Don't

Mind

Me

Why am I doing this?

For this assignment, I choose to write and expand on the blog post from Ilse: Pointlessness. In this post, Ilse talks about humans and robots indulging in never-ending behavioral loops. She then questions why anyone would engage in such behavior if it is so "pointless". This got me thinking about the functionality of robots. Besides creating robots for art/entertainment purposes are there robots that just "exist" without having any specific function?

Would it not be weird to see a robot in an everyday place just minding its own business and not doing anything in particular. Or see a robot carry out a task without making any progress at all. Is a robot only valuable if it contributes something?

I can't help to think:

  • Is the robot dumb?

  • Is it blindly doing something without questioning?

  • Are they helpless?


Eternal cleaning.

This robot duo gets useless together. One device with an electro-magnet sweeps iron dust and drops it in front of the second machine which in turn sweeps it back to the other one.

Unplugged.

This mechanized machine powered by a socket has one fatal "flaw". As soon as you turn it on, it travels forward. But as a consequence of this, it unplugs itself, disabling its own function.

On Youtube the top comment for this video is: "I feel like this machine is a good metaphor for life." - very accurate.

Oops... let me do this again.

I like the idea of two bots working simultaneously. However, instead of working together, their tasks clash with each other making their function a never-ending loop. In my machine idea, there are two hammers placed on opposite sides of each other (one on top and one down). Both have a motor that is constantly spinning which causes the hammer to rise and fall. The hammer falls onto a large nail hammering it into the surface. However, the hammer on the opposite side has a similar movement but in the opposite direction causing the nail to come out of the surface. With this construction, you create an infinite loop of two machines trying to get the nail in and out.