Ghedini, F.PERCRO Lab. Scuola Superiore Sant''Anna, Pisa,
Italy.
In the article Ghendini
and Bergamasco state that there is a lack of research of robots in art. He
discussed how robots in art create a theatre like event as the robots have an
interactive element to them. Even by simply having anthropomorphic qualities.
As soon as a viewer enters the room, a relationship begins and so this defines
a new type of theatre. Any type of theatre has an acknowledgement of an
audience. A robot cannot be too small so as to risk it being interpreted as an
object and if it is too big, it will risk being viewed as a monument.
They discussed the
history of puppets in different cultures and robots in science fiction. Perhaps
the most interesting and relevant to me is the relationship Japanese people
have to robots. They view them more as friendly helpers as opposed to the west
where we see them as aliens and threatening. This can be explained with the
native religion Shintoism. As discussed in Tylor’s book Primitive Culture, more primitive cultures’ religion project
anthropomorphic and spiritual powers onto inanimate objects. Tools such as
swords or axes came to have spiritual powers and in turn hold anthropomorphic
qualities. The history of such practices in Japan had a big influence on their
culture, even to this day. The Japanese obsession with cute characters and the
ability to anthropomorphise most inanimate objects. Given reason as to why the
Japanese are more welcoming to robots.
The new Japanese humanoid robot HRP-4C
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