[PHOTO] On Lovebot, or, the global #loveinvasion

[rfmcdonald]

Last week, Torontoist's Vandalist had a feature about Lovebot. This "geometric, faceless robot with a red heart logo (called the "hero heart") on its torso" has gone viral, even global, since its 2013 introduction by graffiti artist Matthew Del Degan. Sana Ali's article in The Varsity does a good job framing the introduction.

In your travels around Toronto, you may have come across a small imprint, or a sticker, of a robot with the outline of a heart on its chest. Meet “Lovebot,” designed by graffiti artist Matthew Del Degan for a cold and unwelcoming city. “We are not robots in this concrete jungle,” he assures me. “We have the ability to love.”

Del Degan recounts sitting in a streetcar, joking and laughing with another man whom he believed to be homeless when he noticed that the other passengers around them appeared like robots lost in their own digital worlds. Through Lovebot, he aimed to create a design that represented the joy we’re capable of.

“It’s been blood, sweat, and tears, many times for all three,” Del Degan tells me. He’d developed the design for a sculpture project in university, where he studied product design. It began as a clay sculpture of a robot with a heart, which soon turned into stickers, concrete robots, posters, toys, and more. Over the years the Lovebot has evolved from an art project to a large-scale movement.

Now, what started in the streets of Toronto has attracted international attention. On the occasions that Del Degan receives criticism for his art — which he notes happens from time to time — he is dismissive, saying, “We all just need a hug.” Despite the challenges, he has remained committed to his vision of expanding the Lovebot movement.

I still really like it. It's ubiquitous, but there are easily much worse things that could inhabit my visual envionment, and much to admire about Lovebot and its mission.