Silent Parties is an artwork based on eight historic legal cases in which animals have been put on trial or robots have been at the centre of legal disputes. benandsebastian’s recently completed public commission for the Court of Aarhus focuses on mute, nonhuman participants in legal history, spanning from a 15th century case involving a cock being tried for allegedly laying an egg, to a contemporary case examining whether life-size, singing and dancing robots at an American restaurant chain should be considered live performers.

benandsebastian have collaborated with specialists working within the fields of law, robotics, ethics, anthropology and cognitive science, addressing ways in which nonhumans have been silent, but also revelatory, parties in legal history.

Photographs by: David Stjernholm