Cybernetic Serendipity

Cybernetic Serendipity Music ICA01 | ICA02
1968 ICA Nash House, The Mall, London SW1

ICA01

A1 Lajaren Hiller & Leonard Isaacson – Illiac Suite (Experiment 4). 1957, 4 minutes, Mono.

A2 John Cage – Cartridge Music (excerpt). 1960, 5 minutes, Stereo.

A3 Iannis Xenakis – Strategie (excerpt). 1962, 5 minutes, Stereo.

A4 Wilhelm Fucks – Experiment Quatro-Due. 1963, 5 minutes, Mono.

A5 J.K. Randall – Mudgett (excerpt). 1965, 7½ minutes, Stereo.

ICA02

B1 Gerald Strang – Compusition 3. 1966, 2½ minutes, Mono.

B2 Haruki Tsuchiya – Bit Music (excerpt). 1967-1968, 2⅜ minutes, Stereo.

B3 T.H. O'Beirne – Enneadic Selections. 1968, 4¼ minutes, Mono.

B4 Peter Zinovieff – January Tensions. 1968, 10½ minutes, Stereo.

B5 Herbert Brün – Infraudibles. 1967, 8 ½ minutes, Stereo.

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UBUWEB

This record was made to celebrate and commemorate the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition held at the ICA, London, 1st August to 20th October 1968.
During the preparation of the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition two things became apparent.
One, that in order to show what was going on in the field computer music, it was necessary to include a considerable amount of material that was not strictly composed with or played by computer. Two, that dealing with an exploratory field, all attempts at a historical perspective or firm evaluation were out of place. The exhibition and this record, therefore, are essentially a reportage of current trends and developments in programmed and stochastic music.
The first landmark in computer composition is Lejaren A. Hiller’s ‘Illiac Suite’, 1957. Many experiments have been carried out before, but these were either exploratory without yielding a tangible music, or were mostly concerned with the technical possibilities of imitating familiar sounds.
Ideas which are relevant to composition with computers were frequently employed in the experimental musical composition of the past thirty years. The work of Joseph Schillinger, for instance, through its systematic analysis and programming, antedates the methods employed by computer composers today. The notion of randomness exemplified in the work of John Cage is also of crucial importance. Randomness (decision avoiding, or more concisely, leaving a decision to chance within an exactly specified range of possibilities) is one of the most important tools of the computer composer.
Computer music falls into two categories: computer composition and computer sound. Specific works may employ one or both of these. 'Illiac Suite’ is computer composed but performed by a string quartet. Pieces by James Tenney, Gerald Strang and Peter Zinovieff utilise the computer both as a tool to compose with and a sound-making instrument. The experimental pieces produced at Bell Telephone Laboratories make use of existing tunes like 'A bicycle built for two’ but played and sung by a computer.
As a souvenir of the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition this record is a selection of work in progress.
The cover shows a section of a score for “Four Sacred April Rounds’ 1968 by Peter Zinovieff

Curator Jasia Reichardt introduces the ‘Cybernetic Serendipity’ exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.

Gordon Pask Colloquy of Mobiles
installation view video 2 (close up)
ICA, London, 1968.

(Source: cyberneticians.com)

Gordon Pask Colloquy of Mobiles
installation view video 1
ICA, London, 1968.

(Source: cyberneticians.com)

exhibition view, ICA London, 1968.

[Gordon Pask, Colloquy of Mobiles]

exhibition view, ICA London 1968.

Featuring Bruce Lacey’s ROSA BOSOM with MATE.

[View related British Pathe newsreel.]

Bruce Lacey and Princess Margaret at Cybernetic Serendipity, ICA London, 1968.

exhibition view, ICA London 1968.

Rowland Emett’s The Honeywell-Emett Forget-me-not Computer

[View related British Pathe newsreels 1 & 2]

exhibition view, ICA London 1968.

exhibition view, ICA London 1968

“Cybernetics - derives from the Greek «kybernetes» meaning «steersman»; our word «governor» comes from the Latin version of the same word. The term cybernetics was first used by Norbert Wiener around 1948. In 1948 his book «Cybernetics» was subtitled «communication and control in animal and machine.» The term today refers to systems of communication and control in complex electronic devices like computers, which have very definite similarities with the processes of communication and control in the human nervous system. A cybernetic device responds to stimulus from outside and in turn affects external environment, like a thermostat which responds to the coldness of a room by switching on the heating and thereby altering the temperature. This process is called feedback. Exhibits in the show are either produced with a cybernetic device (computer) or are cybernetic devices in themselves. They react to something in the environment, either human or machine, and in response produce either sound, light or movement. Serendipity – was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. There was a legend about three princes of Serendipity (old name for Ceylon) who used to travel throughout the world and whatever was their aim or whatever they looked for, they always found something very much better. Walpole used the term serendipity to describe the faculty of making happy chance discoveries. Through the use of cybernetic devices to make graphics, film and poems, as well as other randomising machines which interact with the spectator, many happy discoveries were made. Hence the title of this show.”

from the exhibition press release, ICA London, 1968.

exhibition view, ICA London 1968.
[SAM (Sound Activated Mobile) in foreground.]

exhibition view, ICA London 1968

Featuring Bruce Lacey’s ROSA BOSOM with MATE

exhibition view, ICA London 1968.
[SAM (Sound Activated Mobile) in foreground.]