The Saddest Robot on Earth (Can't Help Myself)

In late 2021, an art piece called "Can't Help Myself" went extremely viral. Today we'll talk about the piece and the controversial art duo behind it.

Music:

Sources:

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction
1:20 - The Artists
4:03 - Dogs That Cannot Touch Each Other
6:23 - If I Pass Away
7:53 - Can't Help Myself
12:26 - The Robot Goes Viral
16:30 - Conclusion

[deburke]

This has been the stressful video I've ever made, not because of the actual creative process but because of everything that happened during it. My editing software crashed and was unusable half way through, my account was then breached and my channel was then banned. Luckily I was able to get it back but safe the say it has not been a fun week.

I then had to render this video 6 different times because it kept rendering incorrectly. Even now, it still has a couple of flaws, there is a couple of random pauses around 5 minutes in that are not intentional and I had a swanky intro that I had to edit out but all in all, this is the best version of the video I could get out and honestly it's only a couple of small mistakes so I'm alright with it.

I'm still happy with the actual video, but I'm much happier to have it released and to just have this weird chapter of the channel put behind me. Hopefully it's smooth sailing for the rest of the year.

In case some weird nonsense happens again I recommend following me over on Twitter (Deburke321), I don't use it much but I used it a lot during this ordeal and it was actually a very handy tool to get the message out. I'll see you guys soon regardless, much love ❤

[kristopherguilbault]

I completely got this exhibit wrong ...i thought that the liquid was the oil that it utilized and when the oil disappeared eventually it died. And it was almost like it was bleeding and trying to stay alive by shoveling it back to itself

[huldrrrr]

Even though it wasn't the artist's intention, the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this was OCD and coercive actions. This robot being forced to repeat this endless task for years on end due to it's very own "nature", getting increasingly worn out and desperate, was pretty relatable to me...

[saberfang]

I’ve seen that robot on tik tok and hearing the screeching on the unoiled metal broke my heart. I may have never got to see it in person but it will never be forgotten. That Robot didn’t want to give up on trying. It kept trying till the end. I can have a lot of meaning even for people who struggle with depression

[alexandredesouza]

A tired robot, struggling to stay alive?
A broken mind, picking up the pieces?
An authoritarian state, trying to stop the bloody truth from escaping?
A labored worker, dying of monotony?
A machine preserving spoiled blood of its owner?
Or doomed to do so, and fail?
Does it replace a janitor, factory worker or a guardsman, a superfluous job or nothing at all?
Or perhaps, something entirely different?

[CurtTheHero]

The thing about an art piece is that noone's interpretation is necessary wrong. It may not align with the creator's intention but the piece takes on a life of it's own when it's released and that's part of what makes it beautiful. There's this interesting futility that comes with trying to perfectly preserve a creators vision but people viewing it through their own lens of experiences and emotions is simply inevitable

[Sanctum]

Sisyphus in robot form.

The constant cleaning was enough to complete the programming. One must imagine it happy.

[katietaylor]

A quote from my favourite TV show of all time springs to mind: "Isn't the point of art less what people put into it and more what they get out of it?"

[jeni]

What truly pisses me off to no end (as someone who lives with a beautiful and chill corn snake) is how everyone is so angry over the dogs that were in no danger but almost no one bats an eyelash over the reptiles and crustaceans strung up and left to die. This is how things always are. The shit people tell me when I tell them I have a corn snake is ridiculous. If someone told me they had just gotten a new dog I wouldn’t tell them about how someone’s cousin’s uncle’s sister’s mother in law saw a dog in their yard earlier and beat it over the head until it died. Artistic my ass. Animal abuse is animal abuse.

[vespan.a]

That living curtain thing isn't even animal cruelty

It's animal torture

[janemiettinen]

As an artist, I gotta say something. I may have a particular idea in mind when Im painting, but as soon as the piece leaves my studio, its open to interpreting. No interpretation is wrong, its up to you what you see, Im just the mirror holder. As long as Ive made you feel or think, Ive done my job. I think most artist think this way, but of course I cant be sure and Im certainly not talking on behalf this couple in question. Ive talked about this with my artsy friends from different fields (dancers, poets, painters, musicians, you name it) and we seem to have consensus, tho my polling pool is quite limited. Just thought I throw this out there; art can be intimidating and it shouldnt be, I hate it. Art is for everybody. Theres no wrong answers, whatever you experience is right.

[bearintraining]

I love when you said red viscous liquid as vicious liquid it made me imagine the liquid being sentient and attacking the robot lol.

[DubYuhGChoppa]

The saddest robot is the one that hacked your channel the other day 💀💀

[exosproudmamabear]

The living curtain is straight out animal cruelty.They are just attached to the curtain alive thats just a line that should be not crossed in my opinion. Ethic is a important subject in art and science.There are multiple lines you shouldnt cross even it is means restricting artistic endeveours. Where those lines start and end is a question but there should be definitely some.

[languid-]

My heart broke after realizing that the “living curtain” was actually live animals, in the video the person said live curtain but I thought that because they were once alive but.. hanging animals, impaling them, watching them die and calling it art? What the hell everyone is so upset at the “abuse” of the dogs and I’m not for that either but you talk like they’re murdering the dogs when they are ACTUALLY torturing animals until they die, the most slow painful death. I don’t care if you don’t like these types of animals personally I am very attached to reptiles and I just like seeing different types of animals, even if you are afraid or angry with these animals existence, to watch them die so slowly and just act like it’s nothing many people say it’s gross but not because it is disgusting that these humans did this, but because these animals “are gross”. The robot piece is so amazing as well as “if I die” but I can never think highly of them again after realizing what they really did to those animals. I’m sorry if I’ve been rude or upset anyone it’s fine if you have a different opinion than me but under no circumstances should anyone encourage or applaud animal abuse. Personally this really upset me not in a way where I’m gonna scream at anyone but just a way that ruins my day and fills me with disgust. So I apologize if I said anything rude, but you didn’t have to read this. Please be respectful, thank you have a lovely day.

[carved_cuts]

Nobody gonna talk about the curtain? I was so disturbed that I looked it up, hoping to be wrong but I wasn't. As I feared, all those creatures were put there to starve, dry out and generally suffer a slow death. The artists wanted to show their dying struggles specifically. 400 kilograms of lobsters, 30 kilograms of eels, 30 kilograms of snakes, and 20 kilograms of bull frogs suffered to death for their "art."

The only thing that was interesting to me about this, is that so many people were disturbed by the dog piece. Yet when anything that's not a cute fluffy mammal is strung up to suffer, till death finally ends it's misery, it's much less talked about. I'm not a fan of the dog piece myself, but it's nothing compared to the cruelty of the curtain.

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Edit: At the time of posting this comment, there were few talking about the curtain and I feel this video kinda glossed over the true horror of it. I also didn't see anyone having researched this more. Most commenters were just praising the artists. But I can't support them after the shit i've read, and I was wondering if anyone else felt the same.

I've been trying to comment my source but YouTube is allergic to links, and keeps deleting it. Just search the names of the artists and "the curtain." You'll find a PDF about their animal pieces eventually. Further sources are listed in the document as well.

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Frequently used arguments:

1. But it got the point across. You are upset, and this was the artist's intention.

Just because it's art and has a message to convey or emotion to envoke, doesn't make it okay. You can brutally kill a man, claim the corpse is art and make it a "critique on murder, meant to upset people." Will it convey the message? Yes. Will it upset people? Yes. Is it okay? No. This example is a crime, and should be treated as such.

2. The piece is a critique on how we treat these animals.

You don't have to commit cruelty in order to artistically critique it. For example: a PSA about child abuse. The director can't legally make someone abuse a child on camera. So they use actors and implications to get the point across.

3. Dogs are more sentient than the creatures in the curtain.

Yet the creatures in the curtain felt hunger, thirst, pain and fear, untill they finally died, all the same. A snake can't whimper and cry like a puppy, but that doesn't mean it can't feel pain.

4. Dogs are pets and therefore more important.

Frogs and snakes are also kept as pets. Less common pets, but they are loved by their owners nonetheless. Lobsters and eels are usually kept in zoo aquariums, but there are people who keep them as a personal pet too. An animal doesn't need to be able to retrieve a ball to be considered a pet.

5. Millions of these animals die everyday for food.

Millions of people die everyday too, yet murder is a crime. Yes we kill and eat these animals in mass but they can be killed humanely. We don't hang live food from the ceiling until it starves to death. This art piece is straight up, unnecessary cruelty. Wasteful too. They could have fed so many starving people with all this meat.

[danser_theplayer]

That wall of snakes and crabs is alive?! The guys are just straight up psychopaths.

[birb]

The Living Curtain reminds me of some forgotten work by Dante related to his work, It's a hellish sight and a terrible torture! Imagine people Tied together and hung in such a curtain to starve to death, And the only thing that will be remembered after them is their total weight, not even a number.

[rileyf.]

honestly, for the longest time, i thought it was about OCD and constantly trying to control a part of your surroundings that doesn’t really affect you until it destroyed you.

[sebastianbass]

9:48 He said “vicious” (deliberately cruel or violent) instead of “viscous” (sticky or resistive to flow). The liquid is actually the latter.