Beeple launches robot dogs with Musk and Zuckerberg heads that generate NFTs

Source: PortaldoBitcoin Original Title: Beeple launches robot dogs with Musk and Zuckerberg heads that generate NFTs Original Link: Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, brought NFTs back into the spotlight at the Art Basel art fair with a group of quadruped robots that take pictures of visitors and produce printed artworks from their rear ends, which also function as crypto collectible items.

The interactive exhibit, titled “Regular Animals”, is on display until December 7 at the Miami Beach Convention Center as part of Art Basel’s Zero 10 program for new digital works.

Each quadruped robot carries a hand-sculpted silicone head based on figures from the worlds of art and technology, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Beeple himself.

The robots roam the space, their cameras capturing scenes from the fair, which are processed into stylized prints linked to the identity of each mask.

“We are increasingly seeing the world through the lens of how they would like us to see it, because they control these very powerful algorithms and have unilateral control over how we see the world in many aspects,” said Beeple.

The robots “will just take photos and reveal these memories, which will be recorded on a certain blockchain, because I think that’s a great use for this technology,” he added.

The robots use a quadruped platform equipped with sensors, cameras, and a compact dye-sublimation printer that produces the images seen in the fair space, with each unit modified with a hand-sculpted, platinum-cured silicone head.

“It’s about AI reinterpreting the images and what the humanoid is seeing. There’s an analogy: increasingly, we will see the world through AI,” said Beeple.

Artists and tech leaders, like those represented in the robot dogs’ heads, continue to “shape what we see, probably more than anyone else,” he added.

Each robot was sold for $100,000, except the one with Bezos’s head, which was not for sale at the VIP preview on Wednesday when all the pieces sold out.

The printed photos produced by the robot dogs contain a notice describing the artwork as having been “tested and verified as 100% pure, GMO-free and organic, sourced from the anus of an adult medium-sized dog.”

Beeple’s Art Projects

Beeple’s latest work comes more than four years after the record sale of “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” in 2021, a digital collage with 5,000 images whose NFT fetched an impressive $69.3 million at Christie’s.

That auction placed Beeple among the most expensive living artists and helped push NFTs to the center of a global market boom.

“I’m interested in crazy art projects that I just couldn’t do before, but now I can,” Beeple said when asked how he plans to spend the money.

The NFT craze had cooled considerably by mid-2022, with volumes and prices dropping in most segments. Early 2023 still saw some demand.

“It’s crazy for me to think about that time, because NFTs were hated for much longer than they were loved,” Beeple said in October 2024.

In July this year, industry analyses showed that NFT sales increased by 78%, largely due to lower floor prices, although at the expense of total trading volume, which saw a quarterly drop of 45%.