An exhibition in a Tokyo gallery featuring a chained robot dog trying to break free and attack visitors has sparked strong reactions, with some calling it “abuse.”
Indignation was an emotional response artist Takayuki Todo expected to evoke with his piece "Dynamics of a Dog on a Chain,” on display at Toda Hall & Conference Tokyo until February 24th as part of a larger show featuring some 40 artists.
While the work raises questions about the safety of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, it also explores the increasingly complicated relationship between humans and machines.
“In this work, I intended to evoke the human psychology of feeling sorry for creatures that are bullied, by bullying a robot,” Todo said in a post on X, where he suggested his work was an experiment of human psychology.
“I believe that we should take into consideration the psychology of those who feel ‘it’s abuse,’ ‘it’s pitiful,’ or ‘it’s disgusting’ in response to this tasteless exhibition,” Todo said.
“At that moment, we perceive this man-made object as a living thing.”
紹介ありがとうございます！
undefined Takayuki Todo / 藤堂高行 (@toodooda) February 14, 2025
気に入ってもらえて良かった@takahiroanno https://t.co/62gVgBtfF2 pic.twitter.com/eqHGXD1sl5
The piece features two robot dog models from the Chinese manufacturer Unitree, both chained to a wall and capable of tracking human motion. As one dog lies motionless, another is charging toward the visitors, who observe from a safe distance behind a yellow tape warning them to “keep out.”
The chain is occasionally wrapped around the body of the dog “to add variety to the movement,” according to Todo, reinforcing the impression of a machine as a distressed animal.
昨日、SNSで話題の犬を見てきた。色々考えちゃった。
undefined φ✧pHì✧ (@phi_stmpnks) February 17, 2025
undefinedTakayuki Todo / 藤堂高行
Dynamics of a Dog on a Leash / 鎖に繋がれた犬のダイナミクス undefined pic.twitter.com/MZIbGSe8ho
Reactions to the work varied from “haunting” to “creepy.” Some commenters said it was a “harsh reminder of the world we live in,” noting that the machines mirrored human suffering, while others noted they felt sorry for the robots.
Todo said he thought it was “really scary” when he first learned about Boston Dynamics’ Big Dog, a US government-funded military robot that the company developed in 2005.
“I thought it would be an unmanned weapon that would kill people indiscriminately,” the artist said, an idea later popularized among the wider public by a 2017 Black Mirror episode “Metalhead.”
While the concept was novel at the time, there is little doubt today that robots can be used as unmanned weapons, according to Todo, which led him to less explored topics in the human-machine relationship through his art.
His previous work, “SEER,” featured a humanoid robot that examined how people can establish emotional relationships with the machine through gaze and facial expressions.
Other artists working with robot dogs include Polish-American artist Agnieszka Pilat, whose installation at the NGV Triennial in Melbourne last year featured three Boston Dynamics robots painting autonomously for four months.
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