Behaviourist Art and Cybernetics: Mapping a Field

Author:   Kate Sloan (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN:  

9781032612317


Pages:   202
Publication Date:   28 September 2025
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
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Behaviourist Art and Cybernetics: Mapping a Field


Overview

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. 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. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, technology studies, music history, architectural history, and design history.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kate Sloan (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.560kg
ISBN:  

9781032612317


ISBN 10:   1032612312
Pages:   202
Publication Date:   28 September 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Behaviourist Art Part One: Operant Chambers 1 The Live Subject 2 Nicholas Negroponte’s Seek 3 Hans Haacke’s Living Systems Part Two: Light Triggers 4 Flicker 5 György Kepes’ Flame Orchard 6 Otto Piene’s Light Ballets 7 Wen-Ying Tsai’s Stroboscopic Organicism Part Three: Behaviourist Architectures 8 Architectures of Behaviour 9 Cybernetic Towers: CAVS and Schöffer 10 Temporary Architectures of Art: Keith Albarn Index

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Author Information

Kate Sloan holds a lectureship in Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Edinburgh.

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