highlike

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu

Can’t Help Myself
Constructed of a Kuka industrial robot arm, ‘Can’t Help Myself’ is programmed to do one thing: contain a viscous, deep-red liquid within a fixed area. When the blood-like substance pools too much, this activates the robot’s sensors causing the arm to swivel, flex, and shovel the liquid back to the center leaving splashes and smudges in its wake.

VTOL

Until I die
This installation operates on unique batteries that generate electricity using my blood. The electric current produced by the batteries powers a small electronic algorithmic synth module. This module creates generative sound composition that plays via a small speaker. The blood used in the installation was stored up gradually over 18 months. The conservation included a number of manipulations to preserve the blood’s chemical composition, color, homogeneity and sterility to avoid bacterial contamination. The total amount of blood conserved was around 4.5 liters; it was then diluted to yield 7 liters, the amount required for the installation. The blood was diluted with distilled water and preservatives such as sodium citrate, antibiotics, antifungal agents, glucose, glycerol etc. The last portion of blood (200ml) was drawn from my arm during the performance presentation, shortly before the launch of the installation.

Kohei Nawa

Biomatrix
“Biomatrix” is an installation of endles scycles of eruptive cell bubbles emerging on the surface of liquid silicone oil. This circulation of the colored liquid evokes the behaviour of magma or blood, and due to the high viscosity of silicon oil, illustrates the movement of the material at a speed deceptively slower than the viewer’s expectation. The electrically controlled pool becomes an interface that amplifies visual impact, and infinitely produces cell patterns. An orderly grid formation appears as a digital matrix, while closer observation reveals irregularities such as sporadic and simultaneous effervescence and plosive sounds breaking the surface tension.