Espace
EDF Electra, Paris
Reviewed
by Joseph
Nechvatal for
Thing.Net
If one discounts the existence of
Lszl Moholy-Nagys Bauhaus Light Space Modulator (1923-30)
(rebuilt in 1970 and now in the collection of Harvard University's
Busch-Reisinger Museum) a visionary multimedia artwork that helped inaugurate
the artistic dialogue between machines, light, shadow and motion - there is
something to the claim that the Hungarian-born French artist Nicolas Schffer
(1912-1992) is 'the Father of Cybernetic Art'. At the very least this premise
may now be entertained while viewing actual work (mostly mobile sculpture under
theatrical lighting effects) and an incredible amount of documentation now on
view in Paris at the museum of the French electricity company Espace EDF
Electra.
What is immediately evident in
this exceptional historic presentation is that Schffers career touched on
painting, kinetic sculpture, architecture, urbanism, film, TV, and even music
(he collaborated with Pierre Henry) all in the pursuit of a dynamism in art
which was originally initiated by the Cubo-Futurists and then intensified and
solidified by the Russian Constructivists such as Naum Gabo, Anton Pevsner, Moholy-Nagy
and Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack. All were concerned with opening up the static
three-dimensional sculptural form to a fourth dimension of time and motion, and
this was Schffers intention as well. Schffer however, coming well after,
benefited pleasingly from cybernetic theories (theories of feedback systems
(interactivity) primarily based on the ideas of Norbert Wiener (1894-1964)) in
that they suggested to him artistic processes in terms of the organization of
the system manifesting it (e.g., the circular causality of feedback-loops). For
Schffer, this enabled cybernetics to elucidate complex artistic relationships
from within the work itself.
His CYSP 1, from
1956, is considered the first cybernetic sculpture in art history in that it
made use of electronic computations as developed by the Philips Company. The
sculpture is set on a base mounted on four rollers, which contains the
mechanism and the electronic brain. The plates are operated by small motors
located under their axis. Photo-electric cells and a microphone built into the
sculpture catch all the variations in the fields of color, light intensity and
sound intensity. All these changes occasion reactions on the part of the
sculpture.
Consequently Schffers kinetic
sculptural compositions were able to parallel Warren McCulloch's adaptation of
cybernetics in formulating a creative epistemology concerned with the
self-communication within an observer's psyche and between the psyche and the
surrounding environment. This is cybernetics primary usefulness in studying
the supposed subject/object polarity in terms of artistic experience. That is
the theoretical premise, at least.
In actuality we are treated here
to dramatic light shows (some on the trippy side) that come whirling out of his
spinning mechanical metal sculptures. Colored lights bounce off revolving
polished metal towers - casting ever-changing lights and shadows onto huge wall
screens and into our eyes. There also is a very basic interactive room
consisting of a group of smaller whirling sculptures which respond to the
presence of a viewer and a large prismatic triangle structure containing
infinity views. This work brought to mind Lucas
Samaras, Room 2 and other
mirrored immersive works such as Getulio Alvanis Cubic Environment and Luc Peire's Environment all of which similarly offered the viewer a
pervasive reflective arrangement where mirrored surfaces rebound amplitude to
an indefinite degree.
In Schffers
triangular structure, my image was being
ceaselessly mixed and reflected within spinning lights as I was made to feel an
integral part of an exploding expanse. In general, this infinity experience
bided me to view myself in infinity and so to feel space not in the traditional
passive Euclidean custom - but in a conceptually operative and viractual
(viractive) manner.
In addition, the exhibition
demonstrates Schffers three period styles. First is his spatio-dynamic
constructions from 1948 on: attempts at a synthesis of spatial and dynamic
elements. Next come the lumo-dynamic constructions of 1957, which connect
light projections to music. In his chrono-dynamic works of 1959, word and
tone, movement and space, light and color form together a totality of
space-time.
Also well documented is
Schffers 52 metres high Cybernetic Tower from 1961, which was constructed
in Liege with 66 revolving mirrors.
Given the period-piece nature of
the exhibition, I found it stylistically engaging - and not overly retro
looking. Indeed, the show surprisingly did not appear that dated, even though
of course it recalled the early Paris 60s and the futuristic 'space age'
designs of Paco Rabanne which involved the use of moving metallic discs or
plates. Yet my subject/object polarity never shifted much.
But given
that, shouldnt Nicolas Schffer work be considered something other than an art
object per se? Perhaps it is more appropriate to think of it as a means of
transforming static perspective vision into a luminous motion study. We might
just as well consider it then as stage props. Or better, an apparatus for
painting with light. With his video works of 1961, Schffer is additionally
regarded as an early representative of video art so perhaps it all funnels
into special effects broadcast TV (which he did).
For me, the final interest of
this show (which I have seen three times now) is in its allowing me to better
position Schffer in a certain art-tech artist-engineer intellectual history
a living history which has not yet exhausted itself. Indeed it is touching to
consider that Lszl Moholy-Nagys Light Space Modulator which
was driven by a motor and equipped with 128 electric bulbs in different colors
- was finally demonstrated at the 1930 Paris Werkbund exhibition. So we see
Nicolas Schffer here not only as a pioneer of cybernetic art, kinetic
sculptor, town planner, architect and theoretician of art - but as a key player
in the middle of the art-tech intellectual narration a narration which
increasingly defines artistic achievement in the beginning of the 21st
century.