Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu have found an interesting new application for an industrial robot: squeegeeing blood.
Yuan and Yu combined a Kuka robot, Cognex visual-recognition sensors and software to create "Can’t Help Myself," an examination of our increasingly automated global reality.
The robot uses sensors to detect when the blood flows too far and then uses the end effector to shovel it back into place — they literally call it a shovel.
It's a bloodbath in that box, as it leaves stains on the floor and spatter on the walls. According to the artists, the blood is actually cellulose ether, a rather complicated product made with wood or cotton fiber, combined with colored water.
The art installation was originally commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum, but you can now check it out at the Venice Art Biennale 2019 in Italy. Titled "May You Live in Interesting Times," the exhibit runs through November 24, and while you’re there, you can also check out the fake indoor beach (sun & sea). Fake beach, real people, indoors.
The pair is known for blending technology with art to create visceral installations and works meant to provoke startling and contemplative emotions, like the “Angel" sculpture of a dead angel outfitted with large roasted chicken wings, and Old Persons Home, in which 13 life-sized sculptures modeled after aged world leaders ride 13 dynamoelectric wheelchairs and continue to slam into one-another.
