Item #55259 [BEUYS AS AN ART THEORIST BEFORE THE BACKGROUND OF EMERGING COMPUTER ART] No 1 documente: Abendunterhaltung [No 1 documents: Evening conversation]. Joseph Beuys.

Beuys, Joseph.

[BEUYS AS AN ART THEORIST BEFORE THE BACKGROUND OF EMERGING COMPUTER ART] No 1 documente: Abendunterhaltung [No 1 documents: Evening conversation].

[Achberg]: Achberger Verlagsanstalt, 1977. Folio (40 × 30 cm). Original pictorial wrappers; 24 pp. with numerous reproduced photographs. Very good. Item #55259

An interview with Joseph Beuys published in the form of German tabloid journalism. The conversation with the Fluxus artist was conducted by scientists and journalists in Hamburg after the award ceremony for the Alfred Lichtwark Prize. The core of the conversation is the relationship of art to its environment, its conditions, its claim to autonomy and its history. In contrast to an ordinary interview, which consists of questions and answers, a lively conversation develops that begins with the relationship between art and religion. From there, the conversation quickly moves on to the social positioning of art in West Germany after the war, before returning to questions about the role of metaphysics, the spirit, contemplation, the question “what is God”, “what actually is materia?”

The topic of generative computing machines (“artificial intelligence”) and computer art also comes up in this context. One of the participants reports: "(...) I once worked with composing machines. We built such a machine. We made a program for a computer, which then composed. We taught it to first analyze the principle according to which Beethoven composed, Mozart and so on. The interesting thing was that once it had analyzed how Beethoven composed, it was able to compose like Beethoven." Beuys then asks whether this was a “combination of matter and spirit”, to which his counterpart replies: "Perhaps yes, but of course we may realize tomorrow that this was unfortunately just a big mistake. It's basically all down to synapses." At this point, it is worth briefly recalling the famous debate between Beuys and Max Bense in early 1970, which was even broadcast on television at the time. In the conversation printed here, central concepts of aesthetics such as harmony, disharmony, chance and play are primarily discussed.

As of July 2025, KVK, OCLC only lists two copies in North America.