Ho Family Foundation Associate Curator Xiaoyu Weng, with the intent of cultivating dialogue about the advancement of technology and industrialization, violent border control, and allusions to the nature of life.

[4] After completing their studies at the Central Academy of Fine arts in the 1990s, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu had short solo careers that set an artistic foundation for their partnership in the early 2000s.

[8] Yuan and Yu utilize technology and multi media art to "comment critically on the modern understanding and exercise of political constructs like the nation-state, sovereign territory, freedom, and democracy.

[8] The ultimate goal of Yuan and Yu's Can't Help Myself is to evoke powerful physical, emotional, and psychological responses from their audience and prompt them to scrutinize the socio-political systems that plague today's society, such as industrial violence at the border.

[3] Can't Help Myself was created with immense planning as well as consideration of the audience shock factor, a signature characteristic of Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's collaborative projects.

[10] For an art piece to be characterized as kinetic it must possess one or more of the following characteristics: 1) an optical phenomena, 2) transformative, 3) movable by the observer, 4) mechanical in nature, 5) playing with light and surrounding environments, and 6) have intrinsic movement.

[11] Can't Help Myself was created with the intent of generating both an emotional and intellectual response from viewers and takes up the human task of representing the violence and terror at the border.

[1] The 4 GigE Cognex industrial cameras, placed above the sculpture, alert the robotic arm to move to an area of spillage and squeegee said fluid back to its center.

[9] The death was not due to hydraulics or the loss of too much fluid, as Can't Help Myself was completely programmed, ran on electricity, and powered off every night by museum staff.

[3] With its purpose of eliciting unknown cultural and historical narratives as well as challenging the "conventional understanding of place", Can't Help Myself was created as Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's representation of geography and the nation state.

[13] The presence of Can't Help Myself as a kinetic sculpture in this exhibit speaks to its role of promote awareness to industrialized brutality on the Asian borders as well as the migration crisis in China.

[16] The May You Live in Interesting Times was to bring awareness to global crises such as nationalism, treats to traditions and institutions, and controversial relationships in a "post-war" and highly combated world.

[17] Can't Help Myself was displayed in the Central Pavilion within Proposition B and served as a testament to Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's perspective of technology's effect on politics and the maintenance of geopolitical borders.

[14] The kinetic sculpture is a manifestation of a sentient form of life captured in a cage and put on display and confined to do a Sisyphean task because of technology and industrial programming.

[3] The blood-like substance, although useless for the functionality for the object itself, is a testament to the bloodshed that spills out from industrialization and technological violence at geopolitical borders in China and across the globe.

[18] The Sisyphean task of cleaning up the spillage is a reference to border technology's sole purpose of causing bloodshed and restricting migrants from passing a specific point.

Curator Xiaoyu Weng states "Humans are unaware that the machines and programs created for surveillance result in them becoming subject to mechanic monitoring and controlling of behavior", which summarizes the further implications of Can't Help Myself.

[2] Lastly, the artists' unplugging the sculpture is their metaphorical way of advising political officials to put an end to the technological violence at nation borders and encouraging people to break away from monotony and allow them to branch out of their preordained, enclosed spaces.

[9] Social media framing as well as commentary on posts have highlighted the anthropomorphic quality of the sculpture where people feel as though it is "relatable robot" and state "no piece of art has emotionally affected me this way".

[20] The Sisyphean nature of the sculpture has caused its audience to resonate with Can't Help Myself as a reflection on people's constant suffering that comes with repetitively doing work to maintain themselves and their lifestyles.