Robotics + Art

This weeks lectures and readings focused heavily on how revolutionary technological advances affected the art world. In the lecture, Vesna mentions how the printing press revolutionized society because suddenly works of art and literature could recreated and mass produced with ease. Although this was hugely important step for society as a whole, in my opinion the effects it had on the art world were not as desirable. Although it increases efficiency, it destroys the value the original works of art and allows them to be copied and distributed with ease. 

One movie I have seen that illustrates the issue with this is the movie Big Eyes. It followed the lives of an artist and her husband who took credit for her portraits and turned her talent and creativity into a profitable empire for himself. Her paintings were mass produced and turned into posters, postcards and other insignificant trinkets. Although this allowed the portraits to bring in a significant amount of revenue, it took away from the value of the original paintings and trivialized the numerous hours of labor that went into creating them.

Although industrialization has had many benefits for society as a whole, i don’t think it has much of a place in the art world. As much as we all want to be able to own and enjoy the masterpieces being created by artists all over the world, their beauty truly is in the hours of hard work and creativity that went into making them. To try and capture that same beauty in a machine printed image is nearly impossible and attempting to do so only downplays the importance of the creative process that aided their creation.

Sources

Dockterman, Eliana. “Big Eyes: True Story Behind the Films Starring Amy Adams.” Time, Time, 25               Dec. 2014, time.com/3632635/the-true-story-behind-big-eyes/.

Lang, Kevin. “Big Eyes True Story vs. Movie - Real Margaret Keane, Walter Keane.” HistoryvsHollywood.com, History vs. Hollywood, 5 Jan. 2015, www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/big-eyes/.

“Looking Behind the Curtains - The Mass Production of Art.” Widewalls, www.widewalls.ch/contemporary-art-production/.

Moore, Judy. “Northwestern Now.” 'Making Mona Lisa' Exhibit Examines Art of Replica Paintings, news.northwestern.edu/stories/2014/09/making-mona-lisa-exhibit-examines-art-of-replica-paintings/.

Moore, Malinda. “The Printing Press Effect.” Art History Journal, 1 Jan. 1970, arthistoryjournal.blogspot.com/2008/09/printing-press-effect.html.