This December, visitors of Art Basel in Miami could see robotic quadrupeds fitted with silicone faces of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol, Mark Zuckerberg, Pablo Picasso and Mike Winkelmann, the artist who came up with the idea, as reported by CNN.
According to Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, his art installation «Regular Animals» examines how influential figures — particularly tech leaders — shape public perception through the powerful visual and algorithmic tools they create. The robots, he explained, «see» and reinterpret the world differently depending on the persona they embody.
For viewers, it looked as though the four-legged machines roamed a pen, periodically ejecting printed artworks from a rear compartment while displaying «poop mode» on their back screens. Each robot produces images that reinterpret its surroundings in the visual style of the figure it represents.
The installation quickly became one of the most discussed attractions in Art Basel’s new Zero 10 section, dedicated to digital and experimental art. Visitors crowded around the roaming machines, reacting with fascination, amusement and sometimes discomfort, as the widely recognizable faces felt too realistic on robotic bodies.
The printed artworks expelled by the machines are also minted as NFTs, aligning with Beeple’s ongoing interest in blockchain-based media. Each robot will continue recording images to the blockchain for three years before its main function expires, giving the works a built-in conceptual lifespan.
It wasn’t the first major artwork for Beeple, who is considered one of the wealthiest modern digital artists. In 2021, his NFT collage «Everydays: The First 5000 Days» sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million. Since then, he has shifted toward large-scale digital installations and continued developing his studio as a hub for experimental technologies.
