There's a Sanskrit Shloka that goes:
साहित्यसङ्गीतकलाविहीनः
साक्षात्पशुः पुच्छविषाणहीनः।
And the translation is;
A person who does not have an (interest in) literature, music, or any other art is an animal without a tail and horns.
Thus Art is an important part of 'what makes us humans', and with that nowadays modern art is quite popular and trending. The ''Can't Help Myself''' robot surely comes under this category. This piece of art consists of a robotic arm that's placed behind clear acrylic walls, and has one specific duty, to contain a deep-red liquid which is the hydraulic liquid within a small area to stay alive. When the sensors detect that the fluid has strayed too far, the arm frenetically brushes it back into place, leaving smudges on the ground and splashes on the surrounding walls. Observed from the cage-like transparent walls that keep the robot in it, the robot seems to acquire consciousness and metamorphose into a life form captured and confined in space. At the same time, for viewers, the satisfaction of watching the robot’s continuous action elicits a sense of amusement and excitement, as opposed to thrills or suspense. In this case, who is more vulnerable: the human who built the machine or the machine who is controlled by a human?
The title, "Can't Help Myself," suggests a sense of compulsion or obsession, emphasizing the machine's inability to break free from its programmed task. This amazing piece of art is located in Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and was created by China's two most controversial robotic engineers, Sun Yuang and Peng Yu in 2016.
"No piece of art has ever emotionally affected me the way this robot arm piece has. It's programmed to try to contain the hydraulic fluid that’s constantly leaking out and required to keep itself running...if too much escapes, it will die so it's desperately trying to pull it back to continue to fight for another day. The saddest part is they gave the robot the ability to do these 'happy dances' to spectators. When the project was first launched it danced around spending most of its time interacting with the crowd since it could quickly pull back the small spillage. Many years later... (as you see it now in the video) it looks tired and hopeless as there isn't enough time to dance anymore…,” said Parr.
The robotic arm would work tirelessly scooping back escaping fuel to keep itself alive. In the end, the robot died in 2019 and it was later revealed that it was actually run on electrics so it spent its whole life working for something it didn't even need… Spectators watched as it slowly bled out until the day that it ceased to move forever. The robot’s “endless, repetitive dance presents an absurd, Sisyphean view of contemporary issues surrounding migration and sovereignty”, stated the museum. And as they say, life imitates art...or is it the other way around?