I'm Here

I just watched Spike Jonze's short, I'm Here. Which is about Robots. And if you know me, you know I am big on Robots. I was really excited for this because I saw Her and was a huge fan of it, especially from a technological standpoint (expect more of that later).

While it is very sweet, it's treatment of it's robot characters touches on something that always bugged me about the portrayal of robots. Despite not necessarily needing a human shape, we continue to force them into humanoid bodies. I get that that's because humans love to see everything as humans not to mention that it makes better narrative, but given the history that Sci-Fi has for predicting the future (or at least how it looks- just look at the evolution of flip phones) I think we're heading in the wrong direction robot-wise. I know from personal experience that bipedal motion is not an easy feat and it's a miracle that we stand. Now there are companies like Boston Dynamics that have very successful  Bipedal Robots, but I see more everyday robots more resembling the Roomba.

Artistic Automata

Today I'm going to be writing about Blair Somerville. Somerville is a creator of automata. Before I continue I want to clarify at least how I personally define an automaton as opposed to something like a robot. Most people when they hear automata probably think of the one in Hugo or the Japanese Karakuri Ningyo (which are awesome and deserve a post of their own), and both of these are good examples of what people mean when discussing automata. The simplest definition of an automaton is that it's a mechanical device. This might sound like an awful lot like a robot to most people, but it's missing one key aspect, which is it isn't programmable. If you want a really cool automaton-like device Jaquet-Droz, who made some really cool automata. One of his creations is The Writer, which unlike other automata where you wind them up and they do something, this one has the ability to write custom text, making it programmable.

Now that that's out of the way, lets get into Somerville's automata. I found this short film about him, which doesn't go into too much detail about the automata themselves, but you get to see some really cool pieces. My personal favorite are the tentacles in the grass.



He has a gallery in a small town in New Zealand,  so the likelihood of getting a chance to see his creations in person are pretty slim but if you find yourself in that part of the world (or are from that part of the world) you should definitely check it out.