Julie Wosk's exciting new book introduces the world of artificial women who seem alive, a subject that has long fascinated filmmakers, artists, photographers, television writers, video game designers, and robotics engineers. These synthetic creatures have a surprising appeal-- and range from early automatons to Lara Croft and the Stepford Wives to today's female robots that look so real they can easily fool the eye. Based on a ground-breaking New York museum exhibit curated by the author, this book sparkles with illustrations--many in color-- of facsimile females from past to present. These images often reveal men's fantasies and our changing views of science, technology, and women themselves. In her introductory essay and detailed captions, Wosk connects these synthetic creatures to key cultural themes and raises provocative questions. Do these simulated women seem delightful, scary, alluring, alien? Are they admirable technological wonders or do they challenge our humanity in disturbing ways?
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Editorial Reviews
Review
A well-illustrated and provocative account of the creation of artificial women and our continual fascination with them. Professor Robert Mark Professor Emeritus Princeton University --Editorial Review
About the Author
Dr. Julie Wosk is Professor of Art History, English, and Studio Painting at State University of New York Maritime College. Dr. Wosk is also the author of Women and the Machine: Representations From the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001) and Breaking Frame: Technology and the Visual Arts in the Nineteenth Century (Rutgers University Press, 1991).
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A light read,
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This review is from: Alluring Androids, Robot Women, and Electronic Eves (Paperback)
I bought this book as a gift for someone doing their thesis on "fembots" (mechanical women). It was helpful in that it supported his arguments, but it did not add any additional information for his paper. It is simply a book showing a collection of different automatons, dolls, movie characters and androids (among others). She organized it so the left page has the description of the right page (always a picture). It was a very light read. I suggest it for those in need of additional support in theory, or fans of mechanical women, but nothing more.
5.0 out of 5 stars
What do men want?,
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This review is from: Alluring Androids, Robot Women, and Electronic Eves (Paperback)
The images and references produced in this book raise fascinating questions about our relations to each other and to the machines that are made to serve us. What android would you build if you had the power? Would it be a maid, a companion, a sex toy...? Wosk provides us with images of female robots created by men in art and in actuality. Her lucid and beautifully written commentary illuminates the issue of what we want and what we fear from the creation of human-like machines.
I read this with my book club and we had the most interesting and hilarious discussion I can remember in years.
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