Category: Week 4 (Feb 6 + 8)

  • The Ultimate Entrapment of Female Identity, Bluebeard motifs in Ex Machina (2015)

    The most basic aspects of both Bluebeard and Ex Machina are found in most aspects of everyday society today. With the twenty-fist century’s rapid communication revolution, the purely physical expectations for the female and male body are ever expanding. However, by taking a non-mortal element of artificial intelligence, the expectations of the subsequent female bodily…

  • Fembots Need a Body

    Android refers to a human-like robot and is the default category, like robot. Technically, android is a masculine description that we use as an umbrella term. Don’t you worry, however, there are categories for female-gendered robots: gynoid and fembot. Robots are literally genderless. As movies, tech bros, and anyone else attempting to create or depict…

  • RGB IN EX MACHINA

    In Ex Machina (2014), the power dynamic of colors is situated throughout the film as seen through its setting and characters. The primary colors represented are blue, green, and red. While their characteristics conflict, it is important to consider how these differences convey meaning for the overall plot.   Blue The symbolic nature of blue represents…

  • Ex Machina: Is it really about AI?

    When I started Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014), I was intrigued by its relation to Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics”, as discussed before the film, and whether or not they were broken by the fault of the creator or the robot itself. As soon as Nathan (Oscar Isaac, looking suspiciously like Shel Silverstein) and Caleb…

  • Exploring Consciousness

    The Latin phrase “Deus ex machina,” translating to “god from the machine,” refers to introducing an external force, whether a person or thing, to resolve an unsolvable problem. Alex Garland pays homage to this concept with his science fiction thriller film, appropriately titled Ex Machina (2014). The omission of “Deus” or “god” from the title remains ambiguous,…

  • I didn’t ask for AI to be my Housewife!

    Since the dawn of man, the concept of having artificial intelligence has orbited around serviced robots for male satisfaction. Fortunately, men aren’t the only dwellers on the planet. But even with the progression in women’s and queer rights influencing broader representation in media and technological advancements, the depiction of sexualizable, “housewife” fembots is still the…

  • Week 4 Reader Blog

    Introduction In the 2020s, convolutional neural networks, graph neural networks, and K-means clustering emerged as important elements in the evolution of AI and machine learning. The engagement with complex machine learning models over the past decade has offered profound insights into the distinctive contrasts between the idealized notions of artificial intelligence and its practical realities.…