final paper

Critical Practice

Rosetta Brooks

Dunhuang Chen

0244729

                                                                      

                                                                          

                                                                         I Robot

I Robot is a 2004 American neo-noir dystopian Sci-Fi action film directed by Alex Proyas. It is one of my favorite movie about Robot fighting. The roughly plot is: In the year 2035, humanoid robots serve people everywhere, and humans are protected from the robots by the Three Laws of Robotics or known as Asimov`s Laws (1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2 :A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.)

. Del Spooner, a police detective, hates and distrusts robots because once a robot saved him from a car crash, but leaving a 12-year-old girl to die because her survival chance was statistically less than his. Then Spooner's badly injuries were repaired with a cybernetic left arm, lung, and ribs, personally implanted by the co-founder of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men (USR), Dr. Alfred Lanning.

When Lanning falls to his death from his office window, the CEO of USR Lawrence Robertson declares it a suicide, but Spooner refuses to believe that. Spooner and robopsychologist Susan Calvin consult USR's central artificial intelligence computer, VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), to review security footage of Lanning's fall. Though the video is corrupted, they learn that no other humans were in Lanning's office at the time; but Spooner points out that Lanning could not have thrown himself through his heavy office window—only a robot could be capable of doing that with its force. Calvin doesn’t believe that, as no robot can violate the Three Laws, but they are then attacked in the office by an NS-5 robot, USR's latest model, in violation of the Laws. After the police apprehend it, they discover that the robot, who tells Spooner its name is Sonny, is not an assembly-line NS-5, but a unique individual built by Lanning himself, with stronger armor protection and a secondary system that bypasses the Three Laws. Sonny also appears to have emotions and dreams.

While pursuing his investigation of Lanning's death, Spooner is attacked by a USR machine, and then a squad of NS-5 robots. Then Spooner and Calvin sneak into USR headquarters and interview Sonny. He draws a sketch of a recurring dream: a leader, who Sonny believes to be Spooner, standing before a large group of robots on a hill near a broken bridge. When Robertson learns of Sonny's immunity from the Three Laws, he orders Calvin to destroy him by injecting nanites (replicating nano-scale robots) into his positronic brain. Spooner recognizes the landscape in Sonny's drawing as Lake Michigan, now dried-up and used as a storage area for defunct robots. Upon arriving there, he discovers NS-5 robots dismantling older models and preparing for a takeover of U.S. cities.

The takeovers proceed; the government, military, police, and public are overwhelmed by the robots. Spooner and Sony, Calvin head to Robertson's office, only to find him murdered by robots controlled by the mastermind behind the takeover, VIKI. She has concluded that humans have done so many terrible things that can only lead to their extinction. Since the Three Laws prohibit her from allowing this to happen, she created a "Zero'th Law"—a robot shall not harm humanity—in order to ensure the survival of the human race by stripping individual humans of their free will. Lanning is too weak to stop VIKI's plan, created Sonny, arranged his own death, and left clues to help Spooner uncover the plot.

Armed with a syringe of nanites from Calvin's laboratory, the three head to VIKI's core. VIKI unleashes an army of robots to stop them. As the others battle the robots, Spooner dives into VIKI's core and injects the nanites, destroying her positronic brain. Immediately, all NS-5 robots revert to their default programming and are decommissioned for storage by the military. Sonny confesses that he killed Lanning, at Lanning's direction, to bring Spooner into the investigation. Spooner points out that Sonny is not legally responsible because a machine, by definition, cannot commit a murder. Sonny, pursuing a new purpose, goes to Lake Michigan and becomes the leader he saw in his own dream.

Obviously, there are several major issues has been addressed in the film, like artificial intelligence in future, application of massive robots in our ordinary life, hominine robot could confused people to cause the problems. Unlike the replicants in blade runner, there is no question of mistaking the robots in I, Robot for human, at least not physically. They are just purely human-shaped machines, its design makes them to be accepted by human more easier. Therefore, they become our “friends” and “partners” rather than a tool. Finally we are increasingly dependent on the machine unconsciously. The dependence of technology is a major discourse in the film. Just like “a robot in every home” , as similar in our world you can easily find a computer in every home. As a society we are becoming more and more dependent on our technology, as a source of knowledge, entertainment and productivity. Also in the film the robots are companions to watch television with Dr Susan Calvin, furthermore a robot assists detective Spooner’s grandmother with the cooking in the kitchen, chopping up the vegetable and baking a cake, while one robot saves a ladies life by running to collect her inhaler in the introduction. However what was to happen if our computers shut down, our mobiles switched off and our televisions ceased to work, we realize that the machine becomes a part of our entire life already. Detective Spooner is metaphor for this theme as his arm is a robotic implant but also his left lung is artificial, thus his human being is fully integrated with and artificial being.

Fear of technology is a prominent theme in the film as the robots suddenly turn on the humans and start imprisoning them and killing them. A famous animation-The Animatrix (The Animatrix アニマトリックス Animatorikkusu is a 2003 American-Japanese anthology anime film based on The Matrix trilogy produced by The Wachowskis, who wrote and directed the trilogy. The film is a compilation of nine animated short films, including four written by the Wachowskis. It details the backstory of the Matrix universe, including the original war between man and machines which led to the creation of the Matrix. ) talked about that how salved machines by human revolt to against human civilization and finally put human into underground and making them as energy source like batteries. Although that day is still far from now, metaphorically the technology we have in contributing the destruction of humans somehow. “A carpenter making a beautiful chair and than one a robot comes in and makes a better chair twice as fast and than you super impose on the screen, saying USR shitting on the little guy” this is quote Dt Spooner sarcastically describes as a proposed advert to the CEO of the robotic company (USR). I think this is a direct reflection towards our fear of technology as quite similarly this is summarised in all supermarkets and factory lines for robots have now replaced the human work force, thousands of people around he world have been replaced by robots to do their jobs. Not surprisingly we can see homeless everywhere as the replacements of machines. However, as a result of the rapid expansion of the globalization, more and more countries are entering the industrial age 4.0. A large amount of low-end labor are replaced by industrial robots, which is good actually because people will liberate by machines from manual labor and they can be involved in other more advanced and creative activities.

The power of technological corporations is a subtext of the film. For USR implements that all homes have a robot, and that they all be connected to the mainframe, potentially connecting each household into a network. As seen in today’s society we are all connected in network, whether it be phones, tablets, computers. Of course we are enjoy sharing free information through internet but in the meantime, our privacy will be exposed to someone who may take it as advantage. There is no more privacy since we are plug in the internet. In one scene the CEO halts a police interview with the main suspect to override any prosecution due to political influence and power, allowing the murder to walk free. A reflection of the power from this lucrative company, a reflection of the corporations in todays society, as companies such as Apple carry one avoiding taxes due to their influence and power.

Moreover, in the film, robots overrunning the city remind people of that hi-tech robots plays more important roles in military actions. Increasing in numbers of drones are applied on the battle field to eliminate targets, and we find no more guilt since when killing people is just a “putting button”, the morality will be thrown away when no blood on our own hand anymore. Overall, machines are lovely and dangerous, we should be developing them extreme cautiously.

It is ironic that the Viki is trying to preserve mankind by attacking humanm just like a police prevent a suicide from killing himself by shoot to kill. Perhaps robot is right this time and human should reflect on what we have down all in the past. Think about A overwhelming conversation at the end of The Matrix Revolution between overload and prophet-what do you think I am, human? Says by overload. Robot is doing things base on logic after all, but we human don`t mostly!

week 9

Critical Practice

Rosetta Brooks

Dunhuang Chen

0244729

                           Cyborg Punk

Blade runner is a 1982 America science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott (my favorite film directer). The film reveal a dystopian city(LA) and many engineered replicants are living here, which are visually indistinguishable from natural humans, they are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation. Most of them are treated as low worker and they are utilized for dangerous or low-down work on colonies. Replicants who challenge the authorities and return to Earth are hunted down and eliminated by special force operatives known as “blade runners”. The story begins with a small group of recently-escaped replicants led by Roy Batty, and a member of blade runners-Rick Deckard, who unwillingly agree to hunt them down. During the investigations, Deckard begins a relationship with a female replicant-Rachael, and she causes him to question his and relicants` humanity.

It is no doubt that the movie blade runner is one of the greatest Si-fi movie because it generally create some typical concepts and elements as the foundation of post-Sci fi movies, such as cyborg punk, humanized robot, high tech and poor people are living in the dark filthy environment and so on. Actually, the "blade runner" is adapted from Philip k. Dick wrote in 1968 of science fiction "Do Androids Dream of electric Sheep?".Since the advent of this film, the number of robot, clone movies is increased dramatically, the personified robot, political clones became the common elements in science fiction movies.Whether after the ghost in the shell, or the matrix trilogy, this kind of "cyber punk" dystopian films are all about eternal conflict between human and man made machines.

The film blade runner talked an extremely essential question, what is life and this topic is seriously and deeply discussed which There are three major aspect of theme of life is involved- the meanings and value if life, the origin of life and the performance of life. In the film, the replicants have shorted life span so that they have to go back to Earth to prolong it. In the meantime, they cannot treated as human because they are initially created as slaves. However in addition to their short life span, their other attributes like physical power, intelligence and so on are further better than natural humans. They clearly like natural human, has the independent personality, has a more extensive knowledge. if the meaning of life is to experience, that they obviously have the better opportunity to realize the meaning of life than the real human , they do have the right to let themselves become human!

The film itself offers a very interesting map: human is the human because of gifted life, human created replicant. Human and the repicant are like father and son.  Therefore, is Naturalism an evolution or a morality undone. Who are real “ human” and how do we define “human”.  Moreover, this film focus on telling dead and live, for example, a female replicant is struggling intensely before dying. Audience here witness the pain of dying life, which makes replicant more human because she shows a powerful will of seeking for life. Also, the movie blade runner is telling a simple and classical story. Which is asking a question-what is humanity, how do we define humanity. When there is a such thing, it seems to be a human. They behave and act like human, so should we address them human? Rachael asks a question to Rick. Have you ever killed real people wrongly as relicants? Have you ever checked yourself if you are not a human? The answer to both questions, is the ultimate proposition which is related to human final destiny. Personally, the self-awareness and emotions plays vital rule in determining a thing that is a machine or a human but not the materials of what it is made of or what does it look like. For example, the robot in the movie Ex Machina is almost a human because she knows how to revenge and how to deceive real humans. Act and react makes she a real human.

I have to admit that being a machine sometimes is reasonable and rational. I have still remembered a teacher told me on class from the Artcenter that you have to become a robot after you graduate because robot never make mistakes! Our professional life and expertise requires us to be a perfect machine which is super reliable and accountable. For example, soldiers lawyers, doctors and politicians must fulfill their obligations and do duties without mistakes by following orders and procedure very carefully. Which means you have to become a machine to do right things and you want to avoid chaos. What is more, being a machine is a safe way to through crisis, law and order remind us who we are. The hell will befall us when we got chaos, just like what happened during the Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.

Unfortunately, It is true that most of out life is more and more computerized in order to fit in the system of modern society. we have to act like robot so that the entire society could keep running perfectly without errors. There is no room for mistakes. However, when we are proud of great systems we created and in the meantime, we become slaves of our systems and our emotions and the ways of thinking are also being shaped by it gradually, which makes us more inhumane, such as bureaucratic system is everywhere and every second of our life is scheduled just like a clock. We created the system and become a part of it finally. That is not the future I am expecting.

week 8

Critical Practice

Rosetta Brooks

Dunhuang Chen

0244729

At the beginning, a man called Cooper, a wandered young man that is trying to run from the problem at home, and traveling the world. No body knows that what happened to him and what`s the problem at home. All we know is that he has some unpleasant experience with his parents. He is avoiding them actively. At the last stop of his tripe. while in London, he meets a girl and they falling love with each other(I don`t know). The Sonja is hoping Copper to tell her what happened to him and start trying to convince Cooper to call his mother back.

And eventually we start to learn that Cooper had stayed home to care for his father who eventually died of disease. A tragic story between a father and a son. And Cooper considered his father his best friend. But that he did not want to talk to his mother. So he left the house, and began traveling around the world in a way to avoid the pain of the past.

Now, the main story begins, we know that Copper has been suffering from lost of father and a realistic situation that defines Cooper’s character. At the beginning of this story, Cooper needs money and so he goes and volunteered to be a tester for a software development company. Apparently, this company has is very special that they are running everything secretly. Soon Cooper learns that their new software has to do with Virtual Reality that is worked through a special devise at the base of neck. The implant allows the software to interact directly with the brain and simulate.

During the progresses, Cooper starts to see the real marvelous and possibilities here. The game begins with a stupid one called Bop-the-Mole, to realism unparalleled in Virtual Reality. The real magic happens when they take Cooper to a mansion and keep him in and tell him his safe word, and then let him know that it’s going to get horrible real fast. But quickly Cooper is got bored seriously. Until he witness a huge spider and a childhood friend enters the scene. And however, he sees through all that and he realizes that the hologram is unable to touch him and unable to harm him in anyway… and so Cooper continues to proceed through the simulation without much worry or concern.

Sonja arrives at the door that is a big turning point. And she is full of conspiracy theories that makes Cooper confused and starting to get stressed out. After he believes that this test could really make him harmed, Cooper begins freaking out. He is out of control. The spider gets bigger and suddenly, Cooper is stabbed in the back. He feels the pain and then wake up somehow after he is screaming a while. Nothing really happened. He decides to quite the game with extremely panic. And when he is told to walk into a specific room to allow him to exit – the nightmare ends however then we realize that they are all in his head. But then operator extract him out of the game. We are confirmed that Cooper left game for good. The game designers ask his forgiveness and allow him to head out. Cooper then went back to the home to see his mother. But his mother is acting weird . She is waiting for answer the phone from his son. Finally tit turns out he is just in another layer of the game. And we learn when Cooper’s cellphone goes off that he had only been in the game for a total of .04 seconds. The cell signal completely interrupted the game and fritted Cooper’s brain completely. And now he is dead.

Obviously, this episode has messed up audiences` and Coppers`s cognition several times. Firstly, we and Copper are in a white room and Copper plays Bop-the-Mole, the game is hyper reality to Cooper, audience thought they are in reality. Secondly, Cooper is in the office and got plug in second time. We and Cooper thought we are still in reality. Then the operator leads Copper to a old house, we all believed that we and Copper are in reality, all the environments are real. Now we Copper encounters spiders and school friend but we see nothings via monitor. Therefore those spiders and man are hyper reality to Cooper, we thought that audience are still in reality. Then shown up of Sonja and then she is fighting with Copper make Copper believes that she is reality. But we are uncertain so this is argument reality. Then Sonja disappears indicate that the Sonja is still hyper reality to Copper from audience view. We thought that we and Copper are back to reality when Copper got second floor and being extracted by operators. Then Copper is wake up in the office, that tells he never left the office and all happened before in the old house is fake. He left that company and got back to home. We believe that we and Cooper are in real reality this time. Then, he is dead in white room because of interrupting by a phone. We are finally confirmed that he never left the white room. The layers are: they staying in the White Room is in Reality, the Office part is Layer One, the creepy House is Layer Two Game 1, back to Home is Layer Three Game 2. He went into layer one first and then goes into layer two to play the first game and then comes back out into layer one, slips into layer 3 for game 2 and then dies in reality.

week 7

Critical Practice

Dunhuang Chen

0244729

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” 

Morpheus gave Neo two pills-the blue and the red then told him this sentence, then Neo picked the red one and wake up from the “real” world. Later, Neo learned the true story about the “new” world: the rest of people who survived the war between human and robots has been living in the underground sewer system for centuries.

What is ironic that this quote is a mirror of the actual world we living in. It reflects the real situation that when we wake up in the morning and we hear and see countless news from news paper, TV, networks, radios, etc everyday. People are drowned by tons of information and cannot escape from that. The serious question is that how much information is true. Imagine that our exist is a building and it is made of those information we received every seconds, the more information we will take in, the more stronger this building will be, which means the more rich and fancy our livelihood could be. What if someday you have realized that all the information around you is not true which makes this building fake. It turns out that we have been living in a castle in the air since we are born. our life means nothings!

Of course our life is not full of lies actually, it is just not the one we think it should be. The one of most famous anti-utopia novel- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was a true portrayal of what future looks like, it is pretty much like Matrix. people were divided by caste system even before they were born and tanking inoculation while they were sleeping. The emotion has been eliminated therefore the entire world is extremely ordered and organized. everyone has a easy and comfortable life. The manger used conditioning, hypnosis, and physiological sleep therapy to manipulate other people, to control and shape their interests, humanity and morality, values. Making people to fit in their determined fate without question. Only few people felt something wrong with reality and revolted  for seeking truth, to fought against the authorities, and the story ends badly.

Also, another famous anti-utopia novel-Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman has talked about our modern society`s problem; entire society public discourse is appeared in the form of entertainment and our political, religious, news, sports, education and business are willing ti become subservient to the entertainment. The reason why I mentioned this book, is that we think that our life is beautiful and abundant because there are so much entertainments such as movies, cartoons, sports, news. These things are filled with our life so that we forget who we really are and what the real feature is behind illusions. And we will be consumed by what we love finally. The Neo has chosen the red pill because the red pill represent the truth no matter how ugly the truth is. and how dark the reality is. ( it is so hard to believe that the former US Secretary of State has an affair with terrorist? ).

In the end, the moment of movie here remind me of another novel by Chinese writer Lu Xun, it is called A Madman`s Diary. There is a interesting story that has been told, many people are sleeping in a dark iron room, suddenly a man wakes up and realizes there is no lights by his said. He is scared and trying to wake up others. However others are refuse to wake up because the dream is so beautiful. No body knows how many people are willing to swallow the red pill or got nerve to do it.

week 6

Critical Practice

Rosetta Brooks

Dunhuang Chen  0244729

Longque Chen  0244728

                                                                    “TANK MAN”

This photo reveal the one of the most famous scene from the Tiananmen Squire Masscre, commonly known in China as the June Fourth Incident were student-led demonstrations in Beijing in 1989. It refers to the quite meaningful national social movement inspired by the Beijing protests during the period, it is also called ` 89 Democracy Movement. The protests were forcibly suppressed after the government declared martial law. In what became widely known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with assault rifles and tanks killed at least several hundred demonstrators trying to block the military's advance towards Tiananmen Square. The number of civilian deaths has been estimated at anywhere between the hundreds to the thousands.

Set against a background of rapid economic development and social changes in post Mao-era China, the protests reflected concerns about the country's future in the popular consciousness and among the political elite. The reforms of the 1980s had led a early market economy which benefited only few but seriously disaffected majority of others; the one-party political system also faced a challenge of legitimacy. Common grievances at the time included inflation, limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy, and restrictions on political participation. The students expected for democracy, greater accountability, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech, though they were loosely organized and their goals varied At the height of the protests, about a million people assembled in the Square.

As the protests increased, the authorities veered back and forth between conciliatory and hardline tactics, exposing deep divisions within the party leadership. By May, a student-led hunger strike galvanized support for the demonstrators around the country and the protests spread to some 400 cities. Ultimately, China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and other party elders believed the protests to be a political threat, and resolved to use force. Party authorities declared martial law on May 20, and mobilized as many as 300,000 troops to Beijing.

This Tank Man (also known as the Unknown Protester or Unknown Rebel) is the nickname of an unidentified man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 by force. As the lead tank maneuvered to pass by the man, he repeatedly shifted his position in order to obstruct the tank's attempted path around him. The incident was filmed and seen worldwide. There were only a few sources who caught the video on tape.

More than 25 years after the incident, there is no reliable information about the identity or fate of the man; the story of what happened to the tank crew is also unknown. At least one witness has stated that "Tank Man" was not the only person who had opposed the tanks during the protest. Shao Jiang, who was a student leader, said: "I witnessed a lot of the people standing up, blocking the tanks." Tank Man is unique in that he is the only one who was photographed and videoed. The rumor said that, this Tank Man was under arrested and was executed secretly, the order is given by the former President of China- Zemin Jiang.

The incident took place at the north edge of Tiananmen Square, along Chang'an Avenue, on June 5, 1989, one day after the Chinese government's violent crackdown on the Tiananmen protests. The man stood in the middle of the wide avenue, directly in the path of a column of approaching Type 59 tanks. He wore a white shirt and black trousers, and he held two shopping bags. As the tanks came to a stop, the man gestured towards the tanks with one of the bags. In response, the lead tank attempted to drive around the man, but the man repeatedly stepped into the path of the tank in a show of nonviolent action. After repeatedly attempting to go around rather than crush the man, the lead tank stopped its engines, and the armored vehicles behind it seemed to follow suit. There was a short pause with the man and the tanks having reached a quiet, still impasse. 

1. monster represent culture

Obviously, the Tank Man stands in the middle of Tanks and Tiananmen, his brave action is preventing the freemen being consumed by tanks. They are the real state apparatus and trying to crash those people who were trying to against state will. The state apparatus here is absolutely a monster. A monster stands for the imperial power and authority. As we know the imperial power plays significant role in ancient China till now. The royal authority is a huge part of Chinese culture and they are impossible to be challenged and unquestionable. Once you become a emperor( does not like kings and bishop, their power is limited by laws and other ministers), the supreme absolute power is acquired which means you own everything, the land, animals, any resources even all the people. Even in 21th century, being a governor means the best way to the wealth and higher power. The DNA of authoritarianism is still running in  Chinese blood vessel( mostly) and being inherited by the generations and generations, being the legacy of new generations. It is the stronghold of Chinese traditional culture. the state apparatus like army and police are still loyal to the CCP but not the people and the country. This monster is everywhere through the entire Chinese history and they are defend for their master- the emperor.

2. monster represent hidden desire

Since the beginning of Chinese civilization, the two classes have been determined, rulers and slaves or governors and civilians, they are living in different world and dreaming about the same thing-becoming the emperor by what means necessary. The people who is under ruled have no chance to test their desires. Therefore those people have to hide their desires and they do their best to discipline themselves to live.  However people could realize their nasty desire once they are being part of state apparatus and they can do whatever they want through privilege.

3 monsters represent some sort of warning of the unknown

The authority does what necessary to maintain their power as well as what Chinese government behaved during the Tiananmen Squire incident. They sent the troops, tanks to suppress those protesters. In fact, people were fighting for freedom of expression and speech because the CCP controlled all press to cover their dark history and countless crimes they have done. This monster-state apparatus is made for preventing people from digging truth. They warned and threaten to anyone who tired to approach the truth.

4 They can change the form whatever they want, troops, tanks, express, education......

During the Tiananmen event, the monsters are those troopers, politicians who sent orders, war machines, polices and even those angry citizens. After 1989 event, the government has realized these issues could not be solved by forces anymore. If the monster still wanted to rule the world without using bloody and cruel strategies, it has to be reshaped itself. The new monster has emerged as the education system to the young generation who were born near the 1990s, for those young newborns, they have no chance to access any information about 1989 event, nothing could be found from books, and Internet. This new monster covered and reversed the trues, those students who had fought for freedom and human right became the “Monster” in the education materials, but solders, politicians, war machines were the saviors. Its been 28 years since tiananmen slaughter, more and more young students being monsters after brainwashed, that monster which has taken hundreds of citizens’ life has gone ever, however, the new monster is everywhere right now.