The Andy Warhol Robot

I've been watching the Netflix documentary series The Andy Warhol Diaries. It's a pleasantly well-made six-part series about the artists life culled from the book of the same name, which was culled from morning conversations between Warhol and friend Pat Hackett. Each episode opens with a disclaimer that the voice of Andy Warhol heard in the series was generated by an AI, seeded by actual Warhol recordings and a little bit of Bill Irwin augmentation.

Hearing that Warhol has been recreated as a bit of a modern day robot is a nice reminder to spend some time cruising the Internet in search of information about the 1982 Andy Warhol Robot. Conceived as part of a "No-Man Show" intended for Broadway, Warhol worked with producer Lewis Allen and one-time Disney engineer Alvaro Villa to bring the entire project to life. 1985's Robots, machines in man's image described the show as such:

The robot will be seated on its bed in Warhol's rom, surrounded by its dog, a telephone, and two television sets. It will interact with these as well as with the audience. When a member of the audience asks a question, the robot will have five preprogrammed answers to choose from.

Not exactly compelling from a 2022 perspective but pretty novel for the mid-80s!

There are so many wonderful images and blurbs to discover about the project. I'll include a few below but I really can't recommend letting yourself have a deep dive at your earliest convenience.