[Also requested by @archvillain]
First, I would like to highly recommend watching a video of this robot, itโs cool as hell, and the movements really sell it, honestly.
So, I want to start with acknowledging the actual meaning of this piece. Itโs about the violence and Sisyphean nature of guarding and enforcing borders. โEvery border implies the violence of its maintenanceโ and all of that. This is a very important political message. However, I think allowing yourself to only see an art for the intended meaning is counterproductive to the very nature of art.
The robot moves in a jerky fashion, tries desperately to keep this blood-like substance close to it. In doing so, it slowly destroys itself. It gunks up itโs own mechanisms, it works itself to death.
And yet, this is all it can do. It was made to do this eternally. It lacks free will, it cannot do anything else and it cannot desire to do anything else. It quite literally, cannot help itself.
I find the jerky movements alluring, the inhuman nature of it, the constant reminder that it is far from human. I find the lack of control it has erotic. As Iโve said before, both extreme control and extreme loss of control are erotic, in my opinion.
The blood-like substance it seeks to contain and the voyeuristic nature of the viewer just elevate this. We are watching something, and should we be watching it? The desperation of the robot, the way it almost seems to be cleaning up its own blood, these feel intimate, like something not intended for us.
Overall, I give this one a 10/10. It elicits a strong โi think i hauve covidโ from me.
Anonymous
