160 × 78.5 × 35 cm
Unique work

Good Boy is an AR installation, activated by an iPad when pointing at the golden dog skeleton. The virtual dog responds to instructions through voice and iPad commands, such as ‘design’, ‘update’ and ‘security’. We expect the AR dog to follow our commands accordingly, in the same way we expect of a robot. Drawing allusions to ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ extracted from Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi collection ‘I, Robot’ (1950), Windszus makes equivocation between ‘dog’ and ‘robots’. The dog-robot is invented to protect the human being. Like the placement of an electronic chip into a robotic system, Windszus modified the physiognomy of the dog skeleton to integrate the AR sensor. The alteration of the skeleton outlines the possibility to control biological forms through genetic modification.

Commenting upon the human desire for dominion over nature, Good Boy fulfils our wishes for power and control. The virtual all-obedient dog projects human intentions over other species through objectification: we literally exert commands over a pile of bones. Good Boy questions the rationale of technological progress, where natural features are repurposed to achieve our own ends. Merging two layers of reality, Windszus’ installation makes us question the boundaries between natural and artificial intelligences.