A number of bizarre robotic dogs fitted with hyper-realistic silicone faces of renowned public figures such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg have been demonstrated at the Art Basel Miami Beach, as reported by Prabhat Ranjan Mishra for Interesting Engineering.
These machines wander inside a fenced area, snapping photos of the environment and occasionally entering a comically absurd "poop mode," during which they eject small printed artworks from their rear, according to reports.
Digital artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) unveiled this provocative installation called Regular Animals.
Each robot produces prints in a style associated with the person whose face it bears—for example, pop-art themes for the Warhol dog or cubist imagery for the Picasso version—and some prints also link to NFTs via QR codes.
Reports revealed that Beeple designed the piece as a commentary on how modern perceptions are increasingly shaped by tech moguls, algorithms, and digital platforms rather than traditional artists.
The installation, which blends humor, discomfort, and social critique, drew intense reactions from visitors and quickly sold most of its editions during the fair’s VIP preview.
Beeple’s Regular Animals installation at Art Basel Miami Beach appears to be pushing the boundaries of digital art by merging robotics, satire, and social commentary into a single performance-like environment.
One dealer, who asked to remain anonymous, described the work as decadent—not in the caviar-and-chocolate-cake way, but in the way that signifies moral and cultural decline. Its spectacle panders to the crowd, they said, dodges complexity, and disguises thin ideas behind technological bombast, reported Art News.
Reports have revealed that the movements of robotic dogs are deliberately awkward, creating an unsettling contrast between the familiar appearance of their faces and the mechanical behavior of their bodies.
Periodically, the dogs pause to scan the room, taking photos that feed algorithms that generate the prints they later expel. The act of "pooping" art is intentionally absurd, poking fun at how effortlessly digital content is produced, consumed, and discarded in today’s media ecosystem.
Beeple has explained that the project reflects his concern about how billionaires, platforms, and emerging AI systems subtly influence the way people understand reality, often shaping public perception more than traditional art or journalism ever could.
When the Zuckerberg dog finally produced an image, the crowd reacted with something close to ecstasy. In a year steeped in fears about AI, automation, and the creeping power of the platforms that shape our reality, Beeple has seemingly produced a pressure valve for that cultural anxiety.
But what are the crowds actually looking at? Most of the people who have crowded around the pen are only looking at the creatures through their phones, Art News reported.
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