Sleep Sound

Sleep Sound consists of an autonomous robotic device and a performance. The project recasts a light upon everyday life as an act of resistance, in hopes of developing a way to cope with the anxious reality of 21st-century nomadic life.

Resembling a single bed composed of aluminum frames, a mattress, four wheels, and integrated electronics, the device navigates through a defined space like an automobile. Establishing a dynamic interplay between control and unpredictability, the device moves in algorithmically choreographed patterns, resulting in a movement that embraces a degree of randomness.

This project stems from Zhaos personal experience of constant relocation, having been living a distance away from their cultural roots for the past decade. Throughout this time, as a result of undergoing a fragmented relationship between person and place, they grappled with an anxiety of uncertainty. In the work, the bed loses its meaning as a reliable daily object housed within the safety of a bedroom and instead, begins to embody my alienation, often experienced by urban dwellers in this postmodern era as a result of a constant impulse to migrate.

In PA2025, this bed roams on the Waterfront, transforming this expansive public space into a mise-en-scène for Zhaos daily activities. In Sleep Sound, they revisit the power of the quotidian, in which mundane practices can be internalized by individuals as acts of resistance. They eat, drink, read, and sleep on the bed for hours. Jolted by the random movements of the device, Zhao is exposed to the gaze of public audiences in an extreme of isolation as they strive to maintain focus. The entire coordination of acts and machinery examines the possibility that mundane actions can be transformed into subtle yet powerful forms of resistance, revealing new hope within the fabric of daily life.