Event 1

Last week, I attended the Metropolis watch party for the Robotics + Art week. 


Metropolis, a silent science-fiction film directed by Fritz Lang in 1927, is set in a sharply divided futuristic dystopian city that consists of wealthy city planners and an exploited working class that operates the machines that power the city. The film follows the journey of Freder, the son of the dictator who runs the city. Freder falls in love with Maria, an advocate of the working class, and attempts to help the workers. Meanwhile, the dictator orders Rotwang, a scientist, to construct a robot that looks like Maria to ruin her reputation and avoid any rebellion. The scientist, however, creates a geminoid of Maria to control the workers to promote a revolution. 


The characters and landscapes in this film are filled with symbolic dichotomies. Take the setting for example. The overworld (inhabited by city planners) is portrayed as a beautiful elevated landscape, with skyscrapers, bright lights, and magnificent architecture. The world underground (inhabited by workers) depicts a polluted and muddy industrial underworld, both lifeless and lightless. This idea of levels (above ground vs. underground) shows the organization of class, privilege, and position in society. 


Overworld (left) and underworld (right), taken from film during the event


The juxtaposition between Maria and the robot of Maria stood out to me most. Maria is pictured as a beautiful, saintly woman who served as a prophetess that promotes peace. The robot of Maria, however, is highly immoral and corrupt. The film shows several scenes of the robot, dancing at a nightclub and seducing the wealthy men in the city. This parallels the depiction of robots in western popular culture and adds to the notion that robots are evil, scary, and unethical. This fueled a pessimistic viewpoint that machines will destroy society (Kusahara). As mentioned by Maša Jazbec, sociocultural differences are reflected in the way different societies approach robot research and development (Jazbec). Furthermore, culture truly does seem to inform the imaging of robots (Vesna), especially at the preliminary stages.  


Maria (left) and robot (right), taken from film during the event


As Maria mentions in the film, “the mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart.” Maria thought that Freder will serve as the heart by convincing his father to change and advocating for the workers. In the last scene, Frederer acts as the middleman between his father (the head) and the worker (the hand). This shows that the heart is crucial for human connection, and despite the fact that endless network of information and automation is creating a newly industrialized world (Vesna), robots will not be able to fully replace humans. Human rights, human integrity, dignity, social wellbeing, public and individual health, environment, and social organization are fundamental ethical topics and values pertaining to– and unique to– humans (Fourtané). Robots, as of now, are incapable of addressing such concerns, and it will be important to think about questions as such with the rapid development of technology. 


Robot developing the likeness of Maria, taken from film during the event



References


Fourtané, Susan. "Ethics of AI: Benefits and Risks of Artificial Intelligence Systems

Jazbec, Maša. “Art and Robotics.” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. April 12. 2021. Web.

Kusahara, Machiko. "Robotics MachikoKushara 1" Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. April 15. 2012. Web.

Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics pt2” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9.  April 16. 2012. Web. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics pt3” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9.  April 17. 2012. Web. 

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