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Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, is causing a stir with a new installation featuring robotic canines fitted with hyper-realistic heads that amble around pooping out certificates of authenticity. (Short Video) Some of the heads feature tech moguls, such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerberg. Others feature artists such as Picasso, Warhol, or Winkelmann himself. Crucially, a QR code on the certificates also allows buyers to purchase accompanying NFTs. The free certificates state that this "artwork has been tested and verified as 100% pure GMO-free, organic dogshit originating from a medium adult dog anus."
posted by DirtyOldTown on Dec 05, 2025 at 6:31 AM
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This plunges me into the stygian depths of the uncanny valley.
posted by Eldritchstigmata at 6:41 AM
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I think "Art Basel Miami Beach" sums this up neatly.
posted by chavenet at 6:43 AM
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this is awful and horribly insulting. dog anuses serve a useful purpose.
posted by lalochezia at 6:44 AM
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Huh. So has Beeple has changed his mind about NFTs, or is this just shitposting for profit?
posted by Popular Ethics at 6:46 AM
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here's an "NFT" of the article in case you hit the paywall
posted by chavenet at 6:46 AM
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How does this person end up "widely known as Beeple" when nearly all of us struggle to be widely known as anything at all?
(I'm imaging someone seeing one of these robotic homumculi doing something that vaguely passes as cute, and cooing "Awww... he thinks he's Beeple!")
posted by JHarris at 6:54 AM
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"The dogs' cameras employ AI processing to generate NFTs"... at least selling a banana to an idiot didn't involve the intermediary step of burning down a forest
posted by Spacelegoman at 6:58 AM
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The base robot goes for $75,000 a piece before extras, so this is a least a half million of Boston Dynamics robots before you get into the printers, the heads, etc. Its possible that he is borrowing them for this piece but still.
posted by mmascolino at 7:22 AM
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This plunges me into the stygian depths of the uncanny valley.
Surely, the uncanine valley....
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:29 AM
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I assume Beeple is using "AI" as a term of art here, since there's nothing that these robot dogs are doing that would require actually using generative AI to produce the output.
I have no idea if Beeple is actually invested in NFTs as a serious artform (snicker), or trying to prove a point by hornswoggling dumb rich trendoids into giving him money, but if the latter I'm on board for him continuing to scam these people.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:31 AM
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How many millions did this dude make off his NFTs? If he now wants to criticize the landscape that made him rich (and I'm not sure if he does) then he could make better use of that money by helping people or donating to charities or something useful other than more bullshit clickbait "art".
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:46 AM
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I'm laughing my ass off at this installation, but I am not sure I am laughing with the artist, and certainly not with his buyers. Everything is stupid in 2025, I swear to gawd.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:03 AM
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I have to wonder just what is the artist's vision here - what are they trying to show / state / explain? What is the raisin day ettruh here?
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 8:17 AM
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Do they look at you the whole time they poo?
posted by Rat Spatula at 9:48 AM
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I have no idea if Beeple is actually invested in NFTs as a serious artform (snicker), or trying to prove a point by hornswoggling dumb rich trendoids into giving him money, but if the latter I'm on board for him continuing to scam these people.
He was a standard-bearer for NFTs getting taken semi-seriously in the art world - he was responsible for "the first NFT sold at Christie's." Self-awareness about being a huckster has maybe been part of his shtick for a while?
posted by atoxyl at 10:04 AM
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is he still grabbing any assets that aren't nailed down online and using them without asking?
posted by mattgriffin at 10:07 AM
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Not sure I'd describe Musk's head as an asset.
posted by flabdablet at 10:16 AM
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Not sure I'd describe Musk's head as an asset.
It's 3/5 of one....
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:20 AM
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is he still grabbing any assets that aren't nailed down online and using them without asking?
At this point I feel like manually copying assets and using them without asking would be almost charmingly quaint.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:53 AM
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Huge missed opportunity if he doesn't arrange for his Musk and Zuck dogs to get into whatever robot dogs have instead of a cage fight. Maybe the Zuck dog could just leg-sweep the Musk one and then kick the shit out of it?
posted by flabdablet at 11:01 AM
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Their heads transplanted onto robot dogs is a vision of the future these guys may not have anticipated and now have planted in their consciousness forever. I'm happy.
posted by waving at 11:40 AM
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Musk and Zuck dogs to get into whatever robot dogs have instead of a cage fight.
Thanks for the chuckle! Reminded me of One-Man-Bucket.
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 1:14 PM
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Grifter's latest grift. But I guess it got a click out of me. Anyway...
posted by AlSweigart at 3:27 PM
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Huh. So has Beeple has changed his mind about NFTs, or is this just shitposting for profit?
As far as I can tell Beeble does not really have any kind of position or point of view about anything, at least as far as is expressed in his art output.
They are technically proficient, media-savvy, and very hard working, but I have never seen them put out anything that was not just some kind of "what if we took an iconic controversial political or pop cultural thing, and put it in whatever kind of surreal setting is handy."
The dogs poop NFTs and have trump heads because NFTs, Trump, and poop get some sort of reaction out of most people, and some sort of reaction is the goal here.
posted by St. Sorryass at 7:03 PM
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In another video of this, there was a closeup of one of the robots as it poo'd an NFT. I noticed that as it did so, an LED screen on its back displayed the word "POOP".
For some reason this pleases me.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:38 PM
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Hounds of Hell ThePriceMaster.
Yeah, a friend of mine is a fine artist and asked me about NFTs back when they were happening, and told me about Beeple. Whatever art Beeple was making at the time was like stoner-dorm-poster-fantasy-sci-fi stuff, which, y'know, fine, I was like "Yes this appears to be NFT-art," but I was a bit surprised that Spencer's-Gifts-ass stuff was apparently a big deal.
But this is perfect, esp. the fact that the Elon one in particular evokes the dogman aberration from the '78 Body Snatchers, I think it's the urgently earnest eye contact.
posted by Rat Spatula at 9:08 PM
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... the artist widely known as "That little cocksucker who thinks he's cool. What was his name again? Nah, not him, some other guy. Ah, fuck it, let's go watch some real art."
posted by Termite at 10:47 PM
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Juvenile was the word the leaps to mind.
No women, I notice.
posted by BWA at 5:00 AM
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Juvenility is all that is left us.
I agree it could use a ladies' touch - perhaps a sprig of Yaccarino, or a bouquet of Fiorina, or a... bunch of... Whitman.
posted by Rat Spatula at 8:20 PM
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