CREATIVE RESPONSES GO HERE.
Please post your creative response, or–if appropriate–a summary of your creative response, by replying to this entry.
You’re currently reading “Gallery,” an entry on C-LIT 146: Class Forum
9.12.06 / 8pm
My creative project is a quiz game for this class. I made up a sheet with directions and a score keeper area. In addition, I printed up flash card with questions and answers for the game. The harder the question, the more points it is worth. There are three categories of questions: media, class, and movies. Media has music, T.V. shows, and other media related to robots. Class involves material we have discussed in class. And movies encompass my most favorite robot movies.
Here is an example of a few questions in no particular order (I have listed the answers below in case you wanted to test yourself).
Questions:
1. What famous robot did Brent Spiner play on a famous Sci-Fi television series?
2. What kind of fuel does the robot Bender need in the show “Futurama”?
3. Name two of the three actors that played a Terminator in any of Terminator series.
4. What is the name of the artist who sings “Mr. Roboto”?
5. What is the name of Dr. Lanning’s cat in the movie “I Robot”?
6. What is name of the robot that tries to kill Ripley in the movie “Alien”?
7. Why does Edward not have real hands in the movie “Edward Scissorshands”?
8. What is the famous warning The Robot gives to his young master in the 1960 television series “Lost in Space”?
9. What horror-robot movie does character Joanna Eberhart husband Bobbie try to turn her into a robot?
Answers:
1. Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
2. Alcohol/Beer
3. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Patrick, and Kristanna Loken
4. Styx
5. Asimov
6. Ash
7. His creator died before he could replace his mechanical hands with real ones.
8. “Danger Will Robinson, Danger!”
9. The Stepford Wives
9.12.06 / 11pm
so i am not technologically advanced and have no clue how to post pictures or anything or the sort online, therefore, i will describe my creative component.
i have two components really..
my first and primary component is a portfolio filled with various pictures symbolic of different ideas we have discussed in class (ex: the eye, talos, automatons) with statements describing the picture(s).
my other component is a small soundtrack i made with songs relating to robots. i could only find 3 songs that were specific about robots, others were just techno music. but i still wanted to turn it in because i like the songs that i did find!
9.13.06 / 11pm
For my creative project I designed a futuristic house using Google’s SketchUp. The house runs on solar power from the solar panels that cover the entire roof. There is no garage, but a landing pad for flying cars. The roof entrance and front entrance require a handprint verification to enter the house. From the roof you enter the house and see 2 bedrooms that both exit to a hallway with a bathroom. To get to the lower level you use an elevator because stairs are old fashioned. When you exit out on the bottom level, there is another bathroom. There is an entertainment room with a tv, and a couch that comes out of the wall by pressing the key pad on the floor. There is another key pad that opens up another wall that holds the workout equipment. Into the kitchen is another wall that holds the table and chairs, that lower to the floor when in use. There is a refrigerator that open by floor pads, a stove/microwave/oven, and a plate/utensil/cup dispensor. There is a pool and jaxcuzzi past the kitchen which completes all the necessary elements for a futuristic home.
9.15.06 / 11am
My short story, entitled “Faster”
“Never push the third button.”
“What should I do?”
“Simple. Learn.”
“Learn?”
“Learn.”
And that was the only word they should have said for the next 24 hours. Noxin sat in the cold concrete room, staring at the concrete wall that was bare except for a sign that simply read: Learn. There was nothing he could do but inspect for console in front of him, and that would take a while.
The console seemed interesting. There were 3 buttons, and a timer that looked like it was made from an old 70’s alarm clock. Noxin pushed the first button, and the timer went to 0:05:00. Slowly, it started ticking down.
“What does it do?”
“Do not let the timer go down.”
Noxin may have been a robot created with simple artificial intelligence, but every type of humanoid, genius or imbecile, gets bored. So he pushed the second button, a smaller one that was faded, with many scratches in the metal surrounding it. The timer added 10 seconds.
“10 seconds, why?”
This time they said nothing. Noxin figured out that they must be watching him through the glass. Unknown to Noxin, this room was an interrogation room. The police department in this town never really saw murder suspects, and the 2 local scientists occupied the room with little confidence that a highly volatile robot with little intelligence in a locked room would stay there very long. The glass was not robot proof, but maybe it was part of the experiment.
Noxin didn’t bother hitting the second button again. He knew it would accomplish nothing but wasting 10 more seconds of his life. 4 minutes later though, his desire changed. As the timer counted down to less than a minute, an alarm started. It was loud enough to make Noxin jump slightly.
Never push the third button. Why? Why not? Noxin cared little for his self worth, and the alarm was making such a loud noise he hoped the third button would end it all. The third button was encased in a small glass shell.
“Do not let the timer go down!”
“Why?”
“It is not of your concern.”
Noxin tapped the second button furiously until the timer read 0:10:00
Dr. Valtine turned to the person sitting next to him. “What would happen if that timer goes down to zero?”
Dr. Nesqui didn’t turn his head. Instead he looked straight up. Minutes later he replied, “It doesn’t matter, our instructions are to never let him find out. Personally, I don’t want to know.”
* * *
16 hours passed with no progress. Noxin would keep mashing away at the second button to give him enough time to yell at the strangers in the next room. Although he required no sleep, his artificial mind would wander into an oblivion long enough to set the alarm off as the final minute on the timer counted off. Every time this happened, the scientists would call from the other room: “Do not let the timer go down! Never push the third button”
“I have desires to press that button. If anything, to satisfy my own curiosity.”
Dr. Nesqui spasmed recklessly in his seat. He tried to shake some of the wires off of his legs. The room looking into Noxin’s was covered with wires. The concrete floor could barely be seen. Dr. Valtine whispered nervously, “Maybe we should tell him.”
“We can’t.” Dr. Nesqui kept his hand in a fist but pointed his thumb behind him. “Look at the glass. It’s not worth the risk.”
Noxin was complaining behind the glass, but the doctors paid no attention. “Eventually, something is going to happen. How long do they expect us to be here? Either that third button gets pushed, or that timer goes to zero.” Dr Nesqui didn’t say a word. Dr. Valtine persisted: “That’s how this is going to end.”
“Then it ends. Do you really think it’s going to get any better?” Dr Nesqui wrote more sentences on the piece of paper in front of him. They didn’t include anything about the experiment. Most of them were apologies to his family for the secrets he had kept. Another part of the page contained a list entitled ‘life goals.’ He had written about 20 down, but sadly only 4 of them had the word ‘accomplished’ next to them. Dr. Nesqui focused on the most accomplished: get married. He let out a sigh.
“Go ahead and tell him anything you want. I’m through playing this game.”
The alarm sounded. Just then Noxin made an ultimatum:
“Tell me what the buttons do, or the counter goes down!”
The ultimatum was inherently useless, as Dr. Valtine was about to tell him anyway.
“We don’t know what the timer does.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Please, you must. We woke up in this room too. We have a page in front of us, and it reads the same two sentences: NEVER PUSH THE THIRD BUTTON. DO NOT LET THE TIMER GO DOWN.”
“Lies!”
Dr. Nesqui finally spoke up, “He’s not lying. We’re trapped. There are hundreds of black wires on the floor in our room, and they are connected to our hands. Lord knows what they do, but I assume it can’t be good.”
The timer was at 30 seconds.
“Please.”
Noxin was not at his highest function level. Hostility engulfed him. He lunged at the glass. 2 solid punches and the solid piece fell directly to the floor. A second alarm sounded, this time inside the doctors’ room.
Noxin now knew the truth. The doctors were not deceiving him. But they couldn’t turn around. And they didn’t see the sign behind them, above the second glass window:
PUSH THE BUTTON THEY LIVE. TIMER GOES DOES THEY DIE.
Noxin read the words aloud.
The time was at 10 seconds.
The doctors shouted together. It is obvious what they yelled.
Noxin lifted the glass case and pushed the third button.
The alarms stopped, but a new sound started. A violent pulse emanated from the room behind the doctors. The doctors were being shocked by an absurd amount of voltage.
“NO!” Noxin mashed all the buttons, but they were of no use.
The pulsing stopped. The doctors were dead.
A voice came from the same speaker as the second alarm. “Why did you want them to live? They imprisoned you in that room, shouting nonsensical directions, and you try to save them?”
Noxin said nothing.
“You are useless.”
Noxin collapsed to the floor.
The voice inside the room turned next to the right. “It took 18 hours, and he made the wrong decision.”
“We’ll need to reprogram. I want it to want to kill them. And it needs to kill faster.”
“Faster?”
9.15.06 / 7pm
The Story of a Man
My story ends in this prison that I reside in, a prison filled with the likes of Hamlet and woman who rip yellow wall paper off walls. But, me, I just sit writing my story, recalling what once was a life……
According to my mother my father had always wanted a son. After consummating their marriage on a variety of occasions and after conceiving three beautiful daughters my father took a leave of absence, one that would last approximately six months.
But before detailing the interesting events that took place within that long absence, I feel obligated to speak more about the details of my father’s childhood. In hindsight my father was a genius, he was deemed a genius at the age of eleven, in essence, my father had no childhood, he was already a man by that time. My uncle described my father as having been technologically sound, and additionally methodically strategic in everything he did. My father was known for living a patterned childhood, waking up at the same time each day, timing his eating speed, and other ridiculously repetitive actions.
At age thirty, my father became the head of a multimillion dollar technological corporation and so began his madness. The corporation was a producer of human convenience. The idea was simple, my father’s corporation dealt with the manufacturing of mechanical maids/nanny’s that would essentially make human existence more convenient. It was an idea that blossomed into a large organization and made my father richer than ever. However, tragically, as I do recognize the differences between happily and tragically, my father still felt a void in his life, a void connected to the absence of a male heir to his millions.
However, going back to my father’s unexpected absence, the duration of his absence was approximately 6 months, as I recognize I have already stated. In those six months no one knew of my father’s whereabouts. He had vanished from the face of the earth.
In my father’s distress and madness, as most desperate humans are, my father was led to an idea that involved combining his lifelong work in his corporation and using that to create a son. Now this creation wasn’t going to be made of wood with an enlarging nose, my father as stated previously was methodical, he paid careful attention to every detail. Using photos from his childhood when he was about eleven years of age, he sculpted a replica of his former self, using personality tests to create a brain with similar characteristics as his own. He deemed me his greatest creation, his son. He sculpted me to perfection, eyes, nose, everything looked authentic, he provided me with human organs, a heart, a brain, more importantly a conscious. On that dark and stormy night of October 13th I was born, a Friday I believe, I became a reality, I became a living, breathing, thinking being. The very next morning my father, clean shave and all returned home, but this time with a smile on his face, and a younger image of himself by his side. I saw the tears dripping down my mother’s and sister’s eyes and they all passionately embraced him.
Not to go into too much detail, but my father never explained everything to my mother and sisters, instead they viewed me as an illegitimate child. My mother simply overjoyed to see my father return did not take my presence negatively, but instead positively. She offered me food, love, and nurturing, she was and still is my mother. That same day they named me Victor the III, after my father and Grandfather. Each year that passed my father would add new features to trace my growth and maturity, including my height, and intellect in order to help me age.
My father’s plan to create me in his image somewhat backfired with my greater understanding and assimilation into the outside world. I began developing my own passion, a passion for music, but my father always insisted on me learning about the corporation in order to prepare me for my future inheritance. In hindsight you can say he made me in his own image; however, as all humanity has their own way of adapting and gaining new desires, I changed into an image of myself. He underestimated the power of time, which never stops. I became a rebel, always going against the grain.
My father was against my new found glory as a musician. He forced me to give up my music causing me to rebel like any other teenager. To really make a long story short, my father, upon learning of my lack of desire towards becoming the heir to his corporation essentially threatened to make me cease to exist by terminating me. So, I basically did what any other teenager or human, for that matter, would have done. I ran away, but sooner, rather than later I was captured and imprisoned in an insane asylum. Even with my continuous denial of insanity, my father’s wealth and power restricted my freedom. Last I heard my father went insane and eventually committed suicide. As for me, I’ve been resigned to this imprisonment, walls and steel are my domain. I suffer here each day, wishing for my dying moment. I hope heaven has room for machines…
9.15.06 / 7pm
I was hoping to upload all the pages of my little book, but my scanner isn’t working. So I just took a picture of the front page, which you’ve all already seen.
A brief synopsis of the story is that Dahlia is really adventurous, while Deodar is not, and so they have a really difficult time deciding what to do. For example, Dahlia will suggest playing ice hockey and Deodar will picture himself with a black eye and a missing tooth.
Conveniently, a robot walks by and Dahlia goes off to play with the robot who will do everything she wants it to. She soon gets bored by the robot and realizes that (unlike Pygmalion) she wants a friend who has his own personality, even if it means that they can never decide on what to do.
9.16.06 / 5pm
Here’s my creative project. It is a remix of a track from the Blade Runner movie titled ‘Blush Response’. It is in the style of Drum’nBass aka Jungle.
http://www.lisaswanstrom.net/mmedia/Masaki-BlushResponse(BladeRunnerDnBRemix).mp3
9.16.06 / 5pm
http://www.lisaswanstrom.net/mmedia/Masaki-BlushResponse(BladeRunnerDnBRemix).mp3
well… since the forum is cutting off my link, please select the entire link then paste into browser.
9.16.06 / 9pm
For my creative project I created a “Golem”. It’s supposed to be the year 2051, when robots exist but they dont seem to help us out the way we want them too because they seem to have “feelings”. A golem, in the other hand, does not have speech, so when you try to turn him back to dust he wont ask you “Why do I have to leave?” I also made a brochure that informs you about the golem and the instructions on making one. In the year 2051, robots do not want to get “turned off” and want to live. A golem has no speech and that’s one of the reasons why he is sold alot. I took a picture of the golem but I wasn’t able to transfer it from my phone to my email, I think I need internet in my phone.
9.16.06 / 9pm
Here is the URL for the webpage where I have posted my final project. Enjoy.
9.17.06 / 6am
Here is a picture of my poster for the game of life.
if you would like to learn more about it, you can also go to
http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html
to check it out.
Enjoy!
9.17.06 / 11pm
Robots Project
9.18.06 / 5am
Kevin De La Cruz
Comparative Literature 146
Lisa Swanstrom
September 14, 2006
Music Associated Memories
The idea for my project came from my friend Gina while we were sitting in my car in some parking lot which we tend to do a great deal when I go back home to Whittier. In any case, we like to listen to music and talk and all that great stuff. I told her all about my final paper and project for all of college and how I had a no idea about what I was going to do for my project. She brilliantly came up with the idea to combine music with my paper topic to come up with a sort of music association game for me. I’ve always been shy and she always said that I was never really good at expressing myself but she can tell what I am feeling through the music I’m listening to. She played the songs that were most played on my Ipod and she asked what each song reminded me of and I would have to answer freely and write it down. So, what I will do is list the songs in the order they were played and just give you an insight as to what it reminds me of personally. But I ask that if you do laugh, do not seek me out and point and laugh if you see me anywhere in public, I do have feelings still and it would just hurt. I’m just kidding. Enjoy!
1.“Blastoff!” – Weezer
I listen to this song way too much. Basically, I just think of going out with friend Gina after I pick her up from work to watch movies at my house and drink a couple of beers or something. Usually we would watch Friends or some movie of my choosing.
2. “Only in Dreams” – Weezer
This song reminds me of not being able to talk to the girl that I liked because of my own silly insecurities…still to this day! Also, this reminds me of the nervous feeling I had when I told my friend Gina how I really felt about her. Lame sappy stuff.
3. “Ever Fallen in Love” – Buzzcocks
This is just a fun song for me. It reminds of a friend of mine, Diane, from back home who I am attracted to but things would never work out because we know each other too well.
4. “You Vandal” – Saves the Day
This song reminds me of 10th grade and going to shows with my friends. I really miss those days.
5. “First Day of My Life” – Bright Eyes
It reminds me of the feeling of figuring out what I’ve really wanted has been near me all along.
6. “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)” – Taking Back Sunday
I think of freshmen year of college, my old roommate, and the movie Fight Club whenever I hear this song. The music video is a lot like Fight Club and my old roommate Sam and I learned how to play this and just had a lot of fun with it.
7. “Dreaming of You” – The Coral
I think of the Christmas episode of Scrubs.
8. “Falling For You” – Weezer
This song pretty much describes again my insecurities and my inability to tell people how I feel.
9. “Stellar” – Incubus
I went to see them live a few years back with my brother and it was just so much fun. That was one of the first times I think he saw me more than just his little brother but also sort of a peer I guess.
10. “Nothing Gets Crossed Out” – Bright Eyes
This is my favorite Bright Eyes song. I just want to sit and listen to it with Gina.
11. “A Decade Under the Influence” – Taking Back Sunday
Sam and I have a great acoustic version of this song and just good times using this to impress any girls that came by our house at parties. Damn, that’s just terrible.
12. “New Slang” – The Shins
Natalie Portman.
13. “Crooked Teeth” – Death Cab For Cutie
Missed opportunities.
14. “Action and Action” – The Get Up Kids
This song is just what high school was. This reminds me of my friend Jeff who introduced me to The Get Up Kids and all of the music that comes from the Midwest.
15. “Aneurysm” – Nirvana
My 14th birthday right before 9th grade I had my friends over and my friend Richard bought me this CD. We played basketball at my party and my brother almost beat the crap out of my friends for fun.
16. “The One You Want” – The Get Up Kids
I think of a recent time I had with a friend of mine where I actually thought I liked her but turns out I honestly didn’t and really liked my other friend Gina.
17. “Kiss Me” – Six Pence None the Richer
Rachel Leigh Cook. She’s too adorable for words. How lame is it that this song made it to the last few I listened to. Damn.
18. “Movie Script Ending” – Death Cab For Cutie
I only hear this song when I’m driving.
19. “I’m the One” – Descendents
Basically my role in life is what this song describes.
20. “Longtime Sunshine” – Weezer
This is the life I want except for the whole driving with my eyes shut deal.
9.22.06 / 1am
my creative project was a painting. i painted using acrylics on a cigar box. i used a box because, in my mind, it symbolized women. specifically, it represented pris and zhora in Blade Runner. the outside was black with red lettering that read “basic open-close model,” remincscent of Pris’ “basic pleasure model”. the outside was plain because the paint was not supposed to distract from the box’s obviously useful function. on the inside of the box i used bright colors. A different color or pattern was used for each side. i painted an eye with a heart for a pupil because of the many discussions and ideas we had in class about the symbol of the eye, memories, identity, and emotions.
p.s. i’m sorry i posted this late.
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This is the class forum for Comparative Literature 146: Robots, with Lisa Swanstrom. This is where we will post discussion questions, pose research proposals, and share work.
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