Week Three

This week’s topic of Robotics and Art was very familiar to me, as both of my history classes covered things Professor Vesna discussed (such as R.U.R, The Ford Assembly Line, Frankenstein, etc.). as Professor Vesna earlier stated in her lecture, mechanization and industrialization not only effect art but it effects our daily lives as well (Vesna Lecture Part 2). I believe this is true after thinking about how robotics such as machines pretty much rule our daily lives. As stated by Walter Benjamin in his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, robotics and technology is not always positive (Benjamin P.1-7). When thinking about robotics and art, the subject I want to talk about mechanization and industrialization, more specifically the assembly line. The assembly line began with Henry Ford while making his Model-T cars in the early 1900’s. The assembly line started out with just humans working in a line and quickly doing a small part of a big job. Quickly after the assembly line evolved with the revolution of technology, machines began to do the work of humans. In turn, humans in assembly lines were quickly replaced with machines.

Ford Assembly Line in the 1900's

A movie that exemplifies this transformation of the assembly line is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie’s father was working in a toothpaste factory screwing on toothpaste lids when the owners brought in a mechanical arm like tool to take the place of Charlie’s father to screw on toothpaste lids. This movie also helps to accurately represent the issues society had with the mechanization with assembly lines. 

Charlie's Father getting the notice of being fired after his job was taken by a machine

So many jobs were taken away with the introduction of these tools, which in turn there was no economic stability within families. These consequences were negative for the regular people while the positives came for the business owners. Bringing in these machines allowed business owners to save money in the long run. The less people they had on staff, the less money they had to give out to employees. The machine may have costed a ton of money but in the long run the machine pays for itself with the money they save from cutting employees. Society reacted two different ways in terms of industrialization and mechanization. Some welcomed it while others were against it.

Charlie Chaplin, A satire degrading the assembly line

Works Cited

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Marxists. N.p.. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

TheCharlesChaplin. "Charlie Chaplin - Factory Work." YouTube. YouTube, 18 June 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfGs2Y5WJ14>.

Ford. "Innovation: 100 Years of the Moving Assembly Line | Ford Motor Company." Ford Corporate. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2017. <http://corporate.ford.com/innovation/100-years-moving-assembly-line.html>.

Tondera, Marta. "That Magical Technology." What Can We Learn About Technology from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2017. <http://thatmagicaltechnology.blogspot.com/2014/11/what-can-we-learn-about-technology-from.html>.

Vesna, Victoria. "Robotics + Art Lecture 2." Los Angeles. 17 Apr. 2017. Lecture.