Robots and Art - Week 3

Figure 1: Robot in the Ford Factory 

The focus for this week was robotics and art. After reading through and watching the material I decided to focus on robotics in Japan verses the United States. The reason why I did this is because of Professor Machiko Kusahara's lecture on robotics in Japan, it brought out ideas that I had never thought about before. When I've heard about robots its only been in relation to the robots that build things in factories.

"Factories first opened their doors to modern industrial robots in 1961" (1). Before this time factories used manual labor to complete the tasks that they had, whether that was building cars or putting together washing machines humans were used. The good thing about having real people work is that you are providing people with jobs and there is a certain amount of pride that goes into their work. The downside is that they make mistakes, they work at different paces and you have to keep paying them. These problems were solved with robots, "with no need to take breaks . . . a manufacturing robot can increase productivity dramatically" (2), people were out of jobs but the rate of manufacturing went up.

Figure 2: Japanese Robot

The idea of what Japanese robots look like and do varies greatly from the American idea. In Japan robots take on a more life like appearance and purpose. "The Henn-na hotel in Japan will become the first robot staffed hotel in the world" (3), by looking at this quote we can see what Japan wants for their robots, they want them to be able to replace their human workers without having the people they are interacting with think that they are having a conversation with a robot.

While these two groups of robots vary greatly they do reveal something about the two countries that they come from. Industrialization drives everything. Industrialization is "the process of converting to a socioeconomic order in which industry is dominant" (4), industrialization has made the days of robots being created for fun now they are made for a single purpose, to help industry.

Figure 3: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

A movie which I have seen this happen is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I never thought that this movie would help me make a point but here I am. In the movie Charlie's dad works hard at a toothpaste factory to provide for his family. This all ends when robots are brought in to do the job better. When this happens he looses his job and in turn a way to support his family. While this is just a movie it was a way for me to really visualize what is going on with robots and industrialization.



Works Cited
Photographs 
Figure One: "Ford Automotive Robot." 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/blogs/Ford-Robotics-2.jpg>.
Figure Two: 24 Sept. 2010. Web. <http://tx.english-ch.com/teacher/jane/jp robot.jpg>.
Figure Three: 1 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://3to1z93m5aspz1tlz1zcsjta2m.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/koltv8r/wp-content/uploads/sites/273/2014/06/Robots.png>.

Online Resources 
1.) "How Have Robots Changed Manufacturing?" How It Works. 14 May 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
2.) "What Are the Advantages of an Industrial Manufacturing Robot?" Robots. 2 Feb. 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
3.) "Check into Japan's Creepy Robot Hotel." The Daily Beast. 2 May 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
4.) "Industrialization." Britannica. 10 July 2007. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.