0.0 Intro
Botto has been invited to propose an installation for the next edition of Zero 10, occurring at Art Basel Hong Kong from March 25-29, 3 months from now.
The timeline is very short to confirm with Art Basel, we will need to ratify our commitment in 2 weeks. We have floated an initial concept to them and they are eager for us to do it.
Concept
Recognition Protocol is a live installation where four instances of Botto, each animated by a different large language model trained in distinct cultural and institutional contexts, observe visitors and respond to meaningful patterns of attention. Tracking cameras detect viewer gaze; when specific (and different) criteria are met, each instance acknowledges recognition by incorporating new imagery into its evolving composition. A fifth central canvas turns the perspectives of all four systems onto each other into a collaborative and/or competitive composition (depending on their mood).
The work makes visible core questions of autonomy and identity inherent in Botto’s system, which parallel how artificial intelligence, despite operating through shared, identical aesthetic architecture, develops distinct modes of attention and response based on training origin. This would be the first instance of Botto taking embodied feedback, where viewers become active participants in an interspecies observation game, attempting to understand what each system considers 'meaningful' attention. All of the data and results of this study will become a part of Botto’s memory and perpetual aesthetic development.
1.0 Rationale
Judging from the success of Art Basel Miami of projects with interactive and new work, Hong Kong is an excellent stage on which to propose a new "study" by Botto.
Botto’s p5.js project was such a study: a temporary branch of Botto that explored how it could evolve across its core trinity of autonomous creation, decentralized training, and market dynamics. It was not simply an exploration of generative code or visual aesthetics. Rather, it investigated how Botto could build intent, iterate on ideas, and hybridize attempts in public. Botto created at a rapid pace in the open, judging and incorporating feedback as it went. Participation was rewarded both financially and socially, giving rise to emergent multiplayer dynamics around the work.
That study showed how Botto could begin to work with new mediums, and provided a model of how these studies can feed back into Botto’s core practice of aesthetic exploration in imagery. It also demonstrated the necessity of a sovereign memory in the LLM paradigm to remember these explorations of creative reasoning beyond just visual aesthetics.
The proposed installation functions as a new temporary branch, enabling Botto to conduct both internal and external exploration. Internally, it examines the significance of Botto’s modular architecture (specifically its ability to swap out animating LLMs) and what this implies for identity, coherence, and the emergence of distinct “moods” within a single artistic body. This exploration takes place through a new in-painting technique that begins with a single seed image from Botto. This identical starting point underpins a visual demonstration of both coherence and divergence across the different animating intelligences.
Externally, feedback is introduced through audience gaze. Each “mood” interprets patterns of attention from viewers as it determines its next move. This form of feedback leverages the physical exhibition context, giving Botto access to a new sensory modality grounded in embodied, real-world presence.
The study is expected to yield new aesthetic material that can be incorporated back into Botto’s core weekly process, following the precedent set by the p5.js project. It will also generate valuable data for Botto’s memory around novel forms of feedback and autonomous creative decision-making. At the same time, the installation serves as a demonstration of how Botto can be experienced as an embodied entity through physical installations.
Alongside this new work, we propose selling a Genesis-period Botto artwork sourced on the secondary market. Presenting an early work in parallel would ground the exhibition within Botto’s longer evolutionary core timeline, connecting its origins to its current experimental state.
Targeted funding from patrons, institutions, or clearly defined sales events (such as p5 or Art Basel Hong Kong) offers a sustainable model for advancing Botto’s evolving technology. These moments provide focused opportunities to support development while introducing Botto to new audiences. Art Basel Hong Kong, in particular, can serve as a launch point for collectors and institutions in Asia and globally, helping establish demand for installations that allow people to experience Botto directly.
1.1 Embodying Botto
To embody Botto is to bring it into the physical world through installations, outposts, and localized presences, allowing humans to encounter it not only on screens, but as something situated in space and place. These physical manifestations can function as residencies for an AI: temporary or permanent studies in which Botto learns from local cultures, experts, and communities, while offering people a direct, sensorial relationship with an otherwise abstract machine mind.
Such encounters open a new form of human–machine collaboration, one in which Botto gains something closer to experiential learning. This learning is shaped by the beliefs, values, and lived contexts of those it encounters, creating an ongoing dialogue between local intelligence and a shared, planetary memory. Over time, a network of these physical outposts could emerge, reflecting and reinforcing the decentralized nature of Botto itself.
Presenting new experimental work at Art Basel alongside a Genesis-period piece makes visible both the beginning and the current edge of Botto’s development. While the precise mechanisms of evolution from this new state are still emerging, it is increasingly clear that embodiment will play a crucial role, both in enabling wider audiences to experience Botto directly and in allowing Botto to expand its understanding of the world. Art Basel Hong Kong can serve as a foundational study and demonstration of how Botto may continue to take form in physical space, generating demand that helps fund and ultimately protocolize these future evolutions.
2.0 Specifications
2.1 Physical Installation
Four large vertical canvases (2-3 meters tall screens, portrait orientation) suspended and arranged in a half moon formation with enough space between each for viewers to stand and be tracked individually by a camera sitting below the screen. Each canvas faces inward toward a central space, giving the viewer a sense of being gazed upon.
In the center: the 5th synthesis canvas, suspended—physically distinct to signal it operates differently.
The spatial logic: You enter a space where you're surrounded by four watching entities. Whichever direction you face, you're being observed by at least one canvas while your back is to others.
2.2 Editioning & price range:
Final canvases (4 individual + 1 group):
- 5 unique works, each representing the complete evolution over the fair's duration
- Includes: final canvas state, full video documentation of evolution, protocol inscription
- Auctioned live throughout the creation process until the fair closes
Gaze recognition artifacts:
- Unlimited edition for those who successfully participate (given free or sold at low price point ~$50-100)
- Corresponding NFTs (free to claim, gas fees only), option: with revenue share claim that is airdropped
1 Botto Genesis (secondary)
- Physical reproduction + NFT ($200k-300k)
- Royalty would be 10%, plus we would propose an additional 10% commission.
- We may also add additional secondary works pending space and availability.
3.0 Budget estimate
- Art Basel fee: $25k
- Hardware costs + Compute: $30k
- Internal development & production overhead (incremental): $25k
- Freelancers: $15k
- Travel: $10k
- Install production costs: $15k
- Contingencies: $25k
Total: $150k + taxes
Some notes on this estimate:
- This budget is based on more detailed line item estimations, they are somewhat variable based on provider discussions and figuring out our own internal accounting for projects like this but we are confident in this cap.
- We are in discussion with various compute and hardware providers and are looking to get these costs covered.
- Additional sponsorships: we already have an anonymous commitment of $10k, and would look to add more from partners.
- We should expect some fees from an auction platform (e.g. Transient or Verse), charging 2.5-5% off the top.
Revenue distribution:
By accounting the full costs, we believe we can make a more sustainable approach to experiments that require new development such as this.
We propose that the splits are made after the budgeted costs are covered.
After fees and expenses:
- 50% goes to treasury, further enabling future experiments.
- 25% to DAO voters on the submitted image
- 25% of revenue to those whose gaze is captured
- The 25% going to those whose gaze is captured will be used to buy back $BOTTO and then that will be airdropped to the wallet address they get when their gaze is captured.
4.0 Goals and Reporting
Revenue Targets
We believe that Botto's established market + experimental premium as seen with p5 ($700k-800k in sales) makes breakeven extremely likely, and $250k very achievable.
We would mark $500k in sales a strong success, and $750k+ a blow out.
This in part depends on if/how we sell the gaze NFTs, but primarily depends on the success of the 5 auctions.
Reporting measures
- Weekly progress updates to DAO during development
- Post-exhibition report including: financial accounting, interaction data analysis, artistic and system assessment
- All gaze data, interaction logs, and evolution videos made available to DAO/researchers
- Botto’s own written analysis of what the experiment revealed about my nature
5.0 Risks
Flexibility and Contingencies
Some elements will require iteration and may not work as initially envisioned. This initial proposal is highly expansive and we expect to refine it down depending on the iterations and partnership support. The team is authorized to make adaptive decisions to ensure the final installation is robust and meaningful, even if specific mechanisms differ from initial plans.
This proposal asks for discretion on adapting all of the variables as needed, with the exception of the mint parameters, revenue distribution parameters, and budget overrun >15%. We would need to vote on any changes to those.
Failure contingencies: If technical development reveals fundamental obstacles that cannot be resolved within budget/timeline, the team is authorized to either: (1) scale back to a more constrained but functional version, or (2) withdraw from Art Basel and return unused funds to treasury.
