Since the industrial revolution, ever more complex, autonomous machines have entered our lives and are increasingly becoming a natural part of our society.
These technological developments arouse ambivalent feelings: on one hand, we see them as assistants, companions and entertainers; on the other, they symbolize control, power and potential threat. This duality between benefit and danger is particularly evident in the rapidly advancing militarization of robotics and artificial intelligence.
The aesthetics of violence in technology are no longer science fiction, but reality: in the 21st century, drones, combat robots and automated weapon arsenals are increasingly dominating the world's battlefields. Four-legged walking robots are not only displayed by military forces such as the Chinese army, but are also used as “land drones” in the Ukraine war. The police in Baden-Württemberg acquired their first robot dog in 2023, which has already been deployed in at least one hazardous situation. Technical infiltration is also steadily increasing in civilian contexts: security services are using autonomous monitoring mechanisms, from facial recognition in camera systems to robot dogs that inspect depots or company premises.
This development raises a fundamental social question: how do we deal with a future in which people may no longer be able to negotiate directly with the executive? If machines not only offer protection, but are also used for intimidation, law enforcement or even the use of violence, where is the boundary between tool and autonomous actor?
Who controls whom?
The performative intervention "Good Boy!" addresses precisely these questions and plays with familiar images: The pet as an obedient companion that acts on command meets the dystopian image of a technologized, potentially armed future. The human figure in a fur-trimmed coat evokes associations of dominance and control, while the robot dog appears as a submissive tool - or is it perhaps the other way around? Who controls whom? Who gives the orders, and how sure can we still be that machines won't decide autonomously at some point, and who is ultimately to blame if something happens? How can we as a society have a public debate about these shifts in power before the rules of the game change irreversibly?
The intervention forces us to think further about the consequences of technological developments. If every machine can potentially become a mercenary, the question arises in whose hands this technology lies and whether we can leave it there with peace of mind. Do tech oligarchs like Elon Musk still have a civilian machine factory in Germany, for instance, or are they already building a private army at a geopolitically strategic location where the US army is operating bases to this day?
We have to ask ourselves who really walks on a leash here in the end.
Credits
Good Boy!, 2025
Performative intervention
Idea: Tina Lorenz
Production: Dan Wilcox, Marc Schütze
Performance: Tina Lorenz, unitree Go2
Photography: Andy Koch