Page 47 - Studio International - September 1968

Cybernetic Serendipity—the computer the females indulged in a frenetic round dance in a paratively recent technological developments. If
and the arts; at the Institute of vain attempt to attract their attention. it brings important technological concepts such
Contemporary Arts until October 20 The origins of many of the other exhibits are as that of the computer nearer to being grasped by
rather more nebulous. Any object incorporating a wider public that is justification enough for its
The title of the current Institute of Contemporary electronic components seems to qualify for in- existence. Unfortunately its main effect seems to
Arts show, apart from being precious enough to clusion; thus we have contributions ranging from be that of reducing a once-useful term to the ranks
send many rushing for dictionaries, has the Nam June Paik's threat to the livelihood of tele- of meaningless catch-phrases.
additional disadvantage of not being strictly vision maintenance engineers and Christopher To be fair, the catalogue (published by Studio
applicable to many of the exhibits. The term Evans's instant blindness machine to a stage-struck International as a special issue) does state that the
`cybernetics', as I have always understood it, robotess from Bruce Lacey. As well as these visual exhibition is dealing with possibilities rather than
refers to control systems which make use of a feed- attractions the visitor can witness examples of achievements. To me it raises the possibility of
back of information concerning changes in their computer-generated music and verse, and Tuesdays mounting a more clearly thought-out exhibition
environments to ensure that the processes they are and Thursdays he can attend one of a series of to demonstrate the aids to creativity which ad-
controlling reach their expected goals. A classic special lectures. vances in technology and control theory have
example of this type of system is provided by the Perhaps the show can be summed up best as one made available.
thermostat which turns a heating system on or off of works which have been constructed using com- Michael Blee
according to information it receives concerning the
ambient temperature.
As the term is used at the ICA it seems to apply
to any system which is remotely connected with
a computer; a system which uses changes in its
environment for any purpose whatsoever; machines
which produce graphic designs which look as
though they have come from a computer; and many
other things which I find impossible to classify.
What the exhibition is not, and what it never
pretends to be, is a demonstration of the com-
puter's powers as a creative artist. Even if it were
I feel that the display at Nash House would cause
few artistic hearts to sink with fears of imminent
redundancy.
Naturally the computer features largely in the
event but only as a tool, never as a creative person-
ality in its own right. Perhaps the situation can be
explained best by considering the field of computer
graphics. Many computers output the results of
their calculations in graphical form to provide
displays of, for example, complex mathematical
functions or blueprints of engineering components.
Sometimes, quite by accident, this output in-
formation is very attractive in terms of graphic
design and several examples of this lucky 'fall-out'
(the serendipity of the title) are to be found at the
gallery. Notable among these are the contributions
from Boeing Computer Graphics.
Such occurrences do not reflect any inherent good
taste on the part of the computer. The machine
itself is a moron capable of doing only that which
it is told to do by some other agent, thus unless it is
supplied with parameters by which to judge the
`aesthetic' quality of results it will produce a
visually exciting pattern or an unholy mess with
the same facility.
Some workers in the computer field have turned
their attention to supplying the computer with
sets of instructions (programs) with the sole aim of
producing attractive designs. However, here again
the quality of the final output is dependent on the
man who wrote the initial program not on the
judgement of an inanimate machine.
There is a great deal more to be seen at Nash
House than computer graphics, and some of it
agrees with the exhibition's title. As one would
expect from Gordon Pask, his mobile is based on
classic cybernetic principles, involving elements
responding to environmental conditions to reach a
goal.
The Pask machine, we are told, can be regarded
as 'a parody of the chit chat at a cocktail party or
the discourse of some bizarre philosophers'. 'Male'
mobiles (designed by Pask) and 'Female' mobiles
(designed by Yolanda Sonnabend) co-operate,
above left Wen Ying Tsai Cybernetic sculpture
compete and communicate with one another aiming
for goals but 'altering their objectives if they are
thwarted'. Unfortunately at the time of my visit, above drawing by the Henry Drawing Computer
mechanical failure had caused a situation at which
the most sophisticated of hostesses would blanch. left Mask drawn by computer CDC 1604 at
The males remained inert and introspective while Princeton University, submitted by I. J. Good