Robot dogs from Boston Dynamics learn to draw: later their paintings will be presented at the exhibition

Three Boston Dynamics robot dogs will take part in the NGV Triennial contemporary art and design exhibition in Melbourne. The artist Agnieszka Pilat will help the dog-like robots named Basya, Bonnie and Archie. She will teach them how to draw works autonomously for four months at the gallery, reports TheGuardian.

Photo: IStock

Agnieszka Pilat is the artist of choice for tech billionaires and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. She has worked for both SpaceX and Boston Dynamics and is known for incorporating technology and futurism into her work. Particularly popular are her portraits of Boston Dynamics' 30-pound robotic dog named Spot. Pilate even lives in New York with one such dog, which she named Basya.

But for the first time, Pilat is teaching robots how to draw on their own for this year's NGV Triennial, which opens in Melbourne in December. The three robots will paint for four months using oil paint sticks on a primed acrylic canvas attached to a wall. They will be programmed to understand a series of commands that they will execute in any order they see fit, down to the direction the mechanical arm moves, how hard it presses against the canvas, and whether it draws a point or a line. All robots (Basya, Bonnie and Archie) will paint abstract paintings right in the hall.

Pilate and robots are among the 100 artists and designers taking part in the triennial, along with Yoko Ono, Tracey Emin and Parisian haute couture house Schiaparelli.

Pilate will hand over the NGV to Basya along with Bonnie and Archie. She considers Basya a "companion" and says she will miss her while she paints in Melbourne.

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"It's like having a small child - at some point you have to let the child get on the bus on their own, that's how it feels," she says.

A classically trained portrait artist, Pilar was first introduced to robots when she was commissioned to paint a portrait of a model known as Spot from Boston Dynamics.

“I thought of the robot dog as the new celebrity, the new ruling class,” she says. - Portraits reflect power in society - Andy Warhol painted celebrities, old portraiture reflected the aristocracy. Now the effort is directed towards the machine, and we are required to truly interact with it. We, their parents, must engage and educate them to become good future citizens.”
Paintings of robots are often childish, a deliberate programming choice because Pilate considers them to be "little children who know a lot but understand very little".

Collectors of Pilate's work include telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw and former Waymo CEO John Krafcik. She was even commissioned to create paintings for the latest film, The Matrix. Some critics dismissed her art as pandering to the whims of the technical elite. Pilate has previously said that "the art world is notoriously unhappy with tech billionaires, and I'm dancing to their tune."

Robot dogs have been used to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border and even crime scenes: In 2021, the New York City Police Department returned a Boston Dymanics robot after widespread backlash over its deployment to the Bronx.

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But Pilate considers them “playful and partners of humanity.” “I’m a techno-optimist—I like to say I’m doing for the machine what Diego Rivera did for the working class. And when people meet Spot in person, the vast majority fall in love with him very quickly - it's hard not to be charmed by them because they're so cute,” Pilate says.

Other works

Other artists and designers among the 100 entrants at the 2023 NGV Triennial include Ono, who will be presenting a large text work outside the gallery, new acquisitions by British artist Emin, including a five-metre text neon light installation of her handwriting and clothing by Schiaparelli, and artistic director Daniel Roseberry is going present some of the latest collections.

88-year-old US sculptor Sheila Hicks will present her 2022 work Nowhere to Go, a 10-meter sculpture of colorful convex shapes. While 79-year-old Pitjantjajar-based artist Betty Muffler will show her epic painting "Ngangkari Ngura" ("Land of Healing"), depicting the country from a bird's eye view.

British artist David Shrigley, known for his macabre and humor, will install his "Really Good" sculpture outside the gallery: a seven-meter thumb sign conceived for Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth immediately after the UK's Brexit vote. Inside, British compatriot Ryan Gander will install animatronic mice in holes in the walls of the gallery, which will transmit prophetic messages in the voice of his young daughter.

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Ten weavers and their apprentices from eastern Arnhem Land will present Mun-dirra, a 100-meter woven fish fence made over two years in Maningrid. Tokyo-based artist Azuma Makoto will create a room-sized installation of Australian flowers and plants frozen in time inside crystalline acrylic blocks, while American artist Hugh Hayden will showcase a massive installation depicting an apocalyptic classroom overflowing with dodo branches and skeletons.

NGV director Tony Ellwood said the triennial will be "visually captivating and thought provoking about the world today", touching on three main themes: magic, memory and matter.

“Over the past three years since our last triennial, there have been major structural changes in society. The NGV Triennial offers a platform for artists to express their concerns, ideas and, last but not least, their hopes,” he said.

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