Botto
Client: BottoDAO & Mario Klingemann
Role: Creative Producer, Writer,
Year: 2022-2024
Modality: Digital art, machine learning, decentralized governance
Overview
Botto is a decentralized autonomous artist, an algorithm that generates artwork trained continuously by a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) community who vote weekly on their favorite pieces. Founded by Mario Klingemann, Botto explores questions of authorship and ownership in machine learning-based art: when an algorithm creates but a community guides aesthetic direction through collective voting, who is the artist? From 2022-2024, I worked with Botto and BottoDAO to communicate the project's process, produce exhibitions, formalize collaborations (including with writer Ross Goodwin), and establish conceptual frameworks for this emerging category of autonomous digital art.
Challenge
How do you curate and communicate artwork created by an algorithm guided by collective decision-making? Botto challenged traditional notions of artistic authorship, it’s neither purely human-created nor purely machine-generated, but a continuously evolving collaboration between AI and community. The challenge was developing communications and exhibition strategies that made this complex process legible to diverse audiences (art world, tech conferences, DAOs, general public) while positioning Botto within art historical context and establishing credibility for this new category of autonomous digital artists.
Approach
As creative producer, writer, and curator for Botto and BottoDAO, I developed comprehensive communications strategy explaining Botto's collaborative creation process, how weekly community voting trains the algorithm's aesthetic preferences, making each artwork a synthesis of machine generation and collective human curation.
I produced exhibitions showcasing Botto's work and process, creating materials that illuminated the feedback loop between algorithm and community. I developed a process video for exhibitions and conferences explaining Botto's technical and conceptual framework, making the complex voting/training mechanism accessible.
I secured Botto's inclusion in Siggraph 2023, positioning the project within computational art discourse and bridging DAO/crypto communities with established tech-art audiences. I presented at CutOut Fest 2023 on the historical precedent for autonomous/collaborative art, situating Botto within lineages of conceptual art, systems art, and participatory practices—arguing that while the technology was new, questions of authorship and collective creation had deep art historical roots.
I facilitated collaborations including work with writer Ross Goodwin, helping formalize partnerships that expanded Botto's creative practice beyond visual art. My role was translating between technical DAO governance, AI processes, art world expectations, and public understanding—creating narratives that honored the project's complexity while making it accessible.