In this lesson, we discussed Cybernetic, a groundbreaking computer art exhibition held in London from 2 August to 20 October 1968, which was a concentrated presentation of so-called ‘cybernetic art.’ After the class, I got to know more about Cybernetic Serendipity.

The Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition is divided into three sections:

• Computer-generated graphics, computer-animated films, computer-created and played music, and computer-based poetry and text creation.
• Control facilities for artwork creation, environmental control, remote-controlled robots, and drawing machines.
• Demonstrations of computer applications and a working platform reflecting the history of cybernetics.
• Gordon Pask was one of the first cyberneticists, psychologists, and educators. His research includes biocomputing, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, logic, linguistics, psychology, and artificial life. He expanded the field of cybernetics research to contain the flow of information in various media, and Gordon Pask exhibited one of his response devices, Colloquy of Mobiles, at the Accidental Discovery of Cybernetics. Mobiles.)

One of the more fascinating features of the exhibition was the Sound Activated Mobile (SAM) by sculptor Edward Ihnatowicz. When the viewer makes a sound to it, the flower turns to face the source of the sound.

Hungarian-born French artist Nicolas Schöffer is considered the founder of cybernetic art, and his most famous work, CYSP 1, was on display at the exhibition. The name was CYSP means Cybernetic Spatiodynamic, taking the first two letters of both words. CYSP 1 was the first ever cybernetic art sculpture created in 1956. It is equipped with mechanical and electronic controls, with small electric motors driving the various components. Crucially, it contains photo- and sound-sensing devices so that when the environment changes, the sculpture changes accordingly.

The now familiar computer graphics also had a place in the ‘accidental discovery of cybernetics’, with works and theories that focused on each but replaced the draughtsman with a machine.

Ivan Moscovich’s pendulum-harmonograph is a semi-automatic plotting machine. The pendulum length is adjustable, giving it a variable factor.

Ivan Moscovich’s plotter did not involve a computer; it was just machinery. And it was the invention of Desmond Paul Henry, the first British computer graphics artist, who belonged to the cybernetic arts and presented his drawing computer in a special exhibition edition.

By 1968, pioneering musicians were already fruitful in their experiments with electronic music, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, and others being at the forefront, with noise and effects entering modern music through various methods, including digital means, which had a place in the ICA’s ‘Accidental Discovery of Cybernetics They have a place in the ICA’s “Unexpected Discoveries in Cybernetics”. Their uniqueness and diversity are to be the subject of a separate article. Another literary form, dance, was also present at this show. Because of the constraints, computers were mainly involved in the choreography, which the dancers then performed.