Transform . Reborn . Free
Cremate Bot is an apparatus that takes in human-body clippings such as fingernails, hair, or dead skin–and turns them into ashes through the cremation process. The process of converting human remains to ashes becomes a critical experience for observers, causing witnesses to question their sense of existence and physical self through the conversion process.
Cremate Bot transforms our physical self and celebrates our rebirth through self-regeneration. The transformation and rebirth open our imagination to go beyond our physical self and cross the span of time.
Similar to Theseus’ paradox, the dead human cells – which at one point we consider them part of our physical self and help to define ones’ sense of existence – are continually replaced with newly generated cells. With the recent advancement in implants, Biomechatronics and bioengineered organs, the line of how we define ourselves is increasingly blurred.
Once the urn collects equivalent human body-mass in ashes, are we then reborn? Is the ash still part of us? This work sparks discussion of what is oneself, what and why we consider to be extension of ourselves, does it free or constrain our confinement of oneself?
