BEBOT: 35-Foot-Tall Wire-Frame Robot

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Tubby, smiling, skeletal, BEBOT was created for 2018 Burning Man by artist Andy Tibbetts, based on a concept by Andrea Greenlees. While the robot has a metal heart attached to its chest, its back end has a small, forked devil tail. "All may not be as innocent and harmless as it seems," suggests an accompanying plaque, conveying the artist's suspicions about robotics.

BEBOT resembles an oversized playground jungle gym, and that in fact is how it was used by clambering Burners back in the Nevada desert. Greenlees wanted people to "become the robot's eyes, its ears, its voice, its soul, its spirit, its collective heartbeat." Relocated to a busy city supportive of public art, however, with more lawyers than hippies and a limited tolerance for self-expression, BEBOT's days as adult monkey bars were ended.