The Destruction of the Ego is a one-foot tall toy robot enlarged to a more than three metre tall giant. It still has the same features as the small original. It laughs hysterically, like a child that is tickled out of its mind, it falls on the floor in convulsions and rises up on its feet again.

Do you remember the tickling games you played when you were a child? How they started with pleasure but soon went over to hysterical laughter that threatened to flip over to hysteria and pain? The Destruction of the Ego is just about that, but also about how we fight to keep control over our body and mind and what happens when we fail.

The origin of this piece was formed when I bought some mechanical toy animals and decided to skin them. Without the fur they became much less individual and far more fragile in some peculiar way. One of the toys was a figure that, when he was tickled, started a hysterical laugh, fell over, kicked his legs and rose again. I did not only strip him naked. I also modified the toy so he would trigger himself to laugh and fall over and repeat the movements over and over again. The result was over the top hysterical in an uncomfortable way.

To enhance the eerie feelings that the small sized toy communicated, I decided to take proportions out of context. What if the toy was several metres tall? Objects and beings seem to be designed for a certain size. When it is changed, not only the look is changed, but all the functions and properties. The translation of the movements of the small toy created unforeseen difficulties when the giant was put in to action. The robot actually destroyed itself several times before the physics were harnessed.

It has been stated by many others. If a robot, a humanoid, is designed to look exactly like a human it becomes scary. On the other hand, a machine that has a few human features, and preferably some of our weaknesses, breaks our hearts. This is also where the attraction of my creation lays. It is the grotesque size, in combination with the giggling of a child, and how it laughs and falls around without control. It is insane and uncontrolled, and insanity is certainly human a feature, not a machine’s.

The project is realised with support from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee

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