Smile Machines
Humour Art Technology
Andreas Broeckmann, Thomas Munz, Vera Tollmann (eds.)
© Copyright: 2006
176 pages, German/English
ISBN 3-00-018031-1

Price: EUR 12.00 (+ shipping and handling) - order via email to info[at]transmediale[dot]de

The exhibition of transmediale.06 Smile Machines presented contemporary and historical works which reflect on the relationship between art, humour and technology and which expose the power of the media by derision and critique. The catalogue book Smile Machines includes texts about the exhibited works as well as essays from Simon Critchley, Anne-Marie Duquet, Dominique Noguez, Gerburg Treusch-Dieter and Debra Wacks.

“The artistic propositions in Smile Machines exhibition reveal, each in a different way, the contradictions of a society, strongly shaped by technology. The humorous attitude releases an energy that is capable of stimulating the intelligence of things, and that creates the desire without which change is not possible. To defend irony, persiflage and humour means to defend a bit of freedom.”

Anne-Marie Duguet - Curator Smile Machines