Movies

We selected some films that address themes related to the topic of the Artificial Gaze seminar. We reflected on how this tool, which emerged with technological development, has been represented in the world of cinema and what other issues can be explored in films, as it relates to artistic production.

Her (2013)

Director: Spike Jonze

Synopsis: The film follows a man developping an amorous relationship with the A.I. of the operating system of his phone with its own voice and personality.

The film deals with relationships and the distancing within those relationships. Additionally, it proposes reflections on the affection between humans and AI, and how we can relate to and feel understood by them.

Ex_Machina: Instinto Artificial (2014)

Director: Alex Garland

Synopsis: A young programmer named Caleb receives an invitation to test the newest artificial intelligence created by the recluse billionaire, Nathan. During the tests, Caleb finds out that this A.I. is so sophisticated and unpredictable that he doesn't know who to trust.

Ex Machina proposes reflections on machines and AI, raising questions about the ability of an AI to have or simulate human emotions and how we interact with machines that resemble us.

Chappie (2015)

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Synopsis: In a near future an opressive police force is completely mecanized and in charge of patrolling the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa. One of the androids of the police force is stolen and reprogrammed to aid the criminals. However, due to the reprogramming, the android becomes Chappie, the first robot to think and feel for itself.

2001 - Uma Odisseia no Espaço (1968)

Direção: Stanley Kubrick

Synopsis: A black and imponent monolith creates a connection between past and future in this engimatic adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's novel. When Dave Bowman and other astronauts are sent on a mysterious mission, the computer that operates the spaceship starts developping strange behaviours, leading to a confrontation between man and machine.

The feature film explores human consciousness in an experimental way, proposing reflections on technological development and the human being. The relationship between humans and machines and their conflicts are constantly proposed and questioned.

Blade Runner (1982)

Director: Ridley Scott

Synopsis: In the beginning of the 21st Century, a corporation develops a robot stonger and more agile and just as smart as the human being. These robots are known as replicants and are utilized as slaves in the colonization and exploration of other planets. However, these replicants can go rogue, and special agents named blade runners are tasked to chase them down.

Although similar to the image of androids as defined by Asimov in his books, the replicants in Blade Runner exemplify the issues of humanity and automation surrounding AI. By being so similar to humans yet fundamentally different, the replicants highlight the definition of what it means to be human.

Alien (1979)

Director: Ridley Scott

Synopsis: A spaceship when is returning home, suddenly receives strange signals coming from an asteroid. The crew investigates the place and one of the tripulants is attacked by a alien being. What seems to be an isolated attack becomes constant terror when the attacked crewmate was being used as incubation for an alien embryo that starts growing and killing the crewmates one by one.

Although the main element is horror, there is also a conflict between humans and machines through androids disguised as humans. The film highlights this conflict through their different ways of thinking and reacting, and the sense of unease when the android's true nature is revealed.

The Terminator (1984)

Director: James Cameron

Synopsis: A cyborg diguised as human is sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 in Los Angeles to kill a woman named Sarah Connor. Separately, a soldier, Kyle Reese is also sent back in time to protect her.

The Terminator is not traditionally an AI, but the logic followed by it and Skynet mirrors society's fears and anxieties about the evolution of AI today. The idea that a technological system could become independent and dominate humans has been present in the collective imagination for many years and remains relevant.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Director: Mamoru Oshii

Synopsis: The film follows two narratives in the year 2029. Technology has developped so that people can manupulate others with their minds. The hacker called Master of Puppets is a specialist in computers and is capable of controlling other people's will. He is being hunted by the secret squad called Shell Squad. The leader, Major Motoko, is a woman with so much technological body augmentation that begs the question of the frontier of what is human. An anime classic by Mamoru Oshii, in a cyberpunk future where the human body and mind and technology are fused together.

Mamoru Oshii's anime raises various questions about human consciousness and AI consciousness, and their boundaries. In a dystopian future, the body-consciousness relationship is challenged as technological modifications blur the lines between humans and machines. This fusion brings to light issues of what it means to be human and what defines artificial intelligence.

Psycho-Pass (2018)

Directors: Naoyoshi Shiotani, Katsuyuki Motohiro

Synopsis: Psycho-Pass is set in a futuristic Japan, where Sibyl System, a powerful network of biomechanic computers are able to measure infinitely the biometrics of brains, mentalities and personalities of japanese citizens. This measurement is called Psycho-Pass and is used to foresee future criminals that has not comitted anything yet.

In a society completely reliant on artificial intelligence and programming, such as personal assistants and mathematical calculation programs, the work of the homicide division takes on entirely different forms of operation.

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