{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "I don\u2019t think any piece of art has ever emotionally affected me the way this robot arm piece has affected me. It\u2019s called \u201cCan\u2019t...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/667819299308748800/", "html": "

gregghead:

goohlish:

no-longer-another-bondi-blonde:

I don\u2019t think any piece of art has ever emotionally affected me the way this robot arm piece has affected me. It\u2019s called \u201cCan\u2019t Help Myself\u201d and it\u2019s a robot arm that\u2019s programmed to clean up the fluid that\u2019s constantly leaking out of itself, that looked like a never ending flow of blood. It has programmed dance moves to make it appear to have human gestures. And at first, it seemed happy and proud of its job, dancing around when it had visitors. But three years later, it looks tired, hopeless, and like it\u2019s living in a never ending cycle of constantly trying to put itself back together for the entertainment of other people. And when I found out that it had finally stopped working in 2019, essentially dying, I couldn\u2019t help but imagine the relief it must\u2019ve felt and so I\u2019ve been in here crying over a robot arm. \ud83e\udd7a It was programmed this way, it truly couldn\u2019t help itself. And no one ever helped him, they just watched.

In this work commissioned for the Guggenheim Museum, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu employ an industrial robot, visual-recognition sensors, and software systems to examine our increasingly automated global reality, one in which territories are controlled mechanically and the relationship between people and machines is rapidly changing. Placed behind clear acrylic walls, their robot has one specific duty, to contain a viscous, deep-red liquid within a predetermined area. When the sensors detect that the fluid has strayed too far, the arm frenetically shovels it back into place, leaving smudges on the ground and splashes on the surrounding walls.

Sun Yuan & Peng Yu are known for using dark humor to address contentious topics, and the robot\u2019s endless, repetitive dance presents an absurd, Sisyphean view of contemporary issues surrounding migration and sovereignty. However, the bloodstain-like marks that accumulate around it evoke the violence that results from surveilling and guarding border zones. Such visceral associations call attention to the consequences of authoritarianism guided by certain political agendas that seek to draw more borders between places and cultures and to the increasing use of technology to monitor our environment.

this really is one of my favorite modern art pieces and you cannot do it justice without a video. the speed and manner in which it moves is captivating

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