TV surprise 2

I’ve been watching this silly TV series called Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and the humanoid, female machine that the main characters have befriended (actually she was sent from the future to help them), lacks emotion and other human-like qualities like a soul, but looks human and in fact, exemplifies human perfection on the outside. However, “Machines,” as the voice of Sara Connor says, “cannot possess faith or create art, for then they would be able to replace us.” The last scene is of the female machine practicing ballet and dancing so beautifully that she brings tears to the one of the humans, who suspects her of being a traitor to them and the human race. For a silly show, I was surprised it was so poignant.

This clip got me thinking about the role of technology and art and even the philosophical question, “What is art?” More on that later, but here’s a link to a very cool, artistic video, for of all things, The Madrid Metro. It could only be done with technology.

It reminds me of some wonderful illustrations I saw in Peter Spier’s children’s book, Fast-Slow, High-Low: A Book of Opposites, looking from below the subjects, as well as the mysterious, “moving” pictures of oddly, flying (Leap Year?) frogs in Tuesday by David Wiesner. Featured here on Google’s new scanned book page–so great that you can “scroll” through pages.

And why is art so emotionally moving? Could it be because it connects us on such a universal, yet indescribable, basic level — beauty in its purest form? There is no doubt in the YouTube video clip of the New York Philharmonic Symphony, which played this week in Pyongyang, North Korea, that the art form of music reached out and touched an entire country, at least those there who saw it, as well as here and around the world. Very moving.