Research

Pieces of Art that particularly interest me.  

The first piece of art is The Can’t help myself robot created by 2 artists, Sun Yuan and Peng yu. This piece of Robotic installation art was commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum in 2016 to examine the increase of our technological world but also looking at our relationship with it. This robot was kept inside a large acrylic box and had one main function, to keep the deep red liquid within its vicinity. It had been designed with sensors to detect if the thick liquid spilled out too far, with a large mechanical arm shovelling it back quickly towards it. This left large red smears and splatter marks over the walls and floor. Sun Yuan and Peng Yu customised the robotic arm to make a sequence of 32 movements to carry out at different times. The piece “died” in 2019 after it started to fail. This piece drew me in due to how emotive I found it. As it scoops the blood like substance towards it and swings it’s arm round, sounded by the streaks and mess it’s made everywhere the movements really convey violence and give the illusion of anger frustration and hopelessness; Giving this machine the ability to project real, raw emotion. Upon watching multiple videos of this piece I found myself feeling almost sad for this robot, I can’t describe it any other way than it’s like the artists gave the machine a soul and it was pained. I believe this piece to be on the cusp of both Art and design, as yes it was designed for the one very specific purpose of keeping the fluid within its borders, but it has no real useful function. However, it’s also art as it was designed in the name of art, for people to view it and allow it to make them feel something or let the artists speak to them through it.