Nicolas Schoffer ///// [31] Jewish Museum born 1912, Hungary science worship, strict intellectual plan calculated and meticulously engineered sculptures [31, p10] "Nicolas Schoffer takes the engineer's optimistic view of the possibilities of a technological society, and work, in effect, for a more rational future." 1954 in Paris, his first programmed sculpture [31, p11] CYSP1 cybernetics and spatiodynamics "The construction moves at different speeds and different directions, emits light and sound, creates color spectacle, and is electronically resonsive to the human presence: certain colors and temperatures make it advance, others cause it to retreat. It is a robot work-of-art, and ingenious dual structure that stimulates and also chills the imagination, for like all purely mechanical spectacle - fireworks, moving colored lights, the play of illuminated fountains - it risks a certain inhumanity, no matter how ingenious or magical its mix of visual affects." "Brave New World tones of euphoric social conditioning" [31, p18] CYSP1 completed in collaboration with Philips engineer Francois Terny first presented at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre, May 26 1956 it dances with living dancers [31, p19] built a gigantic tower in Liege, Belgium built in collaboration with composer Henri Pousseur [31, p20] Schoffer in his own work, "The complex programming of these elements brings us to structured ensembles, where cybernetics can maintain an optimum equilibrium in a state of fluctuating permanence." "The work lives and adapts itself as much to the one who perceives it as the spectator lives and adapts himself to the environments created by the work, which are finally only extensions of himself transcended with a view to his own improvement." "The visual and audio-visual complex thus created can have deeper repercussions in the psycholphenomenological field of the spectator, can take charge of him, so to speak, stimulate him or relax him, through aesthetic products that are all the more effective as they are non-formalist, and immaterial in their essence, in which durations replace volumes, and temporal rhythms replace the configurations of surfaces" ///// [28] Cybernetic Serendipity elaborate plans to build large spectacles Cybernetic Light Tower to be built at Rond-Point de la Defense, Paris (Tour Lumiere Cybernetique) sound, temperature, traffic flow, humidity affect movement and luminosity at different times of the day, could communicate different information thought patterns of light (for example, stock market information at 1pmby increasing brightness is market is up or vice versa) 307 meters tall, span of 59 meters square steel tubes filled with concrete and covered with stainless steel 15 curved mirrors place between the 180 parallel arms 100 revolving axis on which 330 mirrors are affixed each 100 axis controlled by a variable speed motor [28, p44] in reference to CYSP1 "Inasmuch as the phenomena are constantly variable, the reactions are likewise ever changing and unpredictable, which endows the mechanism with an almost organic life and sensitivity." ///// [07] Jack Burnam, Beyond Modern Sculpture before cybernetic sculptures, Schoffer created the Microtemps series programmed art, not a complete program but small programs slowly permuted through a series of linear cycles. [07, p278] "The Microtemps are table-sized, open boxes with a purced, polished aluminum backgrip, Inside the resulting proscenium space are a group of projecting spindles fitted with plexiglass blocks and metallic reflective surfaces. The spindles with their hardware revolve at variable speeds and are subjected to changing colors from pinpoint illumination. One witnesses not so much the virtual volumes of the spinning forms themselves, as a procession of evolving flickering illuminations of the reflective backdrop." although extremely precise, the microtemps are very similar technically to the works of jean tinguely, though they are perceived extremely differently. p278 [07, p340] his initial cybernetic sculpture were extremely complex and expensive and where underwritten by the Philips corporations the engineer, Jacques Bureau, explains "The object sought is above all of the experimental order. As for electronic animals, the synthesis of the faculties must be effected very gradually, and the behavior of the "models" man makes of himself must be observed. This exploration by the "models" of physiology, psychology, and sociology marks the opening of a new path in research." CYSP1 four motor-powered sets of wheels under different colors make the blades turn rapidly or lie stationary move the sculpture about the floor, turn sharp angles, stay still darkness and silence animate it, brightness and noise make it still [07, p341] "Ambiguous stimuli, as in the case of Grey Walter's tortoises, produce the unpredictability of an organism."