Robotics + Arts

The undeniable truth concerning the relationship between robotics and art lies in the notion that technology, for better or worse, has changed our reactions toward arts. Therefore, in order to truly appreciate the merging of these two radically different but intrinsically connected domains we must think of technologies not simply as inventions which people employ to carry out artistic discourse, but also as the means by which society is reinvented” (Vesna). In other words, specifically Marshall McLuhan’s, “the medium is the message”, technology itself is the message, the art (7). 

Marshall McLuhan - "The Medium is the Message"

Walter Benjamin, in his paper “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, displays both sides of the coin, how technology can be considered as both, a threat to the authenticity and uniqueness of works of art, and an instrument through which society can absorb and be absorbed by art. 

While I initially disagreed with Benjamin’s idea that mechanical reproduction does not benefit the art being reproduced, because I believe that imitation is a form of flattery that could potentially add value to the original piece, I really enjoyed his insights in the explanation of the evolution of art, from being distant from reality to penetrating it. This transition is embodied in the dichotomy between paintings and films, between painters and cameramen. “The painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, while the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web” (Benjamin 3 - XI). 

Walter Benjamin

Additionally, I found Benjamin’s thesis mirrored in the artwork of the artist Gijs van Bon, particularly in his Drop of Light. This installation, originated in 2013, occupies a unique space spanning sculpture, animation, art, technology and mathematics. “In a darkened room, a succession of droplets falls from an array of nozzles six meters above. Spattering noises accompany the first flashes of light in mid-air as UV lasers hit the streams of liquid” (van Bon).

In conclusion, Van Bon’s work illustrates that robotics and arts, maths and magic, are never far removed, au contraire their relationship is destined to become increasingly closer, as Walter Benjamin said: “for contemporary man the representation of reality through and by technology is incomparably more significant than that of the painter, since it offers, precisely because of the thoroughgoing permeation of reality with mechanical equipment, an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment” (3 - XI). 

Pietro Grassi. 

Gijs van Bon's Drop of Light

Citations: 

McLuhan, Marshall Herbert. Understanding the Media. The Extensions of Men. McGraw-Hill,(1964), page 7. 

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 2021.

Vesna, Victoria. Lecture Video 3. Canvas, 2022. 

van Bon, Gijs. http://www.gijsvanbon.nl/drop-of-light.html

Glow Eindhoven. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=drop+of+light+van+bon