AI Masks Criticized at Art Exhibit
Controversial artist Mike Winkelmann, known online as Beeple, created an exhibit featuring robotic dogs wearing masks of influential figures like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk.
Visitors to Art Basel Miami Beach encountered a provocative new art installation titled “Regular Animals.” The piece depicted the masked celebrities on robotic dogs that produce photographs. Attendees used terms such as ‘creepy’ and ‘freaky’ to describe Winkelmann’s work.
The exhibit aimed to critique how social media platforms shape public perception through algorithms, suggesting these figures control what people see in the digital world. “Zuckerberg and Elon, in particular, control a huge amount of how we see the world,” said Winkelmann. He intended for the dogs’ images to represent this influence.
Visitors saw realistic masks of Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol placed on robotic dog heads alongside pictures produced by them. These photos were generated via AI based on each robot’s supposed personality or viewpoint.
Winkelmann explained that he chose Bezos specifically because “he shapes how we see the world,” so his absence from producing physical prints was noted as part of this critique: Bezos’ robot reportedly did not produce a tangible image, but Winkelmann included it for symbolic reasons.
The robotic dogs were reminiscent of the film Mars Attacks. The installation serves to highlight that artists no longer solely interpret society; instead, powerful digital forces often dictate our visual reality.
