Artistic Work

Iyad Rahwan, born in 1978 in Aleppo, Syria, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Berlin. Drawing on his day job as a computer science professor and Director of the Max Planck Center for Humans & Machines, Rahwan’s art explores the evolution of Artificial Intelligence and its relationship to the human condition.

Formerly a professor of Media Arts & Sciences at MIT’s Media Lab, Rahwan uses generative AI as part of his process, thus incorporating the machine’s own evolving representations of itself and the world. Rahwan is best known for his digital art/science projects, which exposed tens of millions of people to the societal and ethical implications of AI, such as the ethical dilemmas of autonomous vehicles, bias in machine learning, human-AI creativity, media manipulation, and the ability of AI to induce fear and empathy in humans at scale. His work was featured in major media outlets, including The New Yorker, New York Times, and The Atlantic. It was also exhibited in leading cultural institutions, such as Ars Electronica, Science Museum London and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.

Rahwan's painting practice documents, in physical pigment, how intelligent machines shape our perception of the world. And his machine portraits explore the machine's own emerging self-image.

Artist Resume | Aesthetica interview (2024) | ‘Portraits of the Artificial’ exhibition publication