5 The First Examples of Technical Interaction in Cybernetic Art

Whereas in op art the movements of the observer in front of a painting created illusionistic flickering effects, in kinetic art—for example, that of Jean Tinguely—paintings, reliefs, and sculptures were themselves made to move. However, it was not until the arrival of cybernetic art that technology-based interactions between light and sound were created. From the mid-1950s onward, Nicolas Schöffer began building cybernetic spatiodynamic sculptures (CYSP) and towers, whose built-in microphones and photo-electric cells caused them to react with their own light and sound compositions to the noise and lighting conditions of the environment, or indeed to the creation or manipulation of these conditions by the user. Between 1953 and 1957, Gordon Pask designed and built a sophisticated Musicolour System which used acoustic input to manipulate a color projection. The sound produced was analyzed by means of frequency filters and rhythm and interference detectors and in turn controled light bulbs with colored projection wheels placed in front of them. The device also incorporated a learning mechanism that allowed it to alter the filter parameters as it was used.^[9]