adorshki
Reverential Member
It's programmed to try to contain the constantly leaking hydraulic fluid needed to keep it running... if too much leaks out, it will "die" it, so it's desperately trying to pull it back to keep fighting for another day.
The saddest part is that they gave the robot the ability to do these "happy dances" in front of spectators.
When the project was first launched, he danced spending most of his time interacting with the crowd as he could quickly pick up the small spill.
Many years later... (as you see him now in the photo) he looks tired and hopeless because there is no longer enough time to dance.. Now he only has time to try to keep himself alive as the amount of leaked hydraulic fluid has became unmanageable as the spill grew over time. Living his final days in an endless cycle between sustaining life and simultaneously bleeding... (figuratively and literally as his hydraulic fluid is made to look like real blood).
“The robot arm finally ran out of hydraulic fluid in 2019, and he slowly stopped and died.
And now I'm tearing a damn robot arm apart.
He was programmed to live this fate and no matter what he did or how hard he tried, there was no escaping it.
Viewers watched as he slowly bled until the day he stopped moving forever.
Saying "this resonates" doesn't even do it justice imo.
Created by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, they called the piece, 'Can't Help Myself'. What a masterpiece. What a message."
-alessandro 13 in Quora