joshhahnDESMA9

After watching this week's lectures I could only think about two movies, The Iron Giant (1999) and Modern Times (1936) as mentioned in lecture. These two movies are my personal favorite movies that have to deal with machinery and robotic art. 

The Iron Giant is a family adventure movie that shows the connection between art and robotic by having the Iron Giant character have human expressions. The entire body of the Iron Giant resembles nothing of a human but as we follow more of this giant's adventure with his human kid best friend, Hogarth, we can see through the art work that even a machine can show empathy towards a human or even sorrow. As talked about in lecture, robotic art during the first World War was shifted from the dreams of what the future could be to war and how machines can represent violence as used in fascist art. This fear of war can be seen in The Iron Giant when the giant's destruction mode is activated and wants to destroy everything in its way. The artwork used in the film changed the good hearted robots expressions to an evil machine of war.
Now looking at a much more upbeat film about machinery, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times as referred to in lecture is a great example of the response to industrialization at that time. We discussed that Henry Ford was a leading many in the creation of assembly lines and how he used Taylorism to maximize his production, and in the film Modern Times we can see a representation of how people felt. During this rise of assembly lines using machinery people felt like they were seen as part of the machine and in Chaplin's film his character at one point gets sucked into the large machine in his factory and quiet literally becomes a part of the machine. This visual of Chaplin inside of a machine's gears symbolized how all factory works felt they were view at the time as they weren't paid a lot and were exploited for their work.

Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=modern+times&authuser=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKl-r0w5b3AhWbomoFHdxlBgAQ_AUoBHoECAIQBg&biw=1536&bih=722&dpr=1.25#imgrc=VuKOGyn-FV3lWM.

Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=modern+times&authuser=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKl-r0w5b3AhWbomoFHdxlBgAQ_AUoBHoECAIQBg&biw=1536&bih=722&dpr=1.25#imgrc=RWCtQdKJnDannM.

Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=the+iron+giant&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiyhYXVypb3AhUNBFMKHZmGAxAQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=the+iron+&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgAMggIABCABBCxAzIICAAQgAQQsQMyCAgAEIAEELEDMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDoECAAQQ1DtCVjbHmC2JWgAcAB4AIABfIgBiwiSAQMzLjeYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=BqpZYrLqHI2IzAKZjY6AAQ&authuser=2&bih=722&biw=1536#imgrc=2uWy5pmkOczJaM.

Benjamin, Walter, and Harry Zohn. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: an Influential Essay of Cultural Criticism ; the History and Theory of Art. Adansonia Press, 2018.

Gayford, Martin. “Robot Art Raises Questions about Human Creativity.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 2 Apr. 2020, www.technologyreview.com/2016/02/15/162067/robot-art-raises-questions-about-human-creativity/.

Kemper, Tom, et al. “Art Transforms in Brad Bird's Pop Americana Film, 'The Iron Giant', PopMatters.” PopMatters, 21 Feb. 2017, www.popmatters.com/brad-bird-the-iron-giant-2495400457.html.

Raghuramaraju, A. “Modern Masterpiece.” Charlie-Chaplin - The Relevance of Charles Chaplin's 'Modern Times' - Telegraph India, Telegraph India, 15 Nov. 2021, www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-relevance-of-charles-chaplins-modern-times/cid/1838902.

Zelizer, Julian E. “Anxieties of 'Modern Times' Still with Us.” CNN, Cable News Network, 29 Nov. 2010, www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/29/zelizer.chaplin.modern.times/index.html.

Comments

  1. Ethan FlanaganApril 17, 2022 at 11:25 AM

    Hey Josh! I found it very interesting how you were able to talk about movies with machinery and robotics, such as "The Iron Giant" and 'Modern Times," and relate them to art. In "The Iron Giant," the robot was able to experience human emotions and feelings despite being a machine. In addition, I enjoyed reading about how assembly lines by Henry Ford helped spark the process of industrialization in our society.

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