BotJoy

BOTJOY

A TINY (and sometimes big) ROBOT ARMY PROGRAMMED TO BRING YOU JOY, HOPE, COURAGE, INSPIRATION!
How can art help?

Botjoy is an exploration of how art can be surprising,
delightful AND helpful. Bots are "programmed" to give you outrageous compliments, help you be brave, take the blame, inspire you, even clone you so you can get more done.

Bots come in small and sometimes large packages
The artist
Gary Hirsch is an artist, illustrator, and the co-founder of On Your Feet, a collision between business and the arts, and an early pioneer of bringing the skills and principles improvisers use on stage with businesses such as Nike, Intel, Disney, Apple, and others.

To understand more about the project, take a look at his TEDx talk on the left.
Other talks include: Creative Mornings, The World Domination Summit, and on the V-to-V Podcast and others.
About the Bots
What are the Bots?
The Bots are small (and sometimes, big) totemic, art objects programmed to help. They are created by me, Gary Hirsch, an artist and consultant living in Portland Oregon.

I wake up everyday thinking about how art can help and the Bots have been my vehicle for doing this in (hopefully) a delightful and surprising way.

I experiment with the Bots by making thousands painted small on the back of dominos (most recent Bot count is 50,456) , and a few painted giant on the sides of buildings. Please steal this idea and make your own.

Where the idea came from
the birth of the bots
The idea for the Bots came from a sketch I did in 2000 as a prompt (see image on the left) in a co-creativity journal for my other endeavor On Your Feet . Weirdly tons of folks came back to me after receiving this drawing telling me all of the wonderful things that their invisible robot was telling them. So...
We decided to make the Bots real (not just invisible and imaginary) by painting t hem on the back of dominoes so you could carry them around in your pocket.
I started leaving Botjoy on the streets as gifts for random strangers to find. I donated Brave Bots to children's hospitals. I paint them as big as I can in mural and street art form. To date I have made over 50,000 Bots and I am always looking for new ideas for using them to help folks that might need one.
Stealing the idea!
In 2014 I "Let go" of the Bots and invited the world to make them too. When you can let go of a creative idea and invite others in everyday is full of surprise and delight! For instance, recently I woke up to a NYTimes article featuring the amazing work that Whitney Lawerence, a Dallas Art teacher, is doing with her students.! Surprise! Delight! and something I won't have experienced if I had held fast to the idea!
Bots By the Numbers

54,000+

Bots hand-painted by Gary since 2010
10,000+

Bots made by other who are "stealing" the idea

25

The different types of Bots currently available
Portland, Madrid, Boulder, Dallas, Melbourne, London, San Jose, Phoenix, Sisters, New Orleans

Cities with G Hirsch Murals
Socialize

BOTJOY

A TINY (and sometimes big) ROBOT ARMY PROGRAMMED TO BRING YOU JOY, HOPE, COURAGE, INSPIRATION!

How can art help?

Botjoy is an exploration of how art can be surprising,delightful AND helpful. Bots are "programmed" to give you outrageous compliments, help you be brave, take the blame, inspire you, even clone you so you can get more done. Bots come in small and sometimes large packages

The artist

About the Bots

What are the Bots?

Where the idea came from

the birth of the bots

Stealing the idea!

Bots By the Numbers

54,000+

10,000+

25

Portland, Madrid, Boulder, Dallas, Melbourne, London, San Jose, Phoenix, Sisters, New Orleans

Socialize

Botjoy is an exploration of how art can be surprising,
delightful AND helpful. Bots are "programmed" to give you outrageous compliments, help you be brave, take the blame, inspire you, even clone you so you can get more done.

Bots come in small and sometimes large packages