Despite living here for five
years now, last week featured my first ever visit to Winterthur’s
Gewerbemuseum.
The thing that caught my eye
was an engaging poster for the Hello Robot exhibition which
consisted of a robot building a structure out of stones (c30 tonnes) and twine
(c120km) on the Kirchplatz.
The exhibition, which
considers robots in four sections: ‘Science and Fiction’, ‘Programmed to Work’,
‘Friend and Helper’ and ‘Two into One’ explores our relationship with robots
while asking some pretty fundamental questions that promote a great deal of thought,
especially in today’s climate with the evolution of AI and its un-nerving implications.
But it also reminds us about the way machines have crept into much of our daily
lives too.
It certainly has a wow
factor, often in quite chilling form. On entering, I am confronted by a
selection of life-sized robots and a constantly recurring black and white video
clip featuring Elektro, the Moto-Man
which was presented by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation at the New York
Fair in 1939. The 7’ bronze Adonis could talk, smoke cigarettes and
one of his catchlines was ‘My brain is bigger than yours’ Nearby, the R.O.B.
(Robotic Operating Buddy) that seems to have been modelled on ET, was Nintendo’s
early attempt, launched in 1985, to transport a virtual video game into a robot
– the interaction was so slow and cumbersome that it didn’t really take off (a
thought suddenly hit me gazing at this ET look-a-likie - this was just 33 years
ago..)
On the far wall featuring
great science fiction movies such as Blade
Runner and The Matrix (my two personal
faves) was one of the original posters (only four in the world) in all its art
deco glory, of the film Metropolis (1927) a pioneering work in the Sci-fi genre.
It includes one of the first robots ever depicted in cinema and the
protagonists’ plight to reduce class division in the city. ‘Instead of reducing toil for the workers in
Metropolis, automation has only amplified their suffering’ I think grimly
of the hundreds of emails I used to have to deal with in my work as I saunter into
the far room on the right.
‘Do we really need Robots?’ is the foreboding question above a host
of pictures by photographer Eric Pickersgill exploring people’s disregard for
their immediate surroundings while they stare at their empty hands where their
phones would usually be installed. Angie and
Me (2014) is especially tragic.
I enjoy a nostalgic go at the
video platform game Mega Man (does anyone remember Manic Miner on ZX Spectrum?)
and, stepping into the next room, watch the film The Last Job on Earth
where a fully automated world has created rampant inequality and slums filled
with people ‘condemned to live without
the comforts afforded by progress.’ At the end is a series of quotes, including one by Andy Haldane, chief economist at the Bank of England: ‘Machines are already undertaking tasks which
were unthinkable – if not unimaginable – a decade ago.’
Wandering throughout the rest
of the exhibition I especially enjoy the Mon Oncle clip where Mr Hulot struggles
with his sister’s obsession with living a modern lifestyle, I enjoy being
reminded of loveable Wall-E (another fave film) and recoil at the sight of a
robot arm with a milk bottle suspended over a baby’s crib with the ominous words
suspended above: ‘Do you want a robot to
take care of You?’
The Waste is beautiful and
reminds me of Ex Machina – I briefly wonder why this incredible film isn’t
featured in the exhibition – but then the meaning of the title grips me and the
awe turns to disgust as I read about a techno-consumer culture where body parts
are no longer fixed components and are instead disposable, eventually becoming ‘waste’.
And again, a scene from Ex Machina returns to haunt me – the image of all
the half-finished female bodies in the closet…
Passing a sad robot that is
unable to blow out her birthday candles, I arrive at - for me, the climax of
the exhibition - a huge screen featuring the music video to Björk’s All isFull of Love (released on her third studio album Homogenic in 1997) which depicts
Björk as a robot being assembled in a factory while she passionately kisses
another female robot. The video has been often cited as one of the best of all
time and a milestone in computer animation.
The exhibition urges us to
consider how we should respond to all this – and plays its part in sounding the
alarm for a discussion that is urgently needed - before we leave it all too
late….
Hello Robot will continue at
the Gewerbemuseum until Sunday, 4th November. Admission 12fr adults, children go free.
On the far wall featuring
great science fiction movies such as Blade
Runner and The Matrix (my two personal
faves) was one of the original posters (only four in the world) in all its art
deco glory, of the film Metropolis (1927) a pioneering work in the Sci-fi genre.
It includes one of the first robots ever depicted in cinema and the
protagonists’ plight to reduce class division in the city. ‘Instead of reducing toil for the workers in
Metropolis, automation has only amplified their suffering’ I think grimly
of the hundreds of emails I used to have to deal with in my work as I saunter into
the far room on the right.
Passing a sad robot that is
unable to blow out her birthday candles, I arrive at - for me, the climax of
the exhibition - a huge screen featuring the music video to Björk’s All isFull of Love (released on her third studio album Homogenic in 1997) which depicts
Björk as a robot being assembled in a factory while she passionately kisses
another female robot. The video has been often cited as one of the best of all
time and a milestone in computer animation.
Along
with my daughters, we ran up and down the little passageways with glee and
there was Erwin in the middle of it all, smiling, welcoming and whenever he sat
down, he would take up his sewing (he makes his own clothes) He has various
philosophies on life and art that he likes to share with the public. Some of
his art/ philosophical/religious essays have been exhibited in the Kunsthalle
Winterthur and he has just published a little book on his thoughts – and I
opened a page to read ‘…art is medicine.’ Wise words indeed.
