Pump up the Jank

Here's to a moving neck and multiple types of loud

Why am I captivated by the Monster Wolf robots that have been released to such fanfare in Japan? I think it’s the janky aesthetics.

The mask, the speaker, the foot poles, the flashing LED eyes and costume-bag body, its little cart? Sublime.

Product description on Robotatta “A wolf-like robot that protects crops from damage caused by birds and animals. When it detects an intruder using an infrared sensor, it scares them away with a wolf-like appearance, a moving neck, LED eye lights, and multiple types of loud.”

Apparently I’m late to this, as it has been available in Japan since 2020, but I can’t resist a moving neck or multiple types of loud.

I can’t quite place the specific aesthetics of the Wolf: it’s certainly vernacular, maybe grotesque, cryptidcore? Maybe a little steampunk? B-movie horror modulated specifically for the fears and insecurities of bears? (Note to readers: spend the next 12 weeks involuntarily glued within the Aesthetics Fandom wiki, no greater database has ever been built.)

It got me thinking about robot aesthetics and how I mostly come across the smooth muscle casings and tiny waists of today’s incoming humanoids.

Unitree R1, only $12,842.86

Or the abhorrent MAGA-style girl robots that are also a core litmus test for identifying a douchebag.

Of course we also still suffer the omnipresent influence of Kawaii when it comes to robot design but in some of the crevices of the internet you can see new approaches, like this one, GrowHR, which can grow, crawl, fly, and walk on water, all with this face.

Can we plant a flag for the janky, and bring more of this Monster Wolf vibe into this robot world we’re speed sleepwalking into?