Elon Musk has been turning heads in San Francisco – or at least his likeness.
A flesh-colored android has been spotted roaming the city streets with an eerily realistic head resembling that of the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, drawing curious and confused crowds.
The stunt in South Beach around Oracle Park on Wednesday, April 8, was part of a marketing push for digital artist Beeple’s upcoming exhibition, “INFINITE_LOOP.” It opens April 18 at the Palo Alto digital art center NODE.
“NODE is a home for artists defining digital culture today. Beeple’s Regular Animals are a physical embodiment of that culture, and we’re proud to bring a piece of it here to Silicon Valley,” a NODE representative told the Chronicle. “Sending Elon into the streets is a way to bring that energy into public life ahead of the exhibition opening next week, and the reaction has been exactly what Beeple’s work does so well: it stops people in their tracks and gets them talking.”
“Regular Animals” also includes robot dog versions of Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Beeple himself. (Courtesy of NODE)
Beeple, a South Carolina-based artist whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, created the piece as part of his “Regular Animals” series. It also features Unitree Go2 robo-dog versions of Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Winkelmann himself. Each head was created in collaboration with silicone mask maker Hyperflesh.
“‘Regular Animals’ reinterprets the legacy of pop portraiture, sculpture, and generative art through the lens of technology. Each robotic humanoid is not a static object but a fluid digital canvas – its memories captured, reimagined, and preserved on the blockchain,” Node’s website reads. “After three years – twenty-one ‘dog years’ – each robot will ‘die,’ with all memories from its life preserved forever on-chain.”
Beeple debuted “Regular Animals” at Art Basel in Miami late last year. (Courtesy of NODE)
Winkelmann debuted the work in December at Art Basel in Miami, but this week marks the first time one of the robots has been sent into the wild.
Reactions to the Musk robo-dog have been mixed. Some social media users have called it “terrifying” and “so wrong,” while others have found it hilarious.
Beeple has been making digital art since 2007, when he began creating and posting a new piece daily as part of a project titled “Everydays.” He notably sold a compilation of the first 5,000 days of the project for $69.3 million in 2021. It was the third-highest auction price achieved by a living artist at the time.
More Information
“INFINITE_LOOP”: Opening night reception from 7 p.m.-midnight April 18. 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Fridays; noon-8 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. On view through June 30. Free. NODE, 180 University Ave., Palo Alto. 669-279-3477. nodefoundation.com
This article originally published at Why a ‘terrifying’ Elon Musk robot dog is roaming San Francisco.