew-media-art/ 15 06 2018

[22] T N. Hornyak 2006 Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots Tokyo Kodansha International

[23] H Jenkins 2006a Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide New York New York University Press

[24] H Jenkins 2006b Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture New York New York University Press

[25] E Kac 1997 Origin and Development of Robotic Art Art Journal 56 3 60 67

[26] D Kakoudaki 2007 Studying Robots, between Science and the Humanities The International Journal of the Humanities 5 8 165 181

[27] F Kaplan 2004 Who is afraid of the humanoid? Investigating cultural differences in the acceptance of robots International Journal of Humanoid Robotics 1 3 465 480

[28] L Kavner 2012 Robotic Butt SHIRI Expresses Emotions, Terrifies (VIDEO) Huffington Post Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/robot-butt-shiri_n_1524229.html 15 06 2018

[29] M Kim and Kim, E. 2013 Humanoid Robots as “The Cultural Other”: are we able to love our creations? AI & Society 28 3 309 318

[30] J Lacan 2006 Écrits New York, London W.W. Norton & Company

[31] J. Lövgren and B. Reimer 2013 Collaborative Media: Production, Consumption and Design Interventions Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press

[32] F Lunning 2008 Giant Robots and Superheroes: Manifestations of Divine Power, East and West: An Interview with Crispin Freeman Mechademia 3 274 282

[33] S Magnet 2013 Gender, Sexuality and Engagement in 'Mixed Societies' of Cockroaches and Robots Women Studies Quarterly 41 3&4 38 55

[34] PK McClure 2018 “You’re Fired,“ Says the Robot: The Rise of automation in the Workplace, Technophobes, and Fears of Unemployment Social Science Computer Review 36 2 139 156

[35] WJT Mitchell 1998 The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon Chicago University of Chicago Press

[36] H Moravec 1999 Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent MindOxford, New York Oxford University Press

[37] M Mori 1970 The Uncanny Valley Energy 7 4 33 35

[38] M Mori 2005 The Buddha in the Robot: A Robot Engineer's Thoughts on Science and Religion Tokyo Kosei Publishing

[39] Motherboard 2013 A Robotic Exoskeleton Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25c1hiBKxeE 15 06 2018

[40] Obvious-art.com 2018 Obvious Art Available from: http://obvious-art.com/about-us.html 01 09 2018

[41] I PiconeJ. KleutT. PavličkováB. RomicJ. Møller-HartleyS. de Ridder (forthcoming) Small acts of engagement. Reconnecting productive audience practices with everyday agency New Media & Society (under peer review)

[42] B. J. Pine II and J. H. Gilmore 1998 Welcome to the Experience Economy Harvard Business Review July– August 97 105

[43] S Penny 2013 Art and Robotics: Sixty years of Situated Machines AI & Society 28 2 146 156

[44] I Reichle 2009 Art in the Age of Technoscience: Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary ArtVienna, New York Springer

[45] Reuters 2012 Japanese man's childhood dreams give birth to giant robot 28 November Available from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/29/us-japan-giantrobot-idUSBRE8AS04D20121129 15 06 2018

[46] H Rheingold 2002 Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution Cambridge Perseus Books Group

[47] H SamaniE. SaadatianN. PangD. PolydorouN OwenR. Nakatsu and J. Koh 2013 Cultural Robotics: The Culture of Robotics and Robotics in Culture International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems 10 400

[48] JP Telotte 1995 Replications: A Robotic History of the Science Fiction Film Illinois University of Illinois

[49] The Economist 2014 Rise of the Robots: A 14-Page Special Report 29 March – 4 April

[50] S Turkle 2011 Alone Together: Why We Expect More from the Technology and Less from Each Other New York Basic Books

[51] The Franklin Institute Maillardet’s Automaton Available from: https://www.fi.edu/history-resources/automaton 15 06 2018

[52] S. ŠabanovićC. Bennett and H. R. Lee 2014 Towards Culturally Robust Robots: A Critical Social Perspective on Robotics and Culture Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Workshop on Culture-Aware Robotics (CARS) Germany 3-6 March 2014 Bielefeld

[53] S. Šabanović 'Emotion in robot cultures: Cultural Models of affect in social robot design' (D&E2010) Chicago IL October 2010

[54] E VlachosE. JochumH. Schärfe 2016 Head Orientation Behavior of Users and Durations of Playful Open-Ended Interactions with an Android Robot J. KohB. DunstanD. Silvera-TawilM. Velonaki Cultural RoboticsLNAI, vol. 9549 Springer: Switzerland

[55] S. Žižek 2004 Organs Without Bodies: Deleuze and Consequences New York Routledge