A Cybernetic Clarion Call to the Arts’ Community

Abstract

Cybernetics was a subject that captured the attention of some of the sharpest minds in the USA and UK from the 1940s onwards. For me, in my previous role as an architect and designer, cybernetics played a key part in solving the ‘exceedingly complex’ problems associated with the way large companies occupy buildings. In the 1960s Roy Ascott predicted that the cybernetic approach would ‘ assist in the evolution of art, serving to increase its variety and vigour’. This is an attribute exemplified by the behaviourist art of Gordon Pask whose ‘Colloquy of Mobiles’ took centre stage at Cybernetic Serendipity – an exhibition, held in 1968, which represented the heyday of cybernetics in the UK. But even today, in the arts’ world, a bright annulus of cybernetic light continues to shine, a phenomenon that I explain with reference to a piece of Visual Music called SHAPES. We’re on the brink of a cybernetic renaissance, which is why I’m issuing a clarion call for the arts’ community to turn towards the task of enhancing our chances of survival for the future.

Contributors

Terry Trickett: Role: Trickett Associates

Conference

Publication date: July 2019

Publication date (Print): July 2019

Pages: 368-375

Affiliations

Barbican, London, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2019.69

Copyright statement: © Trickett. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. Proceedings of EVA London 2019, UK

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2019

Conference acronym: EVA 2019

Conference number:

Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 8 - 11 July 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2019.69

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

Categories

Series title: Electronic Workshops in Computing