Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot turns into a painter
Agnieszka Pilat is an artist who specializes in the creation of technology-related portraits to examine the connection between humans and machines is the creator of Boston Dynamics' Spot robot draw.
The well-known art-maker Agnieszka Pilat has announced she has taught three Boston Dynamics robot dogs to paint for the National Gallery of Victoria’s upcoming exhibition. In the release released by the exhibition’s organizer the robots called Spot will be taught for four months, and their artwork will be displayed to visitors at the show.
Painters from robots are becoming real
Boston Dynamics’ remarkable Spot robot can be used for a myriad of purposes across various industries like monitoring, inspection, mapping and rescue, among others. However, the Spot robots are getting inventive to be part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibit which will open at Melbourne on December. In order to create the artwork the robots will create artwork independently with oil paint sticks on a canvas made of acrylic that is mounted with a wall. The process will be executed independently by robots, however they will be programmed with several brush strokes that they can select from while making the art.
The artist Agnieszka Pilat has identified a robot that lives in her house as Basia and stated that she views it as an “friend”. “It’s like having a small child – at some point you have to let the child get on the bus on their own, and that’s how it feels,” Pilat declared. At first, Pilat was commissioned by Boston Dynamics to paint a portrait of Spot but it seems like it’s taken an entirely different direction.
“Portraits reflect power in society – Andy Warhol painted celebrities, old portraits reflected the aristocracy. Now the power is going to the machine and it’s our obligation to really take care of it. It’s up to us, their parents, to educate and interact with them to be good citizens of the future,” Pilat made a statement in an interview. She added. Even though Spots’ latest paintings can be classified as “often childlike,” Pilat has sold the paintings to Silicon Valley dignitaries like telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw and former Waymo CEO John Krafcik in recent years. The artist believes this is due to a deliberate decision to program.
