The Unmanned

At the exhibition from October 20, 2017 to August 5, 2018

»1997 – The Brute Force«, 2014
»1759 – Mil Troi Cens Quarante Huyt«, 2017
From the series »The Unmanned«
2-channel video installation, HD, color, sound, video, loop, 26 min.

»The Unmanned« is a film series that recounts a nonhuman history of technology. Eliminating all instrumental conceptions and at the same time making people a simple expression of its movement, the series traces the path of »unmanned« technology taking the example of self-driving vehicles in contemporary warfare.

In its first season, »A History of Computation«, the artists explore the invention and consequences of modern computation, tracing the history of the algorithm from its emergence in modern mathematics to its deflagration in contemporary computation.

Two episodes are presented at »Open Codes« in a 2-channel video installation: »1997 – The Brute Force« and »1759 – Mil Troi Cens Quarante Huyt«, which engage with chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov’s defeat by the IBM Deep Blue computer on 11 May 1997, and in 1759 calculating the orbit of Halley’s comet and predicting its return.

A camera with the same computer-programmed movements scrutinizes both environments in a synchronized play, and explores the consequences of these two historical events strongly connected to the development of algorithms and computation.

With the support of Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’Art Contemporain, Palais de Tokyo and Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains.