I really found amazing this installation when I first saw it. It really gets to transmit some emotions that, of course, the machine cannot have.
Looks like robotic arms are coming quite strong to the contemporary art industry. Not surprisingly the Kuka robots are an extended very mainstream technology used to manipulate materials in industry, so why not in art.
Look for example to this 'Dark factories', project. The arm keeps painting portraits of famous people, but of course ther is not a hint of artistic creation in the arm itself, because it cannot feel. For the arm is just a productive process that has been programmed to perform.
https://robodk.com/blog/lights-out-robot-painting/
A cool installation, less thoughtful but that I liked was in the Tate museum, by Anicka Yi. These flying robots really makes us think ther is something alive in those machines, and maybe some forms of life are not so different from a programmed way of living.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a nice comment!
I also think the emotions being triggered from a piece of machinery is really interesting! With our world becoming more and more automated, this is food for some interesting discussions!
Same holds for the 'Dark Factories' installation. Somehow because the robot is doing a human task, makes me unconsciously project some human traits onto the machine. Even though it a "simple" machine performing preprogrammed tasks.
I liked it!