Tag Archives | robot

Astro Boy is Blasting Onscreen

By Tom Saunter on July 21, 2009 // comics, film

Astro Boy will be landing on our screens in October this year, it’s been confirmed.

astroboy1 | Astro Boy is Blasting Onscreen | Digital Cortex

For those who don’t know, ‘Astro Boy’ is an anime sci-fi series set in a dystopian future where humans and androids coexist. It’s main character is a powerful robot called Astro Boy (Astro for short), who was created by a great scientist called Doctor Tenma following the death of his son Tobio.

Despite looking identical to Tobio, Tenma soon realized that the little android could not fill the void of his lost son, especially given that Astro could not grow older or easily express human feelings. Indeed, in one set of comic panels, Astro is shown preferring the mechanical shapes of cubes over the organic shapes of flowers. I’m a bit like that sometimes… icon smile | Astro Boy is Blasting Onscreen | Digital Cortex

Astro is gifted with awesome robot powers and skills, as well as the ability to experience human emotions. Astro has fought crime, evil, and injustice across five decades of great comic and television series. Most of his enemies are robot-hating humans, robots gone berserk, or alien invaders. Almost every story includes a battle involving Astro and other robots. Cool huh?

In advance of Astro Boy’s Autumn 2009 cinematic release, let’s take a trip through the many ages of Astro Boy…

1960′s

Astro Boy was the first Anime to be exported to the West.
Check out this intro to his first TV series, dubbed from Japanese:

1980′s

Here’s the Astro that most of us will recognise.
He’s been in this colour form for the longest (excepting his past in comics):

Modern Day

Finally, the trailer for his upcoming movie, which I’m pretty excited about.
I’m predicting a new wave of popularity and cool merchandise from this:

Astro is a cultural icon in my eyes, and for me is the strongest symbol of a Japanese media form being highly attractive to a Western eye, together with Hello Kitty. Who’s with me? Would love to hear some thoughts.

Comments { 4 }

There Should Be More Robots on TV

By Tom Saunter on May 22, 2009 // Technology

This is incredible. Just when I thought I had a grip of current robot development, the Japanese blow my mind with this piece of raw awesomeness:

It is so difficult to keep pace with the Far East on the technology front, but I am very interested in at least progressing research into the potential for branded robotics, androids & cybernetics if any readers have thoughts?

Comments { 4 }

Daft Punk – Pop Oracles?

By Tom Saunter on April 29, 2009 // academic, music

As you’ll see from my Last.fm profile, I’ve been listening to a lot of Daft Punk lately. For those who haven’t heard their stuff, this track in particular is the one I think best sums them up:

daft punk 200x300 | Daft Punk Pop Oracles? | Digital Cortex

Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
Trash it, change it, mail, upgrade it,
Charge it, point it, zoom it, press it,
Snap it, work it, quick erase it,
Write it, cut it, paste it, save it,
Load it, check it, quick rewrite it,
Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
Drag it, drop it, zip, unzip it,
Lock it, fill it, call it, find it,
View it, code it, jam, unlock it,
Surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it,
Cross it, crack it, switch, update it,
Name it, read it, tune it, print it,
Scan it, send it, fax, rename it,
Touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it,
Turn it, leave it, start, format it,

Sound familiar? Thought so – it’s the soundtrack to our modern lives.
And it begs the question: are we slaves to our media or is the media subject to us?

Digital Media (as referred to in the above) is the most pliable of all forms, possibly all materials. But do we lose anything by acting as their conduit? Do we define their being by the act of using them?

By way of answer, Marshall McLuhan states that:

Physiologically, man in the normal use of technology [...] is perpetually modified by it and in turn finds ever new ways of modifying his technology. Man becomes, as it were, the sex organs of the machine world, as the bee to the plant world, enabling it to fecundate and to evolve ever new forms.

(Understanding Media, 1967:56)

Punchy stuff indeed, and his point rings truer now than in 1967 when it was first written (for more McLuhanism check out The MemeStream, an older academic blog of mine). The relationship between Man and Machine is blurred in Daft Punk’s own appearance – they are never seen in public without their robot masks.

As I see it, Daft Punk have tapped into the zeitgeist of a world growing ever-reliant on our technologies, without much thought of how these forms may be exploiting us. It’s a beat-heavy warning to the masses to stay human, and not to be  anyone’s “sex organ”.

So what do we think? Are these French electro-popsters oracles for a future world? Answers on a postcard please, or in the comments box below.

Comments { 1 }

Why I wanted to blog…

By Tom Saunter on May 31, 2008 // blogging

This is my third blog.

The previous two are over at http://thebrainfarm.blogspot.com and at http://thememestream.blogspot.com.

I have wanted a third blog for a long while now, since there have been ideas and images that I have felt I’d really like to share. The older blogs are rather too ‘young’ to continue in the same thread, as my mind has developed since they began. Feel free to check them out to get a better idea of where I am coming from.

So, WordPress eh?

Looking forward to a fresh start and a fresh set of capabilities. I’ll be trying to mobile blog, tweet, and feed my Last.fm music through to whoever lands here. Lets see how Web 2.0 I can make things whilst keeping the blog on the readable side of vibrant.

Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force GO!!!!

| Why I wanted to blog... | Digital Cortex

Comments { 0 }