Indexical Micro-Residency
Sarah Buckius: If (x = Robot), Then (y = Move fast and break things); In the (z = Self-Cleaning House); of (n = Coherent Nonsense); While (m = Being Mechanical Turk);

Sarah Buckius is a 2023 receipient of Indexical’s new Micro-Residency Commissions for Santa Cruz-based artists. A new work stemming from her ongoing project !!! techn010ffspring !!!, her commssioned project If (x = Robot) … is an investigation into the female-coded personae of robots—from the ubiquitous disembodied voices of personal assistants Siri and Alexa to Cassie, “the Usain Bolt of robots,” who is simply a pair of fast-running torsoless robotic legs. These histories and cultural assumptions are tied to the “mechanical turk,” the invention of the “self-cleaning house” and Silicon Valley’s imperative to “move fast and break things.” Buckius enacts the personae of these robots as a gradually-overwhelmed entity, while participants direct her movement through the execution of menial, mechanical turk-like tasks.
Sarah Buckius is an artist and educator who lives in Santa Cruz, Calif. Her creative work incorporates digital video, animation, photography, and performance and has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Her most recent work involves "Intertwined HerStories" originating from the cross-section of *-gender-*-technology-*-lens-based-media-*-the human body-*-caregiving-*. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an M.F.A. from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.