Robot
Subtitle: a visual atlas from ancient Greece to artificial intelligence
By: Luca Beatrice
Contributors: Eaton, Peter Mark, translator
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 267
ISBN-13: 9788866483717
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Robots in art; Robots; Pictorial works; Androids; History; Robots in literature; Robots in motion pictures
Work titles: Robot
Description: "The definitive work on the robot aesthetic throughout history, from Ancient Greece to the present day. An inexhaustible source of inspiration for fashion, music and design.  From Ancient Greece onwards, humans have been swept up in a race to replicate and rebuild themselves. We design automatons that mimic human functions or improve on them, born from a desire to take evolution into our own hands, or even play God. In fact, every form of cultural expression has at some point investigated the rich and stimulating field of robotics, reaching different conclusions and outcomes every time.  Robots have infiltrated our social consciousness. They are everywhere, from Leonardo da Vinci's drummer robot to the futurist man-machine; from Frankenstein to the works of Isaac Asimov and Philip Dick, inventor of the 'replicant'; from Edward Gordon Craig's theory of the actor as a super-puppet to Daft Punk and Kraftwerk, the krautrock band who used replica mannequins of themselves at the end of their concert. It doesn't end there, either. Robots feature heavily in cinema (Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, and George Lucas's Star Wars saga, to name a few). They star in innumerable comic strips and cartoons (from Astro Boy to Marvel comics and Japanese manga). Fields like design, architecture and fashion, where creativity encounters industry, turned the robot into a commodity rather than a character. 'Robot' became a style in itself: kitsch and chic, fun and futuristic. Nowadays, when laptops, tablets and smartphones, the robots of the contemporary age, are in every house, car and pocket, the tin-and-steel robots of yesteryear have acquired an irresistibly vintage flavor, which makes them all the more desirable.  Robot : A Visual Atlas from Ancient Greece to Artificial Intelligence appreciates this rich variety. Through tracking the conceptual development of the robot through western cultural history, it uncovers the roots of our fascination with artificial humanity"--Publisher's description.
Notes: Originally published in Italian as: Robot : il grande atlante visivo sul robot, dall'antica Grecia alle intelligenze artificiali. Milano : 24 ore cultura, 2016.

"English translation: Peter Mark Eaton for Scriptum, Rome"--Colophon.
Table of contents: title: Good or bad?; title: History; title: Art; title: Cinema and TV; title: Music; title: Design and fashion; title: Books, cartoons, toys; title: Technology.