Mattis Kuhn#

Works on the reciprocal becoming of humans, technologies and the shared environment. The focus is on text based and text processing systems like algorithms, artificial intelligence, formal systems, software and on the intertwining of humanities, engineering and aesthetics. Essential topics are subjectivity, non-/identity, decentralization and diversity, human-machine-environment entanglements, language and AI.

Alongside his artistic practice and research he is working as co-lead of the AI Lab at University of Art and Design Offenbach, Germany. He is part of the DFG-funded research network »Das Wissen der digitalen Literatur«.

Previously he worked as artistic associate for Creative Technologies at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and as research assistant at the department of Experimental Informatics at University for Media Art Cologne, were he was part of the research group ground zero. He studied Experimental Informatics at University for Media Art Cologne and Art at University of Art and Design, Offenbach am Main, Germany and at Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK), Ghent, Belgium.

Publications (Artistic)#

»Das Streben nach Identität in einer Welt, die sich permanent in Veränderung befindet, scheint vergeblich.« windpark books, upcoming.

»The pursuit of identity in a world that is constantly changing seems futile.« windpark books, 2025.

»Grasslands for Insects«. windpark books, 2022.

»Selbstgespräche mit einer KI«. 0x0a, 2021.

Publications (Academic)#

»KI&«, edited by Mattis Kuhn, Leon-Etienne Kühr, and Alex Oppermann. Berlin: DISTANZ, upcoming.

»Draußen zuhause. Unterwegs mit einem großen Sprachmodell« [At home outdoors. On the road with a large language model] In KI&, edited by Mattis Kuhn, Leon-Etienne Kühr, and Alex Oppermann. Berlin: DISTANZ, upcoming.

»Self-Driving Futures«, upcoming.

»Der unerwartete Gast.« In un/learn ai - Navigating AI in Aesthetic Practices, edited by Florian Jenett, Rahel Flechtner, and Simon Maris, 88-94. Hochschule Mainz, 2025.

»As far as I don't know. Aesthetic Experience as Diffraction Apparatus« In The Unknown in Design, Art, and Technology — Contributions to a Philosophy of Making, edited by Georg Trogemann, 181–94. Bielefeld: transcript, 2025.

»AFFIRMATIVE — REJECT. With and Against AI.« In Artificial Intelligence – Intelligent Art? Human-Machine Interaction and Creative Practice, edited by Eckart Voigts, Robin Markus Auer, Dietmar Elflein, Sebastian Kunas, Jan Röhnert, and Christoph Seelinger, 203–16. Bielefeld: transcript, 2024.

Tost, Jordi, Marcel Gohsen, Britta Schulte, Fidel Thomet, Mattis Kuhn, Johannes Kiesel, Benno Stein, and Eva Hornecker. “Futuring Machines: An Interactive Framework for Participative Futuring Through Human-AI Collaborative Speculative Fiction Writing.” In Proceedings of the 6th ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces. CUI ’24. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2024.

»Kommentar zu: (Un)creative Artificial Intelligence. Zur Kritik ‘künstlicher Kunst’ von Dieter Mersch«. Von Georg Trogemann, Christian Heck, Mattis Kuhn. 2020.

»Art and AI without Programming«, infodienst – Das Magazin für kulturelle Bildung, Nr. 137/2020.

»Wird die Kunst digital?«, 2020.

»Programmierte Selbstbestimmung« (Programmed Self-determination), Catalog text for the exhibition „Snap Your Identity“, Kunstverein Wolfsburg, 2020.

»Künstliche Intelligenzen in künstlerischen Schaffensprozessen. Ein Überblick aktueller Praxis« (Artificial Intelligences in Artistic Production), Conference Publication „Kultur gestaltet Zukunft“ der Stiftung Niedersachsen, 2019 (online).

Leeway of Vagueness in Algorithmic Meshes in Contemporary Art, (german only), 2016.

Exhibitions (Selection)#

AI-Worlding. Artistic research on AI-generated world models, museumangewandtekunst, Frankfurt (2026)

Correlations — Forum for AI in Art & Design, Offenbach (2024)

Am Wegesrand gehen, die Uhr tickt, Magma Maria, Offenbach (2023)

Grasslands for Insects, Erlkönig, Bremen (2022)

EMAF Experience, European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück (2019)

Open Codes. The Art of Coding, ZKM, Karlsruhe/ Goethe-Institut Indien, Mumbai, India (2019)

Open Codes. Living in Digital Worlds, ZKM, Karlsruhe (2017-18)

PIKSEL17 - festival for elektronisk kunst og fri teknologi, Bergen, Norway (2017)

F°LAB – Festival for Performing Arts, Frankfurt LAB (2017)

SMALL #2, Kunstraum SUPER, Vienna (2017)

On Stage, Marburger Kunstverein, Marburg (2016)

Acht Brücken - Musik für Köln, Cologne (2014)

Talks#

»(A)Synchrones Schreiben mit einem LLM-System, »System.loadLibrary(): Epistemologische Affordanzen digitaler Literatur«, 26 - 27 June 2025, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

»Self-Driving Futures«, Non-machines: Playground of Perspectives, 21 - 22 July 2023, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

Bauhaus Masters Lecture, 10 January 2023, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

»Future Actions« (YouTube), »Kunst und Algorithmen«, 17 - 18 November 2022, Ludwig Forum Aachen

»With and against AI«, Artificial Intelligence – Intelligent Art? Human-Machine Interaction and Creative Practice, 8 October 2022, TU Braunschweig

»ell Worl_! The rule becomes the author!«, with Julia Nakotte, Tiago Ive Rubini, Ting Chun Liu and Christian Heck, 6 October 2021, International Meeting of Research Groups, Brazil

»Artificial Intelligences in Artistic Practice + NFTs & Art«, 10 September 2021, ESCP Business School, Berlin

Artist Talk at the event „AI as a Tool in Fine Art“, 11 May 2021, Stiftung Niedersachsen, Hannover

»Digital art and curatorial practice« – Johanna Teresa Wallenborn und Mattis Kuhn im Dialog. Teil der Veranstaltungsreihe „50 Jahre HfG - Why make the past your sacred cow?“, 17 June 2020, HfG Offenbach

»AI in Artistic Creation Processes - Examples from Fine Art, Music and Literature«, 23 November 2019, Evangelische Akademie Tutzing

»Use of AI in Art Production«, 23 September 2019, Informatik 2019 - KI 2019, Workshop AI & Arts, Kassel

Artist Talk, 05 June 2019, Artist Breakfast Club, The Model, Sligo, Irland

»I am here to learn«, 19 May 2019, Art and Artificial Intelligence, Open Conference ZKM, Karlsruhe

»Artificial Intelligences in Artistic Production«, 16 May 2019, AI in Art and Culture, Conference of the Stiftung Niedersachsen, Hannover

»Use of AI in Art Production«, 23 March 2019, Goethe-Institut Irland, Dublin, Ireland

Curating#

AI-Worlding. Artistic research on AI-generated world models, co-curated with Alex Oppermann, Natalie Wilke and Leon-Etienne Kühr, museumangewandtekunst, Frankfurt (2026)

How to Make a Paradise – Seducement and Dependence in Generated Worlds, Frankfurter Kunstverein (2020)

I am here to learn: On Machinic Interpretations of the World, co-curated by Franziska Nori, Frankfurter Kunstverein (2018)