Do Robots Dream of Digitalized Humans?: Three Preliminary Studies of Robot, Art, and Literacy

Early in the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan claimed that the media was a device that extended human functions and sensations. The claim that television was the eyes, telephones were the ears, and cars were extended versions of the legs became a sensational topic in society at the time and was glared at by academia as suspicious. More than half a century has passed since then, and robots are appearing in our daily lives. Some are used as substitutes for factory laborers, and others as substitutes for pets and children. According to McLuhan, robots can be said to be the ultimate medium. If so, robots, like other media, will need literacy education. This session suggests the need for new robot literacy and provides a rough composition by examining three approaches: 1) media art, 2) popular culture studies, and 3) workshop design. 1) reviews the robotic creature by artists and inventors from Heron of Alexandria to Kinetic art and Robotic art in the 20th centuries. 2) analyze the robot images represented Sci-Fi fiction, films, manga, and animation since the early 20th century. These are historical examinations to find a conceptual history of automata that should be basic knowledge for robot literacy. Modern robots are AI robots connected via the Internet. People should associate with them, not as black boxes produced by big tech companies, but as companion media to understand critically and operate actively. In 3), we examine workshop-style learning programs to encourage people's robot literacy. We provide a mini-workshop to welcome participants to discuss robots.