Into the Machine

Catalog description

Starting from Turing's work on artificial intelligence, we shall examine the cultural and artistic ramifications of the rise of the machine, using Marx and Walter Benjamin to provide a framework. We will look at how machines generate anxiety, with special emphasis on robots, puppets and automatons; and we shall also consider utopian and dystopian images of machines, and visions of near and distant futures. Finally we will look at authors who utilize machine models of operation to generate artistic work. Authors and filmmakers include: Capek, E.T.A. Hoffman, Asimov, Lem, Breton, Redonet, Fritz Lang, Chaplin, Tati. Enrollment limited to 20 first year students.