- Agnieszka Pilat, who works as a guest artist at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne California, trained robot dogs to draw using the 16 symbols she designed.
- Artworks produced by robots reached high prices at auctions and were also put on display.
- Pilat’s collaboration with SpaceX aims to amplify the voice of technology through art.
Agnieszka Pilat, a Polish artist, has trained robot dogs to paint, combining art and technology in a unique way. Pilat taught three robot dogs complex tasks such as holding paintbrushes in their mouths and moving them across the canvas, enabling the robot dogs to create abstract compositions.
Pilat’s project, called “Heterobota,” unearthed 36 works of art that resemble human-inspired works by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cy Twombly. These parts produced by robot dogs have fetched significant sums of money. Some of the works were sold for $31,500 through Sotheby’s in 2021. After this sale, some paintings were sold for $40,000 in a charity auction for Ukrainian pets.
Three robot dogs named Basia, Omuzana Vanya and Bunny, located in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, are guided by QR coded cubes that show their location in the room while painting. Robot dogs and their works will be on display until April 7, 2024. In the exhibition, robot dogs can be seen navigating their surroundings and charging themselves while painting. The exhibition also includes a special area for the robot dogs to rest.
Pilat’s collaboration with SpaceX as a guest artist was unusual but effective. Although the company does not have a formal residency program, Pilat’s goal is to give voice to technology through his artwork, in line with SpaceX’s mission to advance space exploration.
Compiled by: Eliz Canyurt
