Compulsion Machine looms over the viewer as they walk up to it, with a step leading one to be eye level with a screen in between blinders. Behind this screen is a strip of text commanding the reader to turn the crank, submit their control, and continue reading. The crank makes the text move past the screen, continuing to scold, dissuade, and discourage the viewer, with intermittent reminders to continue reading, cranking, and submitting. Eventually, through enough obedience, the text wears down, allowing a separate voice to fade in, urging the reader to let go, to stop letting this machine tell them what to do. If they do step away, they can look around the back of the machine to see inside, and see a cobbled together mechanism held together with tape and hot glue, with a chain driving the belt past the screen. The text is a lot less powerful, and the machine a lot less authoritative, when the viewer is able to see how it works. It can only function when the viewer allows it to, giving power to its empty words.