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Systems art is art influenced by
cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...
and
systems theory Systems theory is the Transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, de ...
, reflecting on natural systems, social systems, and the social signs of the
art world The art world comprises everyone involved in producing, commissioning, presenting, preserving, promoting, chronicling, criticizing, buying and selling fine art. It is recognized that there are many art worlds, defined either by location or alt ...
itself. Systems art emerged as part of the first wave of the conceptual art movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Closely related and overlapping terms include '' anti-form movement'', '' cybernetic art'', ''
generative systems Generative systems are technologies with the overall capacity to produce unprompted change driven by large, varied, and uncoordinated audiences. When generative systems provide a common platform, changes may occur at varying layers (physical, netwo ...
'', ''
process art Process art is an artistic movement where the end product of art and craft, the '':wikt:objet d’art, objet d’art'' (work of art/found object), is not the principal focus; the process of its making is one of the most relevant aspects if not th ...
'', ''systems aesthetic'', ''systemic art'', ''systemic painting'', and ''systems sculpture''.


Related fields of systems art


Anti-form movement

By the early 1960s,
minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...
had emerged as an abstract movement in art, with roots in geometric abstraction via Malevich, the Bauhaus, and Mondrian. This movement rejected the ideas of relational and subjective painting, the complexity of
abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...
surfaces, and the emotional
zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' (; ; capitalized in German) is an invisible agent, force, or daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. The term is usually associated with Georg W. F ...
and polemics present in
action painting Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical ...
. Minimalism argued that extreme simplicity could capture all of the sublime representation needed in art. The term Systematic art was coined by
Lawrence Alloway Lawrence Reginald Alloway (17 September 1926 – 2 January 1990) was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an i ...
in 1966 to describe the method that artists such as Kenneth Noland,
Al Held Al Held (October 12, 1928 – July 27, 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist painter. He was particularly well known for his large scale Hard-edge paintings. As an artist, multiple stylistic changes occurred throughout his career, ho ...
, and
Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...
were using to compose
abstract painting Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...
s.Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 694. . Associated with painters such as
Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...
, minimalism in painting, as opposed to other areas, is a modernist movement. Depending on the context, minimalism might be construed as a precursor to the postmodern movement. Some writers classify it as a postmodern movement, noting that early minimalism began and succeeded as a modernist movement, producing advanced works but partially abandoning this project when some artists shifted towards the anti-form movement. In the late 1960s, the term
postminimalism Postminimalism is an art term coined (as post-minimalism) by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p ...
was coined by
Robert Pincus-Witten Robert Pincus-Witten (April 5, 1935 – January 28, 2018) was an American art critic, curator and Art history, art historian. Biography Born in New York City, Pincus-Witten earned his undergraduate degree at Cooper Union, in New York City in 1956 ...
to describe minimalist-derived art that incorporated content and contextual overtones that minimalism had rejected. This term was applied to the work of
Eva Hesse Eva Hesse (January 11, 1936 – May 29, 1970) was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 196 ...
,
Keith Sonnier Keith Sonnier (July 31, 1941 – July 18, 2020) was a postminimalist sculptor, Performance art, performance artist, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s. With his use of neon in combin ...
,
Richard Serra Richard Serra (November 2, 1938 – March 26, 2024) was an American artist known for his large-scale Abstract art, abstract sculptures made for Site-specific art, site-specific landscape, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings, a ...
, and new work by former minimalists such as
Robert Smithson Robert Smithson (January 2, 1938 – July 20, 1973) was an American artist known for sculpture and land art who often used drawing and photography in relation to the spatial arts. His work has been internationally exhibited in galleries and mu ...
, Robert Morris,
Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...
,
Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...
, Barry Le Va, and others. Minimalists like
Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism.Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for ...
,
Dan Flavin Dan Flavin (April 1, 1933 – November 29, 1996) was an American minimalist artist famous for creating sculptural objects and installations from commercially available fluorescent light fixtures. Early life and career Daniel Nicholas Flavi ...
, Carl Andre,
Agnes Martin Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004) was an American abstract painter known for her minimalist style and abstract expressionism. Born in Canada, she moved to the United States in 1931, where she pursued higher education ...
, John McCracken, and others continued to produce their late modernist paintings and sculptures for the remainder of their careers.


Cybernetic art

Audio feedback Audio feedback (also known as acoustic feedback, simply as feedback) is a positive feedback situation that may occur when an acoustic path exists between an audio output (for example, a loudspeaker) and its audio input (for example, a microphon ...
, tape loops,
sound synthesis A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis an ...
, and computer-generated compositions reflect a cybernetic awareness of information, systems, and cycles. These techniques became widespread in the 1960s music industry. The visual effects of electronic feedback became a focus of artistic research in the late 1960s when video equipment first reached the consumer market. For example,
Steina and Woody Vasulka Steina Vasulka (born Steinunn Briem Bjarnadottir in 1940)
Soros Center for Contemporary Arts Budapest
and Woody Vasulka ...
used "all manner and combination of audio and video signals to generate electronic feedback in their respective media." Edward A. Shanken, "From Cybernetics to Telematics: The Art, Pedagogy, and Theory of Roy Ascott," in Roy Ascott (2003, 2007), ''Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and Consciousness'', University of California, . Related work by Edward Ihnatowicz, Wen-Ying Tsai, cybernetician Gordon Pask, and the animist kinetics of Robert Breer and
Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century.Chilvers, Ian; Gl ...
contributed to a strain of cybernetic art in the 1960s that was concerned with the shared circuits within and between the living and the technological. During this period, a line of cybernetic art theory also emerged. Writers such as Jonathan Benthall and Gene Youngblood drew on cybernetics. Notable contributors include British artist and theorist
Roy Ascott Roy Ascott FRSA (born 26 October 1934) is a British artist, who works with cybernetics and telematics on an art he calls technoetics by focusing on the impact of digital and telecommunications networks on consciousness. Since the 1960s, Ascott ...
, with his essay "Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision" published in the journal ''Cybernetica'' (1966–67), and American critic and theorist Jack Burnham. In his 1968 work ''Beyond Modern Sculpture'', Burnham develops a theory of cybernetic art that centers on art's drive to imitate and ultimately reproduce life. Additionally, in 1968, curator
Jasia Reichardt Jasia Reichardt (born Janina Chaykin; 13 November 1933) is a British art critic, curator, art gallery director, teacher and prolific writer, specialist in the emergence of computer art. In 1968 she was curator of the landmark ''Cybernetic Serendi ...
organized the landmark exhibition '' Cybernetic Serendipity'' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.


Generative systems

Generative art is art that is created through algorithmic processes, using systems defined by computer software, algorithms, or similar mathematical, mechanical, or randomized autonomous methods. Sonia Landy Sheridan established the Generative Systems program at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which gr ...
in 1970 in response to social changes brought about in part by the computer-robot communications revolution.Sonia Landy Sheridan, "Generative Systems versus Copy Art: A Clarification of Terms and Ideas", in '' Leonardo'', Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring 1983), pp. 103–108. The program, which brought artists and scientists together, aimed to transform the artist's role from passive to active by exploring contemporary scientific and technological systems and their relation to art and life. Unlike copier art, which was a commercial spin-off, Generative Systems was involved in developing elegant and simple systems intended for creative use by the general public. Generative Systems artists sought to bridge the gap between elite and novice by facilitating communication between the two, thus disseminating first-generation information to a broader audience and bypassing traditional commercial routes.


Process art

Process art is an
artistic movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific art philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined ...
and creative sentiment where the end product of ''art'' and ''craft'' is not the principal focus. The 'process' in process art refers to the act of creating art: the gathering, sorting, collating, associating, and patterning. Process art emphasizes the actual ''doing''—art as a rite,
ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...
, and performance. It often involves inherent motivation, rationale, and
intentionality Intentionality is the mental ability to refer to or represent something. Sometimes regarded as the ''mark of the mental'', it is found in mental states like perceptions, beliefs or desires. For example, the perception of a tree has intentionality ...
. Thus, art is seen as a creative journey or process, rather than merely a final product. In artistic discourse, the work of
Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...
as a type of ''action painting'' is sometimes considered a precursor to process art. Process art, with its use of
serendipity Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. The term was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. The concept is often associated with scientific and technological breakthroughs, where accidental discoveries led to new insights or inventions. Ma ...
, shares similarities with
Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...
. Themes of change and transience are prominent in the process art movement. According to the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...
, Robert Morris had a groundbreaking exhibition in 1968 that defined the movement. The museum's website notes that "Process artists were involved in issues attendant to the body, random occurrences, improvisation, and the liberating qualities of nontraditional materials such as wax,
felt Felt is a textile that is produced by matting, condensing, and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic fiber, acrylic or acrylonitrile or ...
, and
latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latices are found in nature, but synthetic latices are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a wikt:milky, milky fluid, which is present in 10% of all floweri ...
. Using these, they created eccentric forms in erratic or irregular arrangements produced by actions such as cutting, hanging, and dropping, or organic processes such as growth,
condensation Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle. It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor ...
,
freezing Freezing is a phase transition in which a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered below its freezing point. For most substances, the melting and freezing points are the same temperature; however, certain substances possess dif ...
, or
decomposition Decomposition is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is ess ...
".


Systemic art

According to Chilvers (2004), "earlier in 1966 the British art critic
Lawrence Alloway Lawrence Reginald Alloway (17 September 1926 – 2 January 1990) was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an i ...
had coined the term "Systemic art", to describe a type of abstract art characterized by the use of very simple standardized forms, usually
geometric Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...
in character, either in a single concentrated image, or repeated in a system arranged according to a clearly visible principle of organization. He considered the chevron paintings of Kenneth Noland as examples of Systemic art, and considered this as a branch of
Minimal art Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or conc ...
". John G. Harries identified common ground in the ideas underlying developments in 20th-century art such as Serial art, Systems art, Constructivism, and
Kinetic art Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement perceivable by the viewer or that depends on motion for its effects. Canvas paintings that extend the viewer's perspective of the artwork and incorporate multidimensional movement are ...
. These forms of art often do not stem directly from observations of the external natural environment but from the observation of depicted shapes and their relationships.John G. Harries, "Personal Computers and Notated Visual Art," in: '' Leonardo'', Vol. 14, No. 4 (Autumn 1981), pp. 299–301. According to Harries, Systems art represents a deliberate attempt by artists to develop a more flexible frame of reference. Rather than being a cognitive system that leads to the institutionalization of an imposed model, it uses its frame of reference as a model to be emulated. However, transferring the meaning of a picture to its location within a systemic structure does not eliminate the need to define the constitutive elements of the system. Without these definitions, constructing the system becomes challenging.


Systemic painting

Systemic Painting, according to Auping (1989), "was the title of a highly influential exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in 1966 assembled and introduction written by
Lawrence Alloway Lawrence Reginald Alloway (17 September 1926 – 2 January 1990) was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an i ...
as curator. The show contained numerous works that many critics today would consider part of the
Minimal art Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or conc ...
". In the catalogue, Alloway noted that "...paintings, such as those in this exhibition are not, as has been often claimed, impersonal. The personal is not expunged by using a neat technique: anonymity is not a consequence of highly finishing a painting".Lawrence Alloway, "Systemic Painting," in: ''Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology,'' edited by Gregory Battcock (1995), p. 19. The term "Systemic Painting" later came to refer to artists who employ systems to make a number of aesthetic decisions before commencing to paint.


Systems sculpture

According to Feldman (1987), " serial art, serial painting, systems sculpture and ABC art, were art styles of the 1960s and 1970s in which simple geometric configurations are repeated with little or no variation. Sequences becomes important as in mathematics and linguistic context. These works rely on simple arrangements of basic volumes and voids, mechanically produced surfaces, and algebraic permutations of form. The impact on the viewer, however, is anything but simple".Edmund Burke Feldman (1987), ''Composition (Art)'', H.N. Abrams, .


See also

*
Algorithmic art Algorithmic art or algorithm art is art, mostly visual art, in which the design is generated by an algorithm. Algorithmic artists are sometimes called algorists. Algorithmic art is created in the form of digital paintings and sculptures, int ...
*
Computer art Computer art is art in which computers play a role in the production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many traditio ...
* Conceptual art *
Design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
*
Evolutionary art Evolutionary art is a branch of generative art, in which the artist does not do the work of constructing the artwork, but rather lets a system do the construction. In evolutionary art, initially generated art is put through an iterated process o ...
*
Fractal art Fractal art is a form of algorithmic art created by calculating fractal objects and representing the calculation results as still digital images, animations, and Algorithmic composition, media. Fractal art developed from the mid-1980s onwards. ...
*
Generative art Generative art is post-conceptual art that has been created (in whole or in part) with the use of an autonomous system. An ''autonomous system'' in this context is generally one that is non-human and can independently determine features of an ...
*
Information art Information art, which is also known as informatism or data art, is an art form that is inspired by and principally incorporates data, computer science, information technology, artificial intelligence, and related data-driven fields. The informatio ...
* Interactive art * Media art * Participatory art *
Process music Process music is music that arises from a process. It may make that process audible to the listener, or the process may be concealed. Primarily begun in the 1960s, diverse composers have employed divergent methods and styles of process. "A 'musi ...
* Software art *
Sustainable art Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
*
Systems thinking Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts.Anderson, Virginia, & Johnson, Lauren (1997). ''Systems Thinking Ba ...
* Systems music * Systems Group


References


Further reading

* Vladimir Bonacic (1989), "A Transcendental Concept for Cybernetic Art in the 21st Century", in: '' Leonardo'', Vol. 22, No. 1, Art and the New Biology: Biological Forms and Patterns (1989), pp. 109–111. * Jack Burnham (1968)
"Systems Esthetics"
in: ''Artforum'' (September 1968). * Karen Cham, Jeffrey Johnson (2007)
"Complexity Theory: A Science of Cultural Systems?"
in: ''M/C journal'', Volume 10 Issue 3 June 2007 * Francis Halsall (2007)
"Systems Aesthetics and the System as Medium"
Systems Art Symposium Whitechapel Art Gallery, 2007. * Pamela Lee, (2004), ''Chronophobia.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. * Eddie Price (1974), ''Systems Art: An Enquiry'', City of Birmingham Polytechnic, School of Art Education, * Edward A. Shanken,
Cybernetics and Art: Cultural Convergence in the 1960s
" in Bruce Clarke and Linda Dalrymple Henderson, eds. From Energy to Information: Representation in Science, Technology, Art, and Literature. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002): 255–77. * Edward A. Shanken,
Art in the Information Age: Technology and Conceptual Art
" in SIGGRAPH 2001 Electronic Art and Animation Catalog, (New York: ACM SIGGRAPH, 2001): 8–15; expanded and reprinted in Art Inquiry 3: 12 (2001): 7–33 and Leonardo 35:3 (August 2002): 433–38. * Edward A. Shanken,
The House That Jack Built: Jack Burnham’s Concept of Software as a Metaphor for Art
" Leonardo Electronic Almanac 6:10 (November 1998). Reprinted in English and Spanish in a minima 12 (2005): 140–51. * Edward A. Shanken,
Reprogramming Systems Aesthetics: A Strategic Historiography
" in Simon Penny, et al., eds., Proceedings of the Digital Arts and Culture Conference 2009, DAC: 2009. * Edward A. Shanken, ''Systems''. Whitechapel/MIT Press, 2015. * Luke Skrebowski (2008), "All Systems Go: Recovering Hans Haacke's Systems Art", in ''Grey Room'', Winter 2008, No. 30, Pages 54–83.


External links

* Walker, John
"Systems Art"
''Glossary of Art, Architecture & Design since 1945'', 3rd. ed.

in de Whitechapel Art Gallery in London in 2007.
Observing 'Systems-Art' from a Systems-Theoretical Perspective
by Francis Halsall: summary of presentation on Chart 2005, 2005.
Saturation Point
The online editorial and curatorial project for systems, non-objective and reductive artists working in the UK. {{Systems 1966 neologisms 20th-century art movements Artistic techniques Conceptual art Systems Contemporary art movements Digital art Postmodern art Systems theory Systems science Cybernetics