Can't Help Myself and the Sublime - Stevie Hardwich

     Can't Help Myself is an art installation by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. It is a robot that is stuck with the task of trying to clean up a blood-like liquid, but it will never succeed. It only grows more frantic as it sees that the 'blood' is still there. It looks and acts like a confused animal. It will never complete the task it was made for. 

    I would argue this art installation is a type of horror, a horror of life. This robot has the specific purpose of never succeeding. Almost worst than having no purpose at all is the purpose of failure. Something to pity. Many people have compared it to Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus as it continues its never-ending, useless task. Like Sisyphus, who was cursed to roll a bolder up a hill only for it to fall again that night, the robot is in a cycle. The title acknowledges the additional pain the robot brings to itself by trying so hard to clean the liquid. It can't help but frantically try, that's what it was programmed to do, and it only makes the situation worse with its panic. 

    This art piece is a great example of existential horror. The robot's purpose is to suffer and fail at one task until it breaks. No matter what it does, it will never clean the blood away. It will always try, though. The blood can be interpreted as many things, but I choose to believe that the 'blood' is just blood. It isn't special, it just needs to be cleaned up. 

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