Today I stumble upon an interesting piece of art. Something different than a painting or sculpture. The installation entitled "Can't Help Myself" by Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu consists of a robotic arm.
Image source: galleriacontinua.com
The arm, typically used in automated manufacturing lines, is placed in an enclosed space and is equipped with a customize scoop. The scoop is used by the robot to scoop dark red-colored oil to the center of the enclosed space. The robotic arm is programmed to make sure that the oil doesn't spill too far away from the center of the space. At the same time, the arm is programmed to perform a number of different "dances" for the audience that are observing the space.
The robot, while doing its own dance performances, continuously has to switch back to whipping the oil back to the center of the room. The human-like moves that are abruptly stopped in order to keep the blood-like oil within the set limits give the art piece an interesting and eerie vibe. Over time the operating robot causes blood-like stains over the wall that remind us of war zones.
Here's a little video of the installation in action
It's an unusual but very interesting art piece to me. Sun Yuan and Peng Yu have made a number of art installments that give the observer all kinds of food for thought. Another interesting piece is showcased in this video:
Do you know any interesting out-of-the-ordinary art that you would like to share? Drop it in the comments :-)
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!
@michelmake Thanks so much for sharing this interesting piece with us and your thoughts about it. This is just what this community was made for!
Thanks! :-)
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What a great art. I remember reading about it a few months ago, it gave me chills. These are the type of shit I wanna see but unfortunately not much here. Even the robot sounds like it's crying. I admire the minds of these artists.
Me too! When you see such art it is clear, but coming up with the concept... I would love to see how the development process of such project goes..