ROBOT WORLD
The non-verbal documentary ROBOT WORLD depicts the evolution of robots from a mechanical somnambulist to an autonomous sensorium. The neoclassical violinist Matt Howden emphasizes the filmÂ’s message: these artificial people are our alternate doubles.
ROBOT WORLD is a compilation. The source material for this one-hour film comes from robot laboratories at universities, from private footage at industrial fairs, military archives and corporate videos from the robot industry. Motion pictures of old 16 mm films from the 1930Â’s were added. This non-verbal documentary was recycled from far in excess of one hundred hours of raw material.
There is no recognizable narrative structure to ROBOT WORLD. This non-verbal documentary works with the open structure of a topic’s pattern. This thematic pattern can be found in the individual parts of ROBOT WORLD and demonstrates that the construction of robots is in fact evolutionary. This applies to both, the exterior as well as the interior level. The exterior evolutionary line of machine beings begins with a “protozoon” in the form of nano-robots, advances to the development of arms, hands and legs as well as to insect-type swarm beings and even develops cold-blooded animals, mammals and humanoid robots. This biological development is accompanied by an imitation of typically human activities such as discovering rooms, being a playmate for children, leading wars or performing operations on a human body. These imitations are like a trace of the interior evolutionary line of robots.
Matt Howden's music wraps itself around the film; The violin, often linked to the human voice, is here the voice of the robots: their expression, their functionality, and their aspiration.
The compilation ROBOT WORLD offers no narration and invites to reflect on the differences of our apparent doppelgaengers.