Beeple presents robot dogs with public figures' 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 to the scene at the Art Basel art fair with a group of quadruped robots that take photos of visitors and produce printed artworks, which also function as crypto collectibles.

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 ways,” said Beeple.

The robots “will only take photos and reveal these memories, which will be recorded on a specific 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’ll see the world through AI,” said Beeple.

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

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

The printed photos produced by the robot dogs contain a notice describing the artwork as “tested and verified as 100% pure, GMO-free, and organic.”

Previous Beeple art projects

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

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.

NFT fever had cooled considerably by mid-2022, with volumes and prices dropping in most segments. At the start of 2023, there was still some demand.

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

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