Cybernetics as an Artist
This week I learned how to see the world as a collection of systems instead of individual components. These systems are self-regulating, self-reproducing, and self-correcting. They range from the natural to the artificial, the individual to the social. These systems are called Cybernetics.
Paul Pangaro defines Cybernetics as having a goal and taking action to achieve that goal. The term has existed for a long time, but I had only ever heard of the word system in my science classes. The earliest system I remember learning about is probably the water cycle in 4th grade. Water accumulates in clouds, causing precipitation. That water runs down to join various bodies of water, called collection, and eventually the sun causes the water to evaporate. When enough water has evaporated, it forms clouds in a process called condensation, and the clouds eventually get too heavy and cause precipitation. This system is a loop that repeats over and over again, and as a kid I remeber being wowed by this complex and perfect cycle of nature. It is now through Pangaro and his incredibly detailed starter guide on Cybernetics that I get to understand that the water cycle is just one system in a world full of them.
Cybernetics has evolved over time and can be divided into 3 orders: the 1st order revolves around humans and their relation to the artificial, the 2nd revolves around social systems, and the 3rd revolves around natural and/or biological systems. The water cycle is part of the 3rd order since it is a natural system. It is easy to understand. As for the other 2, it took me a while to understand the difference based on these week’s readings and videos alone. Professor Ansari gave 2 great examples though that helped me understand both orders that I’d like to mention: The 1st order is concerned with humans in relation to the artificial. We can think of streetlamps and their system of turning on and off. Streetlamps turn on when they detect that the environment around them is dark. The actuator (environment) tells the regulator (streetlamp) to turn on once the natural light is dim enough. There’s an input/output relationship with 1st orders, in this case the natural light is the input and the output is the streetlamp turning on. Since this is a looping system, the streetlight will turn off once the natural light is bright enough to trigger the regulator. The 2nd order is a little trickier since it revolves around social systems. For example, verbal communication between two or more people follows an input/output pattern, similar to the streetlamp example. The difference is that conversation has fluidity. Person 1 doesn’t just say something, wait for Person 2 to receive the information, and then eventually Person 2 responds. We’re not machines. We understand context, we have emotions, we can predict what the other person is saying. The 2nd order is different from the 1st order because the system is more complex than just input/output.
Knowing whether you have reached your goal or are getting closer to it in a system requires feedback. Pangaro defines feedback as an indicator that something changed in the system. Going back to the streetlamp example, the feedback for it detecting or not detecting natural light is the lamp turning on or off. Alternatively, feedback can also be positive or negative. Positive feedback is self-reinforcing while negative feedback is self-correcting. One way to visualize this is by imagining yourself having a drink. A negative feedback loop self-corrects by stopping after 1 or 2 drinks. A positive feedback loop encourages you to keep drinking until you black out.
As an artist and designer, I find 1st order systems particularly interesting. Artists and designers have used these concepts for a long time to improve communication amongst our peers and create pieces of art that follow an input/output pattern. Steina & Woody Vasulka became the pioneers of video art by following the principles of the 1st order. Similarly, Wen-Ying Tsai created incredible sculptures that vibrate and move in a closed-loop system. What’s interesting about these artists and their pieces is that humans are interacting with the art to make the piece move. The human is the input and the art reacting is the output. As someone who is interested in creative coding and installation art, it is mesmerizing to see that artists in the 60s created ground-breaking art that at the time was only thought of as only static. The possibilities to make human-input art in the 21st century have only grown, and learning that my arduino experiments and p5js sketches come from the principles of Cybernetics only reinforces my need and desire to keep creating.
