Posted a few hours ago through e-flux, the announcement of an exhibition by Roy Ascott titled Roy Ascott: The Analogues at the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art Winnipeg, Canada.

Roy Ascott: The Analogues explores a small but crucial body of work by English inter-media artist and theorist Roy Ascott…The works in the exhibition were largely created in England between 1963 and 1970. They form a small but crucial part of the artist’s Analogue works—non-digital, two-dimensional and non-representational wall works that pre-figure his later artwork and theories relating to computer networks, viewer interaction, and telematics. Ascott was the first to coin the term “telematic art” to describe the use of online computer networks as an art medium.

The Analogues were stored near Toronto since Ascott departed that city in 1972, after a brief and tempestuous tenure as the President of the then Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University). Hired in 1971 by OCA, Ascott was poised to overhaul the college’s programs. His forward-looking ideas anticipated later developments in art pedagogy, but polarized the community, precipitating his hasty departure…The Analogues were created during the period between his initial contact with cybernetic theory and his first digitally networked experiences online. Consequently, The Analogues form an indexical moment through which we may better understand Ascott’s impact on art, new media theory and education. As we can see in these works, Ascott anticipated the concept of “interactivity” in art, and his radical Groundcourse in art education positioned the importance of education in artistic practice, especially notable in relation to the educational turn in contemporary art.

The exhibition runs from July 5th to September 29, 2013. There will also be a talk by Roy Ascott on July 4th to open the show. A publication Roy Ascott: The Analogues will be published by Plug In Editions, with an essay by Anthony Kiendl and an interview with Ascott by Dr. Melentie Pandilovski, Director of Video Pool Media Arts Centre, Winnipeg.

The following is a chronological (oldest to newest) selection of works by artist Chris Welsby who has been making work since the late 60′s and is heavily influenced by Cybernetics, networks and systems.

Welsby considers himself to work primarily with film/video as a medium. His work demonstrates quite well (we don’t usually associate Cybernetics with film) how concepts of Cybernetics (connectivity, feedback, systems etc.) can be employed to influence it in a number of ways during conception, production and exhibition. This trend has evolved throughout his career, initially using external forces from being an influencing factor in the creation of an experimental film (single version) to currently being a live aspect in the creation/exhibition of the work (continually variating versions of the work depending on input) – something now common in new media.

Wind Vane (above) is one of Welsby’s early works which employs the camera as a object, connected to and influenced by external forces (other than the film makers decisions and movements). These tended to be natural forces e.g. wind predominantly. The artist describes the work as follows:

Two cameras mounted on tripods with wind vane attachments were positioned about 50 feet apart along an axis of 45 degrees to the direction of the wind. Both cameras were free to pan through 360 degrees in the horizontal plane. There are three continuous 100 foot takes for each screen. The movements of the two cameras, which were filming simultaneously, were controlled by the wind strength and direction. The sound was recorded synchronously with the picture track and consists mainly of wind noise. Each screen has its own soundtrack when projected.

Seven Days (above) is a stop-motion film compressing imagery and sound from seven days capture into a 20 minute 16mm film.

The seven days were shot consecutively and appear in that order. Each day starts at the time of local sunrise and ends at the time of local sunset. One frame was taken every ten seconds throughout the hours of daylight. The camera was mounted on an equatorial stand which is a piece of equipment used by astronomers to track the stars. In order to remain stationary in relation to the star field, the mounting is aligned with the Earth’s axis and rotates about its own axis at approximately once every 24 hours. Rotating at the same speed as the Earth, the camera is always pointing at the [sic] either its own shadow or the sun. Selection of image, (sky or Earth; sun or shadow), was controlled by the extent of cloud coverage, i.e. whether the sun was in or out. If the sun was out, the camera was turned towards its own shadow; if it was in, the camera was turned towards the sun. A shotgun microphone was used to sample sound every two hours. These samples were later cut to correspond, both in space and time, with the image on the screen…

The final shape of the film is consequently a product of the interaction between the predictable mechanistic nature of technology and the chance-like qualities of the natural world…Seven Days invites the viewer to contemplate the complex relationship between the structures we invent in order to observe the natural world and the structure we perceive as a result of those observations. The resulting sequences of images suggest a relationship between technology and nature based on principles other than exploitation and domination.

Changing Light (above) is an interactive video installation

The installation is comprised of a series of eight, three minute takes of a small alpine lake, all shot at the same oblique angle to the surface of the lake. The water surface fills the frame…Each take, recorded over a period of several hours, depicts the complex variations in the water surface as the breeze rises and falls. The sound mixes the mesmeric sound of water lapping on the lake shore with the distant, and somewhat ominous, sound of a jet aircraft passing high overhead…The image of the lake is projected, via a surface silvered mirror, onto a horizontal screen measuring approximately 10 ft x 9 ft and raised about two feet above the gallery floor. Seen from a distance, the surface of the water appears to be miraculously suspended in mid air. Close up, this rising of the screen gives the water the appearance of having depth.

Viewed from one angle, as the viewer enters the gallery, the perspective of the water surface and the reflected trees makes sense spatially since the viewer’s angle to, and distance from, the water surface is very similar to that of the recording camera. As the viewer moves around the “lake,” however, the spatial coherence is disrupted, since the reflection will not move as they move. The water reflects only the image of the trees and rocks, that surround it, and not the image of the gallery. A close inspection, staring straight down into the water, reveals not the bottom of the lake, or the reflection of the viewer’s face, but only an abstract pattern of light and shade mixing with the electronic components of the video image. It seems that, through the process of representation, the lake has lost its ability to reflect the world around it. But, given time and contemplation, another reading is made possible.

The DVD recording has eight distinct tracks or “chapters” corresponding to the eight takes of original footage. The “chapters” are programmed to alternate in relation to the movement and presence of participant/viewers in the gallery space. In this installation “nature,” as represented by the lake, is not seen to be separate from the technology that re-produces it or the people who observe it. The viewer is invited to participate in a model in which nature and technology are seen to be one and the same thing, inextricably bound together in a playful dance of colour and light.

Tree Studies (above) is a three screen digital media installation.

This Installation is an ‘expanded’ version of “Trees in Winter” and was developed specifically for exhibition in the 2006 Gwangju Biennale in South Korea…The combinations of imagery and sound generated in real time is unique at any given moment and is part of a continuously evolving process fueled by the operating system’s interaction with the planetary weather system. In the sciences, this generation of image and sound is often described as an “emergent” property. “Emergence” is a term used to describe self-organization in all living systems and on a planetary scale this is recognized as the dynamic origin of biological life, cognition and evolution. The weather systems which track across the surface of the planet are likewise described as emergent and are the driving force which fuels all biological life and an integral part of the cosmologies of both the ancient and modern world.

The ‘shape’ of the work, at any particular moment in time, will be governed by the weather systems, which are constantly circling the planet. Just like the trees in the landscape, the representation will change its form and appearance in response to input from the weather. The flickering ephemeral nature of the projected image will combine with the changing winter light to create an uneasy equilibrium between the power and presence of the tree, the transitory nature of the light and the clouds, and human presence in the landscape. The over all feeling of the work will reflect the vulnerability and transitory nature of all living systems.

Drawing on the ancient concept of the earth as a living system, combining the traditional Eastern concept of Yin and Yang and the systems theory from contemporary science the work will suggest a new post Romantic form of landscape art with relevance to the issues of our own times. The installation will use modern high speed communication systems combined with customized soft ware and computer technologies to harness the energy produced by the rotation and tilt of the planet and transform that energy into an open, self regulating and interconnected system. The system will monitor weather data from four different continents, Australia, Europe, North America and Asia, and use this real-time information to edit three files of pre recorded movie footage of a tree seen against the background of a stormy winter sky.

Originally seen as part of the article Technology, Nature, Software and Networks: Materializing the Post-Romantic Landscape in Leonardo, Volume 44, Number 2, April 2011.

Semiotic Investigation into Cybernetic Behaviour by Jessica Field is a robotic performance (presented as an installation) between two robots ALAN and CLARA, that both sense the world differently according to their specific hardware and configuration.

These robots have been programmed with all the possible choices they can use to react to their environment. They have also been programmed with the desire to interpret their environment accurately and the need to have their peer always agree with their analysis. Both robots have an opinion of how they think the world should behave and they both expect certain situations to occur often.

In having this expectation of how their world should behave, the two robots believe that there are other situations that cannot happen. If they do, the robot’s confidence in themselves is questioned. Depending on how often they think they are wrong, the robot’s confidence can degrade into paranoia where their world seems to be breaking all the rules of what should happen. Conversely, when the robots feel right all the time, they become exceptionally arrogant.

Due to their ability to choose their own reactions, this theatrical play shows all the possibilities in which these two robots can react to their environment and to each other. Thus, we see a performance that shows all the complications that arise from making unwavering assumptions about the world and the desire for the world to agree with an unyielding view.

The artist describes the workings of the system as follows:

The complexity of the behaviours in the system is accomplished through feedback. There are 3 feedback loops that determine how ALAN and CLARA will react. They have a personality that is defined by confidence, irrationality and inquisitiveness. This perception slant influences how the robots will react to their present situation. Secondly, they remember how they felt from the last thing they said. Lastly, the robot remembers the last thing they said and felt and compares it to their idealisms of how they think the world should be. These 3 influences, when stirred together, make the system behave in unexpected ways.

ALAN has 450 possible statements to communicate his experiences while CLARA has 650 statements. CLARA’s range sensor gives her more variations of things to say. The range sensor not only deals with distances, it also calculates probabilities on how accurate her readings are by taking multiple readings and comparing them to see how well the numbers match. CLARA is programmed with the belief that objects slowly move forward and backward in space and are never bold enough to encroach on her personal space. Thus all the data she collects is compared to a large series of rules that define her beliefs into calculated bytes so she can analyze how to react by going through all the data from her experiences. CLARA becomes confused when objects jump ranges by moving fast as this is an unexpected action and cannot happen in her opinion.

ALAN reads only on/off signals from a motion sensor. He believes that motion lives and eventually dies and, after some time, another motion life begins. He observes how long these motion lives take to pass on. Thus, any motion that lives, dies and reincarnates is an impossible action. Both ALAN and CLARA are so obsessed with their delusions that they would rather come up with conspiracy theories of a sentient being out to thwart them than to consider the possibility that their perception of the world could be wrong.

Above is a technical Sketch of the communication between robots. Below is a demo video of the installation.

Below is a sample conversation between ALAN and CLARA when a visitor enters the installation.

Pure Flow (mobile edition) by Katy Connor is an mobile application for iOS and Android which reveals:

the noise generated between GPS data systems and multiple satellites, 3G networks and Wifi hotspots as a tangible presence in the environment

in both sonic and visual form.

The APP visualises the instability and fragility of Live signals, passing through cloud cover and urban architecture; absorbed by bodies, reflecting off concrete and refracting through glass. The user can directly manipulate the outcomes, by touching the visual and sonic patterns triggered by fluctuations in the data. Once activated, PURE FLOW reveals these signals as a sliver of fluctuating white noise, responding directly to the movement and immediate environment of the device.

PURE FLOW subverts the use-value of GPS as a surveying and navigational tool; revealing these invisible data streams and highlighting their increasing ubiquity, as sophisticated military technologies become key components in daily life.

Listen and Repeat by Rachel Knoll is a modified megaphone installed on a mountain in Washington state.

Social media is used to connect but concurrently serves as a disconnect from social life outside of the virtual world. In Listen and Repeat, a modified megaphone uses text to speech capabilities to recite tweets composed with the tag ‘nobody listens’ from the social media website Twitter. The megaphone…dictates tweets to an audience of trees.

For similar work see Untitled (Singing Tree) by Peter Coffin.