Art, Cybernetics, and Pedagogy in Post-War Britain: Roy Ascott's Groundcourse

268 Pages·2018·4.512 MB·English

by  Kate Sloan

Art, Cybernetics and Pedagogy
in Post-War Britain
This is the first full-length study about the British artist Roy Ascott, one
of the first cybernetic artists, with a career spanning seven decades to date.
The book focuses on his early career, exploring the evolution of his early
interests in communication in the context of the rich overlaps between art,
science and engineering in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. The first
part of the book looks at Ascott’s training and early work. The second part
looks solely at Groundcourse, Ascott’s extraordinary pedagogical model
for visual arts and cybernetics which used an integrative and systems-based
model, drawing in behaviourism, analogue machines, performance and
games. Using hitherto unpublished photographs and documents, this book
will establish a more prominent place for cybernetics in post-war British art.
Kate Sloan teaches for Newcastle University and the University of
Edinburgh, where she was previously Henry Moore Foundation
Post-Doctoral Fellow 2015–17.
Plastic Transactions (1971) by Roy Ascott. Photograph © Roy Ascott
Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies
This series is our home for innovative research in the fields of art and visual
studies. It includes monographs and targeted edited collections that provide
new insights into visual culture and art practice, theory, and research.
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https://www.routledge.
com/Routledge-Advances-in-Art-and-Visual-Studies/book-series/RAVS
Photography and the Contemporary Cultural Condition
Commemorating the Present
Peter D. Osborne
Digital Art, Aesthetic Creation
The Birth of a Medium
Paul Crowther
Geneses of Postmodern Art
Technology as Iconology
Paul Crowther
Film and Modern American Art
The Dialogue between Cinema and painting
Katherine Manthorne
Play and the Artist’s Creative Process
The Work of Philip Guston and Eduardo Paolozzi
Elly Thomas
Bridging Communities through Socially Engaged Art
Edited by Alice Wexler and Vida Sabbaghi
Abstract Painting and the Minimalist Critiques
Robert Mangold, David Novros, and Jo Baer in the 1960s
Matthew L. Levy
Art, Cybernetics and Pedagogy
in Post-War Britain
Roy Ascott’s Groundcourse
Kate Sloan
First published 2019
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
©  2019 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kate Sloan to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-60557-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-46801-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
To Roy Ascott

Contents
List of figures viii
List of plates xi
Acknowledgements xii
Dialogue (Introduction) 1
1 Metaform: Biology | mechanics | structure 26
2 Analogue: Interactivity | performativity | cybernetics 62
3 Field: Aerial views | Earth mysteries | horizontality 89
4 Control: Pedagogy | behaviourism | power 120
5 Calibrator: Self-consciousness | adjustment | possibility 148
6 Game: Theatre | performance | play 176
7 Synthesizer: Feedback in multimedia 211
Index 243
Figures
0.1 Roy Ascott (1956) Mobile Colour Symphony Hall 5
0.2 Ashby’s homeostat 6
0.3 The pigeon-guided missile experiment 14
1.1 Richard Hamilton (1950) Structure 28
1.2 Installation view of Richard Hamilton’s exhibition Growth
and Form (1951) ICA archive, Tate Gallery 30
1.3 Publicity material from the Growth and Form exhibition
(1951) Tate Gallery ICA Archive 31
1.4 Crane-Head and Femur (After Culmann and J. Woolf) 34
1.5 Oliver Evans’s Mechanised Mill 40
1.6 Richard Hamilton (1949) Reaper (e) 41
1.7 Richard Hamilton (1949) Reaper (h) 42
1.8 McCormick’s First Reaper, Patented January 31, 1845 42
1.9 Ascott (1959) Change Painting 49
1.10 Victor Pasmore (1960–1) Linear Motif in Black and White 50
1.11 Roy Ascott (1963) Drawing on Perspex (for Analogue) 51
2.1 British RAF Mark IX bombsight 63
2.2 Roy Ascott (1962) Video Roget 71
2.3 Roy Ascott (1962) Left Page of Diagram from the Molton
Catalogue (A Cybernetic Manifesto) 72
2.4 Roy Ascott (1962) Right page of diagram from the Molton
Gallery Catalogue (A Cybernetic Manifesto) 73
2.5 Roy Ascott (1964) Homage to C.E. Shannon 79
2.6 Roy Ascott (1964) Installation Shot of Solo Exhibition,
Centre D’Art Cyberné tique, Paris 83
2.7 Roy Ascott (1963) Analogue Table 84
2.8 Roy Ascott (1963) Items of Intention 84
3.1 Katharine Maltwood (1929) The Glastonbury Zodiac 92
3.2 John Martin Avebury 93
3.3 Eduardo Paolozzi and Nigel Henderson (1953) Parallel of
Life and Art, London: ICA 96
Figures ix
3.4 Map produced in the Hughenden Manor Ice House 98
3.5 Bernard Cohen (1964) Floris oil paint and tempera on canvas 98
3.6 Roy Ascott’s Studio (1965) 103
3.7 Roy Ascott Random Map I and Random Map II 104
3.8 Roy Ascott (1967) Cloud Template 105
3.9 Roy Ascott (1967) Parameter IV 106
3.10 Roy Ascott (c. 1967) Lebesque 107
3.11 Roy Ascott (1966) Inclusion 108
3.12 Plotting table, Uxbridge 109
3.13 William Green (1958) Untitled bitumen on fibre board 115
4.1 Roy Ascott (1964) Energetic Core Curriculum Design for
Ipswich 133
5.1 Anon (student of Roy Ascott) (1965) Groundcourse
Analytical Drawing 153
5.2 John R. Myers (student of Richard Hamilton) (1965) Head
(Image and Anatomy Exercise) 155
5.3 Wilson Bayliss (student of Richard Hamilton) (1965) Head
(Image and Anatomy Exercise) 155
5.4 Anon (student of Roy Ascott) (1963) Mind Map 158
5.5 Unknown student of Roy Ascott (1963) Drawing 159
5.6 Anon (student of Roy Ascott) (1963) Behavioural Project
Calibrator 163
5.7 Pilot’s Slide Rule E6B 164
5.8 Roy Ascott (1963) Behavioural Project Ealing 170
5.9 Hagelin Cipher Machine 171
6.1 ‘Tennis for Two’ on Display at the BNL Visitor Day 178
6.2 ‘Tennis for Two’ on Display at the BNL Visitor Day 179
6.3 Roy Ascott (c. 1964) Student Drawings Showing Games,
Analogues and Systems 185
6.4 Roy Ascott (c. 1964) Student Drawings Showing Games,
Analogues and Systems 185
6.5 Roy Ascott (1965) Groundcourse Behavioural Project 188
6.6 Operations Room, Battle of Britain 190
6.7 Operations Room, the Battle of Britain 190
6.8 Attack Warning telephone 192
6.9 Roy Ascott (1965) Groundcourse Board Game 193
6.10 Groundcourse Game, Ipswich 196
6.11 Groundcourse Game, Ipswich 197
6.12 Roy Ascott (1965) Instructions for a Student Gam 198
6.13 Brian Eno (1965) Groundcourse Behavioural Project 202
7.1 Mark Boyle & Joan Hills performing Bodily Fluids and
Functions (1966) 219