Computable – Incomputable: ZDF vs. ZKM

The exhibition Computable – Incomputable at ZDF Digital Art Hall showcases software-based digital artworks in a computer-generated environment. A digital copy of an atrium at ZKM | Karlsruhe is populated by multiple cellular automata, generated completely algorithmically. The exhibition support structure, just like the artworks it displays, reflects upon its apparatus and medium: the computer.

 

The ZDF Digital Art Hall was founded this year as a reaction to the first lockdown period in Germany by ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen / Second German Television) a German public-service television broadcaster, and is being hosted on the website of ZDF.

 

Computable – Incomputable, featuring born-digital artworks largely from the ZKM collection, offers insight into artistic and scientific responses to the questions, whether we can imagine the universe as a computer, a conglomerate of cellular automata, and whether this implies the computability of the human subject, besides shows how computers help visualize alternative worlds that can become new realities.