Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, has placed himself at the center of the pack with his latest viral installation at Art Basel Miami Beach. There is still time to see it through Sunday.
His “Regular Animals” project features robotic dogs valued at one hundred thousand dollars each. They are outfitted with hyper-realistic heads resembling Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, alongside art legends Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. The robot dogs roam inside a plexiglass pen. They capture images through chest-mounted cameras, which are then processed by artificial intelligence. According to reports, these images are essentially pooped out by the machines.
Of the physical prints produced, two hundred and fifty-six include QR codes. These codes offer collectors a free NFT, dispensed in bags labeled “Excrement Sample.”
Beeple also included a robotic dog with his own likeness in this exclusive group. The Charleston-based artist called this move ballsy. He told reporters that his self-portrait dog sold first, which surprised even him.
This project marks at least the second time Winkelmann has become a main character in the art world. Four years ago, his digital collage sold at Christie’s auction house for sixty-nine million dollars. That sale helped fuel a boom in NFTs, which peaked about a year later before largely imploding.