Spot's Rampage Robotic Corpse

In 2021, MSCHF launched a project entitled Spot's Rampage, in which members of the public were able to remotely control a Boston Dynamics Spot® robot that had been outfitted with a paintball gun and placed within an art gallery. Via livestream, viewers could pilot the robot and fire the gun, gradually destroying the space and the robot. After first trying to bribe the collective to remove the paintball gun with the offer of two free robot dogs, Boston Dynamics publicly condemned the project for using its robot “in any way that promotes violence, harm, or intimidation.” The day after Spot's Rampage debuted, Boston Dynamics rolled out a partnership with the NYPD. Boston Dynamics remotely disabled MSCHF’s legally-purchased Spot® robot via an undisclosed backdoor. Subsequently, MSCHF memorialized this robotic corpse with as many guns as it could possibly fit—a portent of robots to come.

The image presents a text-heavy account of MSCHF’s Spot’s Rampage art project, in which viewers remotely piloted a Boston Dynamics Spot robot armed with a paintball gun and destroyed an art gallery. The punchline is the contrast between Boston Dynamics condemning the project as violent and then partnering with the NYPD immediately afterward, followed by the company remotely disabling the robot. It is shared as an absurdly dark, satirical reaction to corporate hypocrisy, robotic violence, and dystopian technology.

• @gentoomemes / 2480 2023-02-15