Cyber Sisyphus
For this week's assignment I got inspired by Ilse Arwert's blog post "Pointlessness". Not only because the myth of Sisyphus is one of my favorite Greek mythology story, but also "Can't help myself" has been the most haunting and overwhelming robotic art installation I have ever seen.
The Myth of Sisyphus
Sisyphis is the symbol of the absurdity of existence. In the first chapter of "The myth of Sisyphus", Camus brought up this question: Does the realization of the meaninglessness and absurdity of life necessarily require suicide? He sees Sisyphuis as the absurd hero who is condemned to a meaningless task but still lives life to the fullest and did not compromise on death even after acknowledged the certainty of his fate.
At the first glance...
I must admit that at the first glance with Sun yuan and Peng yun's installation, the feeling of mine was so complicated and hard to describe. The robot itself is so dynamic and vigorous, but the enitre scene is devastating and emotional, it really struck the chord with me. To some extend, this work is melancholy and sad even somewhat nostalgic, but on the other hand, it is also terrifing... even though I am only watching it though my 13'inch screen.
No matter what, Sisyphus is a human being even he is just a figure from Greek methodology which makes us resonate with him. But do we also get touched and feel connected with a cold machine, especially one does not have any human characteristics like "Can't help myself" which only has a robotic arm and a shovel? The answer is undoubtedly "yes". I believe it even amplifies our feeling.
Inevitably, giant robotic arm and blood-like fluid brings us association of death and violence, but wheneven this robotic arm rapidly moves towards the glass cage, in the end, like 10 inch away from the glass, it will stop, in a very graceful way. It almost seems to be reaching out as far as it can, almost trying to break free. The strange sound of the mechanical arm moving is like a scream in pain, as if he is saying: even if I am desperate and hopeless, I can't hurt human nor change my fate, because that's how am I programmed ("Robot" originates from the Czech word "robotnik" which means "slave". ). Yes, it can not help itself from sweeping the fuild on the floor, nor escape from this dull, daunting reality.
I can't help asking myself: what aspect of this robot makes it so attractive? I have summarised the following four traits:
Futility
Absurdity
Lack of Autonomy
Alienation
As Camus says "The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd." We cannot escape the meaningless, perpetual labor that comes with living in a capitalist society, just like the robot cannot escape its meaningless task, since meaningless labor is at the center of the workings of capitalist society.
Tender - A piece of pork tinderloin swipes every picture of a potential date on tinder to the right. Made by MediaTechnology alumni Jeroen van Oorschot.
A useless machine which's only function is to turn itself off, originally designed by Marvin Minsky.
A robot in a loop of nothingness
Got inspired by "Can't help myself", the useless machine and Tender, the hypothetical work that I would like to share is a self-spinning robotic hand surrounded by a circle of smartphones with different social media apps. For example, this robotic hand likes a random post on instgram and swipe down to the next post then turn itself to the next phone to do the exactly same thing with tiktok. This process will last forever.(see figure 1.)
(figure 1.) something like this.
Ironically, robot from "Can't help myself" surpringsly went virus on tiktok. Thousands of people has left comments on one of the tiktok video comparing the liveliness of the robot’s movements in 2016 and 2019 respectively with a sad background song of Radiohead and hashtag #canthelpmyself #deppresiøn #sad #art. The video can be found here.
we senselessly spend hours a day watching YouTube videos and liking TikToks, only to realize the meaningless of it when we have already wasted our time. This platforms are made to be so addictive, we cannot stop – we cannot help ourselves. We are all in ‘’a loop of nothingness,’’ that we cannot get out of. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious - inevitable, paradoxical tragic.