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| Preface |
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The word, "Robot", was coined by Capek, a Czech writer, who was the first to use it. Since the coinage of the word, the robot has been recognized in the Western world as a thing of a form similar to that of a human being which substitutes for that human being as manpower. The robot has also been positioned as an existence which, having no will of its own, moves under the control of something else. From these viewpoints, the important thing would be how efficiently the human being is to tackle simple work by obeying orders. This led to the realization after the industrial revolution of the affluent society of mass production/mass consumption. From the worker's viewpoint, room for originality/ingenuity has been reduced: it could be said that it has been naturally said that the existence of robots alienates human beings.
In today's robot engineering, however, a situation has been produced which cannot be explained simply from the above viewpoints. In order to cause the "function as an action", as the functions which the robot is required to have, to work smoothly, it is not only how to solve the problem of how simply to communicate information from human beings that is needed: also required is that the robot itself "senses" and"Judges" behavioral patterns of human beings and, with its "artificial intelligence", acts as they wish. It can be said that now, the robot is no longer a mere passive existence: it has been being transformed into an existence that communicates information with human beings for itself.
In advancing this further forward, this exhibition is positioned as an opportunity to consider the robot on the assumption of intercommunication of information between human beings and the robot, not stopping at one-way communication from human beings. In Japan, as is symbolized in the worlds of famous animations, people have traditionally feltrobots familiar as their neighbors who, having their own will and feelings, can exchange words with them or cause their children's dreams to come true. Here, robots have been thought of as something like their friends that have the same eyes as their own, without being felt as anything pitted against human beings. On such assumption also, this exhibition surveys the history of robots from their genesis up to this day from the viewpoints of human history, culture and art and, in its displays and a series of activities in its symposiums and workshops, considers a new image of advanced/evolved robots. ICC hopes that its visitors will be able to experience even if partially, the new society of the 21st century that might be materialized through the coexistence of human beings and robots.
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Jan.29 (Friday) - Mar.22 (Monday), 1999 [Finished]
Gallery A, D, Theater
First Symposium [Evolving Robots]
