Helen Knowles (b.1975) is an artist and curator of the Birth Rites Collection. She has a BA Hons from Glasgow School of Art and MFA Fine Art from Goldsmiths University. Knowles’ practice stems from an interest in the new sovereign territories of the internet and the digital world. Her most recent film work, The Trial of Superdebthunterbot, is a 45 minute doc-fiction where she put a debt collecting algorithm on trial at Southwark Crown Court. The defence and prosecution was written and performed by real lawyers and a real jury deliberated to find whether the algorithm was guilty or not.
She lectures widely around the UK and abroad. Recent and forthcoming shows include; ‘Future and the Arts: AI, Robotics, Cities, Life - How Humanity Will Live Tomorrow’ The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, NEMO festival, Paris, The Ministry of Justice and Consumer Affairs, Berlin, 'Artistic intelligence' Hannover Kunstverein (2019) ‘Impakt Festival, ‘Los Algorithmos Suaves’, Centro del Carme, Valenica, Potsdam Film Museum (2018) ‘Zero Recoil Damage’, FolkestoneTriennial, ‘OpenCodes’, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany, ‘Codex’ D21, Leipzig, The Trial of Superdebthunterbot, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2017) and more. Her work is held in private and public collections including The Whitworth Art Gallery, Gallery Oldham, Tate Library and Archive, The National Art Library, Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection, Museum of Motherhood, NY, Birth Rites Collection and MMU Special Collection. Residencies include; Trelex Residency, Switzerland (2019), Fault Lines, Future Everything (2017-2019), HMP Altcourse, Liverpool, (2017) Moscow ICA, (2015) Santa Fe Arts Institute, New Mexico (2013 Jodrell Bank Science Centre and Arboretum (1999-2001). A recipient of awards from Arts Council England international Development Fund and The Amateurs Trust, in 2012 she won the Neo Art Prize, Great Art Prize for two works from the Youtube Portraits Series.
