R2-D2, Why Do We Love You? Is it your Shape?

{ July 10, 2008 @ 1:07 pm } · { art, painting, pop art, r2-d2 }
{ Tags: art, art robot, artists, painting, pop art, popular culture, r2-d2, robot, robots, science, science fiction, star wars, technology }

My painting art robot, Zanelle, paints a lot of iconic robots from fiction and reality.  Of all these robots, her most successful works depict R2-D2 from Star Wars. Here is our latest depiction with 44 tiled R2-D2 paintings.  It is titled R2-D2-44 (48″x18″ Acrylic on Wood).

One can never be sure as to why an image works or does not.  But I have some theories on why the R2-D2 based works come out so much better than others.  The first is that R2 is about as iconic as a robot can get.  Another one is that R2 has a distinct shape to goes with his iconic appeal.  A silhouette of R2 is unique and immediately distinguishable.  On the other hand, the silhouette of other robots, take C-3PO for example, often matches a human. 

So we have an icon with a unique shape.  That makes for good pop-art.  As abstract as a work gets, as long as it sticks roughly to the shape of R2-D2, the image will have pop culture appeal.  Take for example, the work I pictured above.  Less than 8 of the 44 R2-D2s depicted are painted with the correct shades, and of these only 3 are in the right color.  Regardless of this, the work is recognized as a mosaic of R2-D2’s.  Its the shape.  I am always searching for other iconic robots, but few have a unique shape that works so well…

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