A flesh-toned robot dog with an unsettlingly realistic face was roaming the streets near Oracle Park in San Francisco on April 8, and that face belonged to Elon Musk. The android was no mess in anyone’s fever dream.
This was an intentional street activation by digital artist Beeple, who goes by the name Mike Winkelman, to promote his upcoming exhibition “INFINITE_LOOP,” which will open April 18 at NODE, a digital art center in Palo Alto.
What is Beeple’s Regular Animals Series?
In Regular Animals, the artist installs highly realistic silicone heads, created by professional mask designer HyperFlesh, onto the bodies of Unity Go2 robot dogs. The work features six characters, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Winkelmann himself.
All of these are presented for the first time during Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2024. The San Francisco walkout is the first time such a robot has been released into the wild with “lost dog” posters spread across a neighborhood.
The pedestrians stopped midway. Local dogs were reportedly astonished. An encounter with a Waymo autonomous vehicle went viral on social media. Online reactions were predictably divided – “terrible” and “so wrong” from some, genuine laughter from others. That friction, by design, is the point.
“It stops people in their tracks and gets them talking,” a representative for NODE told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Sending Elon on the streets is a way to bring that energy into public life.”
Each robot lives for three years, or 21 dog years, after which it officially dies. All interactions and memories collected during the entire process are stored in the blockchain, allowing the artwork to live beyond its physical form and become immortal in the digital realm.
When it comes to selling digital art, Winkelman knows how to make headlines. Last year, “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” was sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million, giving Winkelmann third place on the list of best-selling artists. “INFINITE_LOOP” will be on display until June 30; Entry is free every Saturday and Sunday.
