This work poses questions about employment, robotics and quantification. It was inspired by the title of the exhibition in Science Gallery Dublin, HUMANS NEED NOT APPLY, and presents a robotic arm that counts visitors with a clicker, offering a performative representation of the takeover of routine jobs, even in the gallery space. The work also embodies our idolatry of quantification; the obsessive need to count and measure everything.
Last century’s automation may have been largely hidden from everyday view, in factories tending production lines, or out in fields tilling the land. In this century, we will confront the reality of automation more intimately, as suggested here — it will be right beside us.
The artwork was commissioned by Science Gallery Dublin.
Credits for 3D printed robotic arm:
InMoov robot Arm modified to click a Tally Counter by mcanet
Published on February 6, 2017
www.thingiverse.com/thing:2088054
Hand robot InMoov by Gael_Langevin
Published on February 18, 2012
www.thingiverse.com/thing:17773

Exhibited:

group show The Future is Already Here curated by Véronique Baton at Le Grenier a Sel in Avignon, France (5 Oct – 31 Dec’24)

group show Decision Making curated by Dominique Moulon and Alain Thibault, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, France (10 Dec’21 – 15 April 2022)

Group Show Objects of Attention curated by Francisco Martínez, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Tallinn (12th Jan – 17th Mar’ 19)

Group Show Open Codes curated by Peter Weibel and co-curated by Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, Yasemin Keskintepe, Blanca Giménez in ZKM, Karlsruhe (1st Sep’18 – 6th Jan’19)

Group Show HUMANS NEED NOT APPLY curated by Amber Case and William Myers, Science Gallery Dublin, Ireland (10th Feb – 14th May’17)
Exhibition catalogue