Cybernetic Serendipity Defines a Movement

Cybernetic Serendipity, Jasia Reichardt’s landmark international exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, ran from 2 August to 20 October 1968 and was computer art’s first international exhibition. But it was also so much more than that.

With cybernetic theory (Cybernetics Is Born) as an overarching theme, the exhibition probed the relationship between creativity and technology. It “aroused world-wide interest for computer art and especially for computer graphics,” according to Herbert Franke. It accomplished this by comprehensively showcasing the various movements’ pioneers.

The show featured pioneers in a staggering variety of digital arts, including A. Michael Noll, Frieder Nake, Georg Nees, CTG and Charles Csuri (computer graphics), Nam June Paik (video art), Jean Tinguely (kinetic art), John Cage (generative music), Jeanne Beaman (generative choreography), John Whitney (computer film), Ken Knowlton (computer animation) and many others.

Cybernetic Serendipity was forward looking, it “deal[t] with possibilities rather than achievements,” according to Reichardt. The genius of the exhibition is that several decades later the collective achievements of the artists at the exhibition are innumerable.

The publication itself is even a prized possession today and a work of art. Reichardt said that “the most important single revelation of this exhibition” was that, due to the advent of computers, “people who would never have put pencil to paper, or brush to canvas, have started making images.”

This is the legacy of Cybernetic Serendipity. Its promotion of art and technology inspired experimentation and collaboration in the arts that are still reverberating today. It established the computer as an integral force in the history of art, inspired numerous pioneers and introduced cybernetic art to a global audience.

From Cybernetics Is Born:

Cybernetics would play a vital role in both the birth of digital art and artificial intelligence, thus making it one of the single most important moments on the timeline. Max Bense and his role at the University of Stuttgart explains the connection to computer art, specifically. He taught the first European computer artists, Georg Nees and Frieder Nake, leaving an indelible marks on their thinking that last to this day, as youtube.com demonstrates.

For artificial intelligence, cybernetics was an early attempt to unite machines and organic beings in a functional way, as it sought a theory of control, feedback and communication applicable to machines as well as animals. In the book Art in the Age of Machine Learning, author Sofian Audry argues that the concept of machine learning dates back to cybernetics.

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Listen to open.spotify.com (transcript) on Cybernetic Serendipity and Jasia Reichardt.

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Note: The show's famous catalogue appeared in July 1968 as a special issue of Studio International, edited by Reichardt, a month before the show opened.