Creativity and the techno optimist, your future now

I think I’m in love❤️

Or at least a massive girl crush

And sorry, Tay Tay, someone has usurped your top spot….

There’s a new love triangle in my heart–and it’s with Basia, Omuzana, and Bunny Spot, the robot dogs stealing the spotlight at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria, Triennial exhibition.

At the NGV, these robot dogs aren’t just visitors; they’re artists in residence, living, working, and playing in a custom-built studio for a cool four months.

Basia Spot, one of the world’s first autonomously painting robots, dazzles spectators with art creations using sticks of oil paint on canvas.

For most visitors to the gallery, it is their first interaction with a robot.

Witnessing three robot dogs, each with a distinct personality going about their daily business, is cuteness on another level! It’s like watching a captivating, futuristic sitcom.

But why did the artist Agnieszka Pilat create this installation?

Pilat’s creation challenges you as machines inch closer to possessing agency and expressing creativity. Traditionally, machines serve you – from vacuums to cars. However, when robots begin to harness their creative powers, previously reserved for humans, how will your relationship with them evolve?

Pilat says her art can unsettle viewers because the future can be unsettling.

Describing herself as a techno optimist, Pilat’s work invites us to think: what stories do you tell yourself about the future? How do you perceive your relationship with technology?

For me, I’m a techno hopeful.

What about you? What techno label would you give yourself? “I am a techno _____”

PS It is Basia Spot and Bunny Spot in the photo.