Week 3 Post

 

A video showcasing the motion of 'Can't Help Myself.'

    Hearing the topic of the intersection of robots and art, a piece immediately came to mind that I had seen go viral a couple years back.This is "Can't Help Myself" by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, which was installed at the Guggenheim in 2016. It is an automated robot arm that slowly leaks dark-red liquid and is programmed to keep the liquid within a certain area, even though its very motions to do this task only cause it to leak at a higher rate. Many people felt emotionally connected to this robot, like the Tiktok users quoted by AUTHOR who "find this sad and sympathize with the robot by saying ‘’it looks so tired and unmotivated:(.’’ and ‘’I just want to turn it off to let it ‘rest’"."

 The piece at the beginning of its exhibition and at the end, showing the splattering of liquid all around the space it is in.

The robot was eventually turned off in 2019, after just three years of existence, its motions having slowed and rusted significantly and its blood-like ooze having been splattered all over the walls of its confinement. Despite being by definition inhuman and not truly alive, robots and our sympathy for them help us to explore and define what it means to be human. This is not the only robot that humans have truly cared for, as one internet search will show you lots of love for everything from the Mars rovers to the family Roomba. 

Once I read the assigned readings for this week, the commentary on originality reminded me of another art piece I had seen in the news recently. The art collective MSCHF purchased the piece "Fairies" by Andy Warhol, which is valued at $25,000, and used a robotic arm to make 999 copies that they say are indistinguishable. They then shuffled them all together with no record of the original and are selling them each for $250 as "Possibly Real Copy of 'Fairies' by Andy Warhol." 

 

The drawing 'Fairies' with the MSCHF Museum of Forgeries logo superimposed.

 The idea is that now, rather than one person owning this art piece, 1000 people collectively do-- since they each have a copy with no way of knowing if theirs is the original. This action is a piece of art in and of itself, but it raises questions about what will qualify as art, and specifically original art, in the future. I personally think this matters more in conversations about art as a financial investment piece, rather than art as something to experience to invoke an emotion. If I buy a print of an artwork to hang in my home, I don't care that it's not the original, because it's there to be enjoyed by me, not to accrue value so that I can make more money later.

 

References:

Benjamin, Walter, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." (1936).

Cassady, Daniel. “Hundreds of Andy Warhol Fakes, and One Original Drawing Worth $20K, Sold for $250 Each.” The Art Newspaper - International Art News and Events, 29 Oct. 2021, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/10/29/hundreds-of-andy-warhol-forgeries-and-one-original-warhol-drawing-worth-dollar20k-sold-for-dollar250-each.  

Davis, Douglas, "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction (An Evolving Thesis: 1991-1995)." Leonardo, Vol. 28, No. 5, Third Annual New York Digital Salon. (1995), pp. 381-386.

Hampsink, Iris  Olde. “Can't Help Myself – How a Relatable Robot Offers a Critical Reflection on Modern Society.” Diggit Magazine, 28 Feb. 2022, https://www.diggitmagazine.com/papers/can-t-help-myself-how-relatable-robot-offers-critical-reflection-modern-society. 

Weng, Xiaoyu. “Can't Help Myself.” The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/34812.