Behaviourist Art and Cybernetics

<p>Drawing together key areas of cybernetic art practice in the UK and USA this book assesses British and American cybernetic art as relating to the intersecting field of Behaviourism.</p><p>This study takes as a starting point Roy Ascott’s essay ‘Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision’ (1966) and uses it to define a field of Behaviourist art from the period 1945–1975. Kate Sloan establishes the role of the cybernetic concept of feedback as a defining factor in understanding works of art as behavioural expanded well beyond the perimeters of what we consider cybernetic art. The book also demonstrates how light as a behavioural trigger informed several discrete areas of art making from cybernetic art to countercultural light shows and behaviourist architectures.</p><p>The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history technology studies music history architectural history and design history.</p>