M.O.E is a conceptual robotic artwork that explores motivation, agency and empathy through a contradictory design. Through research in Human-Robot Interaction, socially assistive robots, conversation design, concepts of robots in performance and investigation in the history of robotic art this project explores how participants interact with a dysfunctional machine and following how this investigation can be brought into performance. M.O.E. is a robot designed and developed as a part of the Copenhagen-based theater Flyvende Grise’s performance project The Robot Project.