Huggable HAL

Huggable HAL

Laura MacCary

Electronics, glass, fabric, foam

9 ½” x 9 ½” x 9 ½”

2005

HAL references the HAL 9000 computer from the movie 2001. HAL is a cube or block about ten inches on a side, with a glowering red eye that lights up when you hug it, but the eye fades unless you keep hugging. Ironically, hugging HAL forever would eventually run HAL’s batteries down, sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of thing.

I'm thinking about our relationship with technology, how intimate it is, how we anthropomorphize, and as the movie points out, how technology is a double-edged sword. For me there is some conflicted pathos in hugging or consoling this murderous/helpless device. Who is manipulating whom?