‘bots : the anthropomorphizing of technology

I have had _­ a special place in my heart for robots ever since I saw AstroBoy as child. As I grew, so did our cultural interest in this icon of human achievement. Not only have we employed these objects to build our cars, we have also used them in our literature, movies, music, food production, and other vital aspects of our culture. Robots are an excellent channel through which to explore our fears of technology, as epitomized in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the original Godzilla, as well as for defining the human experience, as in Philip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the character Data from Star Trek the Next Generation. I am interested in the anthropomorphizing of robots, and pursue this work through various media, such as digital illustrations, ceramics, and mixed/found media such as the Santa is Dead series.