The scientist in the video explains how their research can be beneficial to the medical community. It makes sense that the scientists would think of their research in these terms, but what does an artist do with this new information. Scientists seek to understand the world around them. But artists INTERPRET the world around them, taking into account the culture of the time and use their works to draw attention to the state of things. Artists of the past have seen the direction of our society was taking and created works of science fiction which are becoming fact. For example Luke Skywalker in Star Wars has a prosthetic arm which he commands fluidly, just as he had controlled his biological arm. For the extent of human history this has been a concept of science fantasy. Now it is a reality. Here is a video of someone learning how to use a prostheses that is surgically linked to the nerves that once controlled her biological arm. This is only her third session of training in using this prosthesis.
And here is a link to the companies website that explains the technology behind this prosthesis.
http://www.ottobockus.com/cps/rde/xchg/ob_us_en/hs.xsl/33797.html
It seems that our societies technological ability is limitless. What does limit us is our nature to sin. I use the term sin as I am Christian but more specifically it is the tendency toward Greed, and prioritizing ourselves instead of placing importance on loving others. To explain this further I want to quote an interview with an established sculptor Alan Rath. Alan Rath has an engineering education from MIT and specializes in Kinetic sculpture.
MT: Part of what I find so appealing about your work is the revelry in technology. It solves the problem of alienation with play, rather than by rejecting technology in favor of a supposedly "natural" state. In fact, you've said that we don't really have any technical problems, that our "nature" is our problem.
AR: At MIT I saw what our actual level of technical knowledge is. It's way beyond anything you see in ordinary life. It's not lack of technical knowledge that prevents us from doing things; it's petty squabbles over who gets what. NO amount of technology will improve our situation if we don't become more enlightened about things which are not technical.
Technology does so much great stuff for us that we don't acknowledge and yet we want it to do things that it will never do. You're wearing glasses -- isn't that a great thing? You're wearing shoes. Can you imagine what that does for your daily comfort, productivity and health? We are cyborgs already. Our consciousness is fundamentally altered because we grew up in an artificial environment. Due to the plasticity of the human mind we don't see it as being artificial because we grew up in it. Somehow at a certain age the brain hardens and new changes seem alien. But machinery is not unnatural. It's a reflection of the people who make it.
This was taken from:
http://www.sfgate.com/eguide/profile/
My robot arm project is a mixture of a prosthesis and kinetic sculpture. Aproaching this piece as an artist instead of a scientist or a R&D engineer takes the monetary gain out of the work. I want this machine to be an extension of myself, but one that is created and used to show love and be widely available. I am using open source everything to research and develop this, and will maintain the collaborative artistic nature after completion. I will be following in the footsteps of the artists and engineers who created the eye writer I blogged about previously.
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