In black and white, an industrial robot arm reaches into scattered wooden blocks while a small robot arm works at the edge of the table.
Sisyphus, 2022. Photo: [credit]

Work
2022

Sisyphus

Two robotic systems locked in an endless loop: six small robot arms build brick arches, and an industrial arm demolishes them.

Named after the figure condemned to roll a boulder uphill every day, only to watch it roll back down, Sisyphus reads the clash between authority and resistance as repetition. One system is small and nimble, the other large and unyielding; either, or both, could be Sisyphus.

The industrial arm never concedes, and the small arms never stop rebuilding. In our Leonardo article, Shan Wong and I describe this as dialectical robotics: sustained opposition between machines produces adaptation and difference, rather than mere futility.

The circular table seen from a distance, the industrial arm at its centre and small arms around the edge.
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Small robot arms placing blocks on the table, the industrial arm looming behind.
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Close-up of the industrial arm’s tool beside a small robot arm.
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A small robot arm builds a block column while the large tool knocks down an arch in the foreground.
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Credits

Director, roboticist
Kachi Chan
Research
Shan Wong
Project advisors
Ruairi Glynn, Parker Heyl, Phaedra Shanbaum