A pack of robotic quadrupeds with hyperrealistic faces of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and other billionaires made their messy debut at Art Basel Miami, occasionally tipping backward to shoot out printed artwork in a feature the artist calls “poop mode.” Mike Winkelmann, the digital creator known as Beeple, designed the installation, Regular Animals, to capture the absurdity of wealth, fame, and algorithmic control. At the bizarre installation, Musk’s robot pursed its lips as it circled, Zuckerberg nearly collided with Andy Warhol, and Picasso’s bot sat serenely while generating prints in the style of its namesake. Each robot also photographs the environment and translates it into images reflective of the person it represents. “This one looks like an Andy Warhol, how he saw the world. The Picasso image reinterprets the world as Picasso saw it,” Winkelmann said. He added that the project also serves as a warning: “We’re increasingly seeing the world through the lens of how they would like us to see it, because they control these very powerful algorithms.” The robotic sculptures, designed to capture images and store them on blockchain, have a three-year functional lifespan. After that, their recording ends, though motor skills remain. Each was sold within the first hour at Art Basel, Winkelmann said.
<video id="KRKywE09" poster="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KRKywE09/poster.jpg"><source src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/videos/KRKywE09.mp4" type="video/mp4"></source></video>The post Robot Musk Goes Full ‘Poop Mode’ in Unhinged Art Freakshow appeared first on The Daily Beast