Platform Futures

Cybernetics Serendipity by Geeta Dayal

Reblogged from – Rhizome.org (http://rhizome.org/editorial/3015)

Brian Eno, Peter Schmidt, and Cybernetics

By Geeta Dayal on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 1:00 pm.

Image: Cover of Brian Eno’s 1974 album “Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)”

Cybernetics is one of the most widely misunderstood concepts. The word itself seems sinister and futuristic, but the term has ancient roots – the Greek word kybernetes, meaning steersman. Cybernetics was famously defined in more recent times by Norbert Wiener in 1948, as the science of “control and communication, in the animal and the machine.” Words like “control” may seem to have creepy overtones, but at its heart, cybernetics is simply the study of systems. “Cybernetics is the discipline of whole systems thinking…a whole system is a living system is a learning system,” as Stewart Brand put it in 1980. Cybernetic systems have been used to model all kinds of phenomena, with varying degrees of success – factories, societies, machines, ecosystems, brains — and many noted artists and musicians derived inspiration from this powerful conceptual toolkit. Cybernetics may be one of the most interdisciplinary frameworks ever devised; its theories link engineering, math, physics, biology, psychology, and an array of other fields, and ideas from cybernetics inevitably infiltrated the arts. The musician and producer Brian Eno, for example, was a big fan of connecting ideas from cybernetics to the studio environment, and to music composition, in his work in the 1970s.

Eno was first exposed to concepts in cybernetics as a teenager in the mid-1960s, during his days as a student at Ipswich Art College. Several art schools in the UK in the ’60s were incorporating ideas from cybernetics into their pedagogical approaches, mainly via Roy Ascott’s infamous “Groundcourse” curriculum. Ipswich Art College, where Eno studied in the mid-’60s, was run by Ascott, an imposing presence who incorporated cutting-edge cybernetics principles into his offbeat teaching style. Before Ipswich, Ascott had been head tutor at Ealing, a nearby art school where a young Pete Townshend was studying. “The first term at Ipswich was devoted entirely to getting rid of those silly ideas about the nobility of the artist by a process of complete and relentless disorientation,” Eno recalled some ten years later, in a guest lecture he gave at Trent Polytechnic. Ascott’s teaching philosophy involved countless mandatory group collaboration exercises — an echo of cybernetics’ emphasis on “systems learning” — and mental games. Very little of the teaching at Ipswich had anything to do with what the teenage Eno had ostensibly set out to do — study the fine arts. Instead of daubing canvases with oil paints, Eno and his fellow students were instructed to create “mindmaps” of each other.

Eno became very interested in cybernetics, and possible ways to apply those ideas to music. As an art school student, he had gotten into observing life on a “meta” level, and looked at his own creative process with a bird’s eye view. Cybernetics concepts challenged Eno to think in different ways about the process of making music, and these ideas infiltrated Eno’s thinking on many of his 1970s albums in key ways. Groups of musicians working in the studio could be conceptualized, in some general sense, as cybernetic systems. A piece of music composed using feedback, or tape loops, could be construed using cybernetics principles, too. One of Eno’s favorite quotes, from the managerial-cybernetics theorist Stafford Beer, would become a fundamental guiding principle for his work: ”Instead of trying to specify it in full detail,” Beer wrote in his book The Brain of the Firm, “you specify it only somewhat. You then ride on the dynamics of the system in the direction you want to go.” Eno also derived inspiration from Stafford Beer’s related definition of a “heuristic.” “To use Beer’s example: If you wish to tell someone how to reach the top of a mountain that is shrouded in mist, the heuristic ‘keep going up’ will get him there,” Eno wrote. Eno connected Beer’s concept of a “heuristic” to music.

Image: Back cover of Brian Eno’s 1975 album “Discreet Music”

The work of Eno’s late friend, the British artist Peter Schmidt, who died in 1980, goes strangely underrecognized in the story of cybernetics and the arts. Schmidt, who died in 1980, had a major impact on legions of artists, perhaps most famously on Eno. Schmidt contributed artwork to several of Eno’s key albums in the 1970s. His lithographs adorn the cover of 1974’s Taking Tiger Mountain [by Strategy]; he also created the striking abstract painting that formed the cover of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno’s 1975 collaboration Evening Star, and a series of prints that were included as collectible inserts in the 1977 album Before and After Science. Schmidt and Eno also released the renowned Oblique Strategies cards – “one hundred worthwhile dilemmas” designed to coax artists out of creative ruts – together in 1975. Schmidt is mostly known as a painter, but he was also an electronic composer in his own right; in 1967, he merged his two interests together, performing a show at London’s ICA called “A Painter’s Use of Sound.”

Schmidt served as the music adviser to curator Jasia Reichardt for the landmark exhibition “Cybernetic Serendipity” at London’s ICA in 1968, and his selection of computer music for the ICA show proved extraordinarily prescient. Schmidt had long been intrigued by electronic music, systems, and their connections to the visual arts. “Cybernetic Serendipity” showcased pathbreaking work by hundreds of artists, including John Cage, Nam June Paik, and Jean Tinguely, and was a huge success for Reichardt and the ICA, drawing somewhere between 45,000 and 60,000 viewers and foreshadowing multiple major trends on the interfaces between art and technology. “Cybernetic Serendipity” also galvanized the interest in systems-based art. “The very notion of having a system in relation to making paintings is often anathema to those who value the mysterious and the intuitive, the free and the expressionistic, in art,” wrote Reichardt in 1968. “Systems, nevertheless, dispense neither with intuition nor mystery. Intuition is instrumental in the design of the system and mystery always remains in the final result.”

Image: “Cybernetic Serendipity” poster 1968 (Source: Media Art Net)

Shortly after “Cybernetic Serendipity,” Schmidt held a solo show of his systems-based prints and paintings at London’s Lisson Gallery. “The paintings and prints shown here were all done according to pre-conceived formulae,” wrote Schmidt in his artist’s statement. “In some of them a few decisions were left to be made as the picture progressed, but in most of them all the decisions were made beforehand. But the point of working this way is not at all to achieve a pre-conceived result, it is to allow an unexpected one. The more decisions that I have to make during the course of a painting, the more it becomes that these decisions will be influenced by taste and by the desire for a specific outcome. In these paintings the shape and color structure was often completely predetermined, but the way the paintings looked was a complete surprise.”

Image: Exhibition invitation from Peter Schmidt’s solo show at Lisson Gallery, Nov. 7 – Dec. 24, 1968
(Courtesy of Lisson Gallery)

A year later, in 1969, Schmidt made a series of 64 drawings based on hexagrams from the ancient Chinese divination system, the I Ching. John Cage had famously been using the I Ching to make compositional decisions — a move that would inspire the Oblique Strategies cards, published by Eno and Schmidt in the mid-1970s.

Eno and Schmidt released the Oblique Strategies cards together in 1975, when they realized that they had both been independently developing sets of ideas to help themselves come up with creative solutions to trying situations. “The Oblique Strategies evolved from me being in a number of working situations when the panic of the situation – particularly in studios — tended to make me quickly forget that there were others ways of working, and that there were tangential ways of attacking problems that were in many senses more interesting than the direct head-on approach,” explained Eno in an interview with Charles Amirkhanian in 1980.

Image: Oblique Strategies cards

The Oblique Strategies cards, while ostensibly quirky, had a specific, utilitarian purpose. The cards were designed to help artists and musicians get out of creative ruts and loosen up in the studio. Each Oblique Strategy had a different aphorism: “Accept advice,” read one. “Imagine the music as a series of disconnected events,” read another. “Humanize something free of error.” The Strategies were, in their own way, a systems-based approach to creativity.

The work of Eno and Schmidt, and of many other artists who took inspiration from ideas in cybernetics and other ideas from the sciences, was never a literal interpretation of scientific principles. That was part of what made it interesting. “One night at dinner, John Cage handed me a copy of Cybernetics by Norbert Wiener, and said “this is for you”,” remembered John Brockman in his book By the Late John Brockman, published in 1969. “Robert Rauschenberg encouraged me to read about physics, recommending The Mysterious Universe by Sir James Jeans, and One, Two, Three, Infinity by George Gamow.” Rauschenbergian physics and Cagean cybernetics were not, perhaps, the genuine article. These garbled transmissions from the sciences, mixed in ad-hoc ways into the arts, allowed for strange mutations to take root in culture, taking a life all their own.

Geeta Dayal is the author of Another Green World (Continuum, 2009), a new book on Brian Eno. She has written over 150 articles and reviews for major publications, including Bookforum, The Village Voice, The New York Times, The International Herald-Tribune, Wired, The Wire, Print, I.D., and many more. She has taught several courses as a lecturer in new media and journalism at the University of California – Berkeley, Fordham University, and the State University of New York. She studied cognitive neuroscience and film at M.I.T. and journalism at Columbia. You can find more of her work on her blog, The Original Soundtrack.

Jan Svankmajer – Dimensions of dialogue

Amazing surreal stop frame animation by Czech artist Jan Svankmajer

And you may ask yourself what have I been doing these past 2 years in college

Yes for all of you my adoring fans the time has come I completed my Masters in Fine Art at the University of Ulster Belfast in June and Im finally getting around to uploading images from my end of year show.

This is a photographic piece shot with my friend Eve Vaughan on a day out visiting the location of the field from the film ‘The Field’ by Jim Sheridan its on the road from Leenane in north Connemara to Westport. The film raises lots of issues about the Irish peoples historical relationship to the land. In these times with all that has happend between the recession and the collapse of the property bubble I was interested in revisiting this location.

The Field by Jim Sheridan – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099566/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Field

Eve Vaughan also has a new blog where she has posted some documentation from her recent performances in Dublin http://evevaughan.wordpress.com/

I used the show as an oppurtunity to try an experiment in sharing. I got 500 posters printed I left them on the floor in the exhibition space I put a note with a cap beside them saying ‘ posters are free – if you would like to show your support for the artist you are welcome to leave a £1 or 2 in the cap’ I was delighted that so many people liked the work, its lovely to think hundreads of my posters found their way into peoples homes I was also pleasently surprised to find so many people showing their support by putting a £1 or £2 in the cap. The money collected from the cap covered almost half my printing costs and I still have at least 200 posters left which I’ll have to give away again at some future exhibition. So a big Thank You to all of you for showing your support. Its very encouraging. So to continue with the sharing if you like the image but couldn’t make it to the exhibition I am licencing it with a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Sharealike Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ for those not familiar with Creative Commons that means you are free to share and distribute the image, and to make derivative works , use it in your own work , remix the thing ,on the basis that it is for non commercial purpose and that you attribute me as your source of inspiration

The second piece in the show was a video installation.

click on the images below to watch the videos

A couple of weeks before I took part in the City Supplements show at Ps2 Paragon Project Space Donegal Belfast. We had a brief to make some work in response to the changing cathedral quarter of the city. http://www.pssquared.org/

I made a few pieces based on a series of images found on google street view. The images follow the flight of birds through the area as recorded on google street view. I also made an animated video of the street for fun. Do check out the Ps2 site there where some nice pieces in the show and there are plenty of images on the site. http://www.pssquared.org/citysupplements.php

click on the image above to get a better look

click on the image below to watch the video.

ok next up are just a few images that I was playing around with

click on the image below to watch a sample video

From Left to Right (1989) – Ivan Maximov

This is Brilliant

VAI – The Social, Economic & Fiscal Status of Visual Artists in Ireland

Visual Artists Ireland - The Social, Economic & Fiscal Status of Visual Artists in Ireland	17 July 2009
Visual Artists Ireland is pleased to announce the publication of the results of a survey carried out by Visual Artists Ireland in December 2008 entitled ‘The Social, Economic and Fiscal Status of Visual Artists in Ireland’. Please note that the text in this message is a summation of the findings of the survey only. A full PDF version (approx. 17MB) of the survey is available to purchase from Visual Artists Ireland for €10.00 (dispatched by email or by CD, P&P not included). Turnaround time on PDF orders is approximately 5 days. To order a PDF direct from Visual Artists Ireland please contact: E: info@visualartists.ie The survey has also been published online using lulu.com and is available to purchase from: www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-social-economic-fiscal-status-of-visual-artists-in-ireland/7378935 The printed document is 101 pages, 14.81 x 20.99 cm, perfect binding, white interior paper (60# weight), full-colour interior ink, white exterior paper (100# weight), full-colour exterior ink.
1) Introduction 2) Key Findings 3) Important Acknowledgements 4) Time Factors 5) Social Welfare 6) Status of the Individual within Society 7) Challenges Comments 9) Headings of Graphs and Tables
1) INTRODUCTION Visual artists in Ireland today are thriving in terms of creative output. However, these visual artists also represent some of the lowest paid members of society. They undertake their career as a visual artist against all odds – and at times feel alienated from a society that gains its cultural identity from their life’s work. Many visual artists live on the breadline; and in the current climate, some might feel their occupation is threatened or under attack – yet they continue to succeed to make work. Rather than try to merely prove these statements emotively, Visual Artists Ireland carried out a survey in December 2008 entitled ‘The Social, Economic and Fiscal Status of Visual Artists in Ireland’. Drawing upon our membership as a true representation of the sector, Visual Artists Ireland asked a number of volunteers to answer a series of standard questions in order to provide a true and accurate picture of life as a visual artist in Ireland today. We have chosen not to make any detailed analysis of the data collected. Instead, in the survey document we show the information gathered which we feel speaks for itself. 2) KEY FINDINGS Visual artists represent a highly educated part of the community. Self-taught artists are the exception, with most art graduates progressing to MA and post-doctorate studies. Following graduation and to maintain their ongoing career development, 57% continue with some form of further education and/or professional development workshops. 49% of this further education is delivered by Visual Artists Ireland. We also provide professional development contact hours in colleges around the country so that art students can understand the realities of life as an artist following graduation. Within the education system, the curriculum that is delivered does not include or demand knowledge of areas outside of the arts. For this reason, although highly educated and skilled, some are ill equipped for the reality of life. This reality shows that artists need to have two or three other jobs to support their families and their art practice. They take part-time positions in education, community work, volunteering, or jobs within the hospitality industry. These offer them the flexible working hours that may allow them to also spend time within their art practice. The main reason that artists give for not having enough time to spend in their art practice is insufficient income from art making. This is not necessarily a reflection of lack of quality, but it indicates the limits of places for artists to show their work, and the small size of the art collecting population. Artists who do exhibit are not necessarily paid. There are no set guidelines on this matter and therefore even publically funded institutions may not pay an artist’s fee for exhibition. This is usually due to a lack of sufficient funding or a lack of understanding of the life of an artist. Other statistics that show visual artists at the lowest income level of society are: - 67% of artists earn less than €10,000 per annum from their creative work - 24% earn between €10,000 and €25,000 per annum Taking this that this creative income must be supported by other forms of income such as part / full time work, grants etc. - 33% of artists earn less than €10,000 per annum from all of their sources of income - 34% earn between €10,000 and €25,000 These figures are from a period of economic growth and certainty, and even during this time 24% of artists have been in arrears in the past year. And yet, considering these high figures, only 30% of artists have signed on in the past five years. These figures will show that it is in the early years of career that artists most rely on social welfare: Age 25 – 34 = 15% Age 35 – 44 = 10% Age 45 – 54 = 4% Age 64+ = 1% For this reason it is obvious that some form of state support is required for early career artists. As artists must be self-employed for the tax exemptions scheme, and yet some may still have PAYE jobs (61% self-employed, 62% PAYE, 83% registered as both), we have found anomalies in how artists are treated by social welfare. This means that 42% of artists who have applied for social welfare (47% means tested, 36% PRSI) have had problems. 33% have been told to retrain, 22% have been threatened with a removal of benefits, and 12% have found variations between social welfare personnel. This is a direct comment from one of our correspondents: ‘I was given a tip never to even mention art, which is what I did, and so far no probs. Self-employed people suffer the same fate… so much better in current climate to state that one is out of work since last job, waitressing, teaching etc.’ back to top 3) IMPORTANT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It would be unfair for us not to acknowledge the work of the Arts Council of Ireland, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Culture Ireland, the British Council, and local arts offices in their support of the visual arts. But their limited funding can go only so far as the call on their resources becomes more and more stretched, and their funding becomes more reduced. The following table shows applications for sources of funding available to artists. The Arts Council – 22% Local Authority Funding – 16% No sources of funding available – 10% Per Cent for Art Commissions – 10% Culture Ireland – 8% The Arts Council Northern Ireland – 7% Other Government Departmental Funding – 6% Funding from Private Enterprise – 4% EU Funding – 3% Funding from Private Sector – 3% Private Individuals – 3% Non Governmental Organisations – 2% UK Lottery – 1% Non-EU Funding – 0% As the above table indicates the primary funders for the members surveyed are The Arts Council and local authorities, with percent for art and Culture Ireland coming very close to the top. It is therefore clear that the provision of funds to these organisations / schemes ensures that the individual artist is given the wherewithal to work, and to contribute to the creative economy. 4) TIME FACTORS The most significant influence on when artists choose to work has consistently related to their home life. Family commitments, household duties and in particular the issue of childcare, impacts greatly upon the time available to artists in which to work. Artists often find it necessary to wait until they have time and space to themselves. For example, when children are at school or a spouse is at work. Another significant factor in choosing a time to work in their area of practice is the need to arrange their time around other work commitments. Many artists find it necessary to supplement their income with another job, most commonly; teaching. Therefore, these artists generally work when they return home from their “day job” or on days off. A lot of artists rely on daylight in which to work, so this is also a contributing factor in selecting a time. As well as this, artists reported that the need to meet deadlines was also a major influence. Many people also stated that the energy and compulsion they felt for the work was also a contributing factor, while others felt that routine hours and structure suited them better. back to top 5) SOCIAL WELFARE Most people suggested that some form of financial support would be welcomed from Social Welfare. In particular, it was proposed that developing artists may require a start-up loan or a subsistence to be made available to them subject to certain conditions. Other ideas included: - an integrated health and pension scheme for artists - an artist-focussed self employment scheme - a tax exemption to specific to forms of visual art Artists also took issue with their status as viewed by Social Welfare. It was suggested that Social Welfare Officials fail to recognise that being a professional artist is a legitimate and viable career. It should be accepted as a trade and that therefore these candidates are not available for other work. Artists would like Social Welfare to realise that they contribute significantly to local, regional, national and international living culture. Many artists partake in voluntary work and this should possibly be taken into account. Because of this there needs to be more information and training available to staff in the Social Welfare as to the role an artist plays in society. Artists would like to see Social Welfare Officers supplied with specific guidelines on how to deal with artists. Training for Officers should include information on how an artist’s practice works in order to enable them to offer constructive advice where needed, particularly in areas such as grant breakdowns. It was suggested that Social Welfare could request to see current work in progress to understand better what an artist does. On applying for social welfare benefit, officials could ask to be shown accounts to demonstrate that what happens to an artist’s income, as it may often go straight back into the Visual Art Practice and thus does not sustain the artist but funds the work produced. Consultation with artists was also suggested in order to improve the relationship. For example, Social Welfare Officials could ask each claiming artist what would facilitate them in gaining financial independence. They could also make practical training available to accompany current skills on a part-time basis, thus allowing the artist to remain working on their practice part-time but also gain new practical skills for employment part-time in areas such as teaching, or web design, etc. It is felt that there is very little understanding of people who don’t work within the usual 9am to 5pm structure. This shows great inflexibility within the system and this makes it less accessible for artists. 6) STATUS OF THE INDIVIDUAL WITHIN SOCIETY Some of the international standard questions used to show the status of the individual within society may also prove of interest: - 72% have no private pension - 45% have no private health insurance - 48% are the primary earner of their household - 83% could not work as an artist without the added income of their partner - 40% of artists did not take holidays in the past year - 62% couldn’t afford to And yet when asked, 83% stated that given the choice all over again they would still choose to be an artist. It is therefore imperative that Irish society takes an integrated and strategic view where the visual arts are concerned. Visual artists contribute to the cultural identity of our nation, and also address the morale of the population. And yet, public opinion about this contribution is regularly directed by popular media that that visual artists are high earners and spongers off state systems. This needs to be quashed; especially in the light of the realities of the research that is published within this document. Artists work at many levels, fields and contexts – for example in the areas of community, health, children, disability, environment, to name but a few. Often this work is in the form of volunteering. All of which goes unrecognised by the State. The continued support of the tax exemption, percent for art and the funding of the Arts Council and local authorities are vital but are only part of a larger picture that needs to be addressed. Government needs to take a very strategic and integrated approach to how we can build a society in which the visual arts are supported. For this reason we need to look to education at its most early stages, support systems that need to be overhauled so as to recognise careers that some economists may see as an ‘irrational pursuit’, and put concrete action into ensuring that the visual arts becomes central rather than an inconvenient line item on an economist’s agenda. Only in this way can we truly say that we are a nation that places culture high on its lists of priority, and ensure that we can maintain free access to the arts such as we enjoy today. back to top 7) CHALLENGES Financial survival was consistently the biggest challenge reported by artists. Earning a regular income and trying to make a living from creative practice is a major difficulty for a large number of people. The majority of those who took part in the survey found that they had to continuously source outside work to supplement their income. Because of these difficulties, they also were often unable to contribute to a pension fund, or a mortgage, or other general expenses of that kind. Not knowing from one year to the next where income will come from is a concern. Artists who do take on outside work often struggle to strike a balance between both finding time and energy for their art practice and their other job. Another of the main challenges met by visual artists involves promoting the work and the artists themselves. Building up a reputation is a key factor in getting sale for the work, however many artists encounter problems in trying to find gallery space and lining up exhibitions. The commercial gallery scene is perceived as difficult and inaccessible, particularly for artists starting out. However, exposure of the work and the artist keeping a visual public appearance is vital to achieving sales. An additional difficulty faced by artists is finding the time to pursue their own practice, it largely not being financially rewarding. Time management, discipline and the opportunity to develop as an artist becomes very difficult where outside work is necessary to supplement an income. A number of artists find that having to manage the business and administration side of being an artist is also time consuming and takes away from time which could be spent creating. Issues such as dealing with tax, keeping records, applying for grants and speaking with galleries can be a significant demand on an artist’s time and therefore constitutes a challenge in the creative process. Inspiration, motivation and deadlines are additional difficulties met by artists. COMMENTS The most common concern among visual artists is the inability to earn enough to live on through work as an artist alone. It is often necessary for them to supplement their income in another way. A large proportion of them find either part-time or full-time work in both related and unrelated fields. A smaller number of responders stated that they would not be able to survive as a practicing artist without the financial support of their partner. While some artists hold the belief that to become dependent on their art for money could change the art in a negative way and that it is healthy for artists to have jobs outside the arts or at least outside their own sphere, the majority found that outside work mostly had a negative impact on their artwork. An outside job can drain an artist of their creative energy and leave them with insufficient time to develop their own work. Common complaints were that current artists’ fees for exhibitions and commissions are insufficient, while at the same time the outlets for their work charge a disproportionate commission. In reality, the artists get paid for a fraction of the hours actually worked. For example, time spent installing the piece is often unpaid. Artists agree that it is very difficult to make a living being an artist but they still make art as they believe it is important to do so. With regard to an artist’s social status, it was stated that in Ireland being an artist is still viewed as a past-time rather than a career. Many people also feel that it is a lonely and isolated occupation, and that they are generally unsupported and undervalued in society. Where some artists do find respect within their local community, they however do not find the same when dealing with Financial Institutions or the Social Welfare. 9) HEADINGS OF GRAPHS & TABLES Headings of Graphs & Tables within the report include: - Education & Training - Work - Unemployment and Social Welfare - Funding and Other Sources of Financial Support - Standard of Living - Personal Profile Other topics include: - Finding time to work - Social Welfare Suggestions - Challenges to being a visual artist in Ireland back to top
For more information on ‘The Social, Economic & Fiscal Status of Visual Artists in Ireland’ please contact Visual Artists Ireland at: 37 North Great George’s Street, Dublin 1 E: info@visualartists.ie www.visualartists.ie Visual Artists Ireland is the trading name of the Sculptors’ Society of Ireland

We need more artists making music and musicians making art

I love Laurie Anderson

Stop Making Sense Making Sense

The Talking Heads Stop Making Sense Making Sense has to be my favourite live album and concert dvd of the year. Ive listened to it every other day since I got my free copy with the guardian probably a year ago.  Great get up and go music. Great Energy

Some Beautiful Seascapes by Hiroshi Sugimoto

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com

Water Ball