(http://syntheticparadox.deviantart.com/art/to-be-a-robot-174137958)
I found that this image correlated well with Minsoo Kang's theories and history of the automaton in his book Sublime Dreams of the Living Machine. Specifically, it speaks to the idea of the fine line between living and non-living when we think of the automaton and how humans react to this type of image in a joyous/aww reaction, or a reaction of terror/horror. It is the split between the humanization of the robot (e.g. the human skin, the hair of the person, the human eye) versus the transparent automaton arm and robotic brain that is taken out of the skull; this binary of human/robot is broken in this image and enters the liminal space, where the ambiguity of the object in question brings about unsettling emotions in others. Furthermore, we can analyze the picture through Masahiro Mori's theory of "The Uncanny Valley", which states that " . . . the more lifelike a robot, the more at ease we feel with it, but when it reaches a certain level of being too lifelike, we suddenly find it creepy and horrifying" (Kang, 47). This idea that the automaton, a human creation, can become of equal status to us humans in appearance and function brings a sense of uneasiness because it leads to the idea of the possibility of the automaton surpassing human ability and it realizing its potential of superiority over the human race (one potential source for explaining the reaction of terror/horror by people when it comes to the automaton)
-Luis Soriano
I found that this image correlated well with Minsoo Kang's theories and history of the automaton in his book Sublime Dreams of the Living Machine. Specifically, it speaks to the idea of the fine line between living and non-living when we think of the automaton and how humans react to this type of image in a joyous/aww reaction, or a reaction of terror/horror. It is the split between the humanization of the robot (e.g. the human skin, the hair of the person, the human eye) versus the transparent automaton arm and robotic brain that is taken out of the skull; this binary of human/robot is broken in this image and enters the liminal space, where the ambiguity of the object in question brings about unsettling emotions in others. Furthermore, we can analyze the picture through Masahiro Mori's theory of "The Uncanny Valley", which states that " . . . the more lifelike a robot, the more at ease we feel with it, but when it reaches a certain level of being too lifelike, we suddenly find it creepy and horrifying" (Kang, 47). This idea that the automaton, a human creation, can become of equal status to us humans in appearance and function brings a sense of uneasiness because it leads to the idea of the possibility of the automaton surpassing human ability and it realizing its potential of superiority over the human race (one potential source for explaining the reaction of terror/horror by people when it comes to the automaton)
-Luis Soriano