Unknown Hero  Boy in the Machine

Young Cabin Boy Worker On A Long Shift In The Excavator

Boy in the Machine, Shanghai, 2015

This "cabin boy" of the 21st century is apathetically focusing on his work in an excavator. At an age when the middle and upper class youth still enjoy a carefree life of consumption paid for by their parents, he has to work long shifts for his own survival already. Driven by the repetitive movements of the excavator and monotonic work orders, he has fully melted with the machine. A machine that seemingly gives him "super powers" on the one hand, but strips him of his human free will on the other. As his machine, he has become a mere tool of greater powers.