My father loves to sing, play guitar and piano, and it's not unusual for him to burst out into song at any given moment. 

When I was a kid, every night my dad would bring out the guitar and start playing. Sometimes after school and swim practice, my dad would bring out the guitar and it would be just us having fun and singing at the top of our lungs

Sadly, during August 2024, my father had a stroke. He lost his ability to speak and sing, thankfully since then he has regained his abilities to do so. 

I missed the sound of his voice everyday, the moments where he would pull out the guitar and sing. 

To honor all the fun past and future times my dad sing and play together, I built this robot that plays guitar, wears a scarf I crocheted for my father, an identical pair of his reading glasses, a mug with a bag of his favorite tea, wearing a watch on its left hand, a guitar pedal I built during my first year of uni, and Red the Firetruck from Cars that matches the one my father gave me. The speaker is playing an audio recording of my father and I singing John Cale's version of Hallelujah (originally by Leonard Cohen), when I was nine years old. 

I don't want this robot to viewed as something sad, but rather a positive machine that honors my dad. 

Life can take so much away from you, but it cannot take away your music.

GolemBot 1.20, 2025

I came up with the GolemBot 1.20 when I was reading Golem! Danger, Deliverance, and art by Emily D. Bilski, Moshe Idel, Elfriede Ledig, and Issac Bashevis Singer. There is a quote in the beginning of the book that says “What are the computers and robots of our time if not golems?” This made me think, what would a golem look and act like in the 21st century? Antisemitism has mutated and while pogroms are still happening they are a lot less common. How would a golem defend Jews now? The GolemBot 1.20 is what I came up with.

Made for my Posthumanism technology class as apart of my exploration into Judeofuturism. The GolemBot 1.20 scrolls on social media and is supposed to report antisemitism online. This is my first iteration of the GolemBot, I hope to create either more GolemBots or robots similar to him.

Thank you to Becca Leviss and ArtLush for sharing your judeofuturist knowledge with me 🤖💙💖🌌🪐

Photos and video credit: Leena Mahal

This was my midterm for my posthumanism technology class called "Brave New Bodies". I wanted to explore the relationships that we as humans have with our technology and to ask the question: "at what point does our technology become a necessary part of us?" 

Made using nonfunctioning flipphones, zipties, bandage wrap, wire hangers, pla, arduino, aluminum rod, steel wheel, acryllic paint and super glue.