Massimiliano Gioni on Robots and Myths at the New Museum | INTERPRETATIONS

Why It Matters

The exhibition shows how mythmaking shapes technology narratives, influencing public perception, policy and business strategy in the AI era.

Key Takeaways

• Exhibition links 1920s tech anxieties to today's AI fears.
• "Glass Man" illustrates early replication myths tied to biopolitics.
• Bruce Lacy's 1963 kinetic robot underscores theater‑automation lineage.
• Show argues artists craft and dismantle technology myths.
• Mythic framing reveals societal power dynamics behind tech narratives.

Summary

Massimiliano Gioni, artistic director of the New Museum, opens “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” a show that situates robots, AI and the myth of the “new man” within a historic dialogue between the 1920s and today.

The exhibition argues that contemporary anxieties about artificial intelligence echo the cultural upheavals of the interwar period, when writers, artists and scientists grappled with conveyor belts, early automata and the very word “robot,” coined by Czech playwright Karel Čapek in 1920. Objects such as the 1935 “Glass Man” and the hygiene museums of Germany illustrate how replication, biopolitics and notions of human superiority were already being encoded in material culture.

Highlights include Bruce Lacy’s 1963 kinetic sculpture “Superman,” a crank‑hand‑operated robot that links theater‑automation traditions to modern robotics, and an original automaton created by Carlo Rambaldi for Spielberg’s ET. Gioni cites Viero the Castro’s observation that societies retreat to myth during existential technological threats, positioning artists as both creators and debunkers of those myths.

By foregrounding myth rather than technology, the show suggests that the narratives we tell about machines shape policy, investment and public sentiment. For business leaders, understanding these cultural scripts is crucial to navigating the ethical and market implications of AI and biotech advancements.

Original Description

In this episode of Interpretations, New Museum Artistic Director Massimiliano Gioni takes us into the museum’s freshly reopened and expanded galleries. Focusing on the “Hall of Robots,” Gioni provides a close reading of key works from the encyclopedic exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future” including Franz Tschakert’s Glass Man, first made in 1927, and Bruce Lacey’s Superman from 1963.

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