The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed

This exhibition at the Bonn Kunstverein was named after the first book ever written by a computer in 1983. It offered an overview and retrospective on sculptures, paintings, illustrations and films produced in the age of artificial intelligence. The works by approximately 30 artists explored the subject of autonomous machine intelligence from various perspectives. Starting with the proto-pop images of automats from the 1950s and the first computer-generated artworks of the 1960s by artists like Stan VanDerBeek and Lillian Schwartz, the exhibition examined the influence of cybernetics on art production. The historic pieces have been displayed alongside numerous works by younger artists. These included, for example, works by Agnieska Kurant, who developed an animated football, and Yuri Pattinson, who incorporates robotic pets into his installations. The exhibition has been supplemented by a discussion series and symposium at the University of Bonn. The University of Bonn is home to one of the oldest institutes of computer science in Germany where a research group investigates issues related to artificial intelligence.

Artistic director: Michelle Cotton
Artists: Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven (BE), John Whitney (US), Ed Atkins (UK), Thomas Bayrle, Aleksandra Domanović (SR), Frederick Hammersley (US), Camille Henrot (FR), Stan VanDerBeek (US), Lillian Schwartz (US), Agnieska Kurant (PL), Yuri Pattinson (IE) and others