Adib Fricke
«The Smile of Leonardo da Vinci»

‘Das Lächeln des Leonardo da Vinci' is a computer program, in English and German and for MAC and DOS, developed by Adib Fricke to illustrate ways of talking about art. A limited number of phrases are joined together by a randomizer to form complete sentences. The 2.0 version of the program offers some 30 million sentences about the visual arts, for example: «Können Sie sich vorstellen, daß Reiner Ruthenbeck immer deprimiert ist, wenn ihn die Verkäuferinnen im Supermarkt nicht erkennen?» or «Schön, daß die Bilder von Paul Cézanne im Grunde sinnlos sind.» (‘Can you imagine, because Reiner Ruthenbeck is always depressed, when the shop assistants at the supermarket don't recognize him?' or ‘Beautiful, because Paul Cézanne's paintings are basically senseless'). When the program is used in an exhibition context visitors pass between two computer monitors that are engaged in conversation.