Robot dogs bearing realistic faces of tech titans, famous artists surprise visitors at Miami art fair

Visitors to the Art Basel in Miami were greeted by a surreal spectacle this week: a pack of robot dogs trotting around an exhibition pen, each with an eerily lifelike silicone face of a well-known tech titan or artist.

One robot, fitted with the likeness of Elon Musk, is seen in a video posted by Art Basel’s Instagram account, circling the space with its lips puckered. Nearby, faux Andy Warhol and Mark Zuckerberg nearly bump into each other, while a Pablo Picasso lookalike pauses contemplatively, as if lost in thought.

Occasionally, the machines would tip backwards and eject small images resembling Polaroid photographs from their behinds, accompanied by the words “poop mode” flashing on screens mounted on their backs, CNN reported.

Crowds of people are seen in the video surrounding the pen, with some pointing their phones at the spectacle.

The bizarre installation, titled Regular Animals, is the latest work by American digital artist Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann. Two of the robots feature his own face, complete with his hairstyle and glasses, sharing the arena with the Musk, Warhol, Zuckerberg, Picasso and Jeff Bezos versions.

“I’m the odd one out, I’ll say that,” Beeple told CNN.

“We are not ready for the future,” his latest project cautions.

Beeple said the robots’ cameras continuously photograph the fair and reinterpret what they capture in visual styles associated with the figures they resemble.

Prints generated by the Warhol-faced robot, for instance, mimic the pop artist’s signature aesthetic, while the Picasso version reshapes its surroundings through cubist lens.

For the billionaire faces, he suggested the styles hint at how powerful tech leaders shape what people see online through the algorithms they control.

Art Basel in Miami, one of the world’s most commercially influential art fairs, showcases modern and contemporary works from leading galleries, with recent editions placing increasing emphasis on digital and experimental media. The fair’s dedicated section for new formats, Zero 10, is where Beeple’s robotic creatures are housed.

Their printed pieces are not just physical keepsakes but also NFTs (nonfungible token), a medium that soared during the 2021 crypto boom and subsequently crashed.

Beeple once sold an NFT 5,000-image digital collage for US$69.3 million (S$87.7 million). After making that sale, the artist became the third most expensive living artist in the world.

All the robots were sold within the first hour of the fair’s opening, though Beeple noted they have a limited lifespan: their image-recording and blockchain functions will end after three years, even as their basic movements continue.