Cybernetic Serendipity

Sometimes there are things that we read, go to, explore or otherwise encounter that change our course  in life. Pivotable points that can be looked back on. Cybernetic Serendipity was one of those for me and I thought at its 50th anniversary (Really, that long?!?), I would have a pause and reflect.

Cybernetic Serendipity was the first international exhibition devoted to the relationship between the arts and computers. It showed what artists could do with computers, and what scientists were trying to do. The exhibition ran from 2 August - 20 October 1968; I was 13 at the time, and I attended on a number of occasions.
At the time, I didn't know if I wanted to be a scientist or an artist. Probably somewhere in between. At 13, I hadn't realised how much maths was involved in science - and maths was easily my worst subject. In fact I had to wait until I was 59 to get my maths GCSE..! I was an avid reader of Practical Electronics through and it was through that magazine I became acquainted with Cybernetic Serendipity. 
I recall the first time I went in. A long gallery, on the left were some tortured televisions by 
Nam June Paik, and Bruce Lacey's robot actors. On the left were exhibits of computer graphics from IBM and Honeywell. In the middle, what was to become one of my favourite objects, SAM (Sound Activated Module) a device that listened to you and turned to face you. Surprisingly, the same object, much battered turned up at the Science Museum's Robot show in 2017.

Further down on the left were spherical pods that you could sit in and listen to electronic music, something I was, and still am, a fan of. At the end was a mini cinema showing computer generated films. Swirling dots forming intricate patterns.
Somewhere while at this show, I decided that this was the way for me to go. Computers could help artists generate things that were not possible in other ways. Robots could be entertaining and film need not be passive. Art wasn't just in stuffy galleries visited and run by people who used long words.
Somehow I wanted to be part of this new revolution, but it would be some years.
Of course now the computer is almost invisible; we interact with software. As long as it doesn't get in the way the hardware is not much thought about, and we use the software most times as consumers and are bound by it. I guess most times that's always going to be true however hard it is delved into, but I hate it when people tell me about 'digital natives' when in fact these natives are just consumers of information. The only difference between them and perhaps their great grandparents is that the digital native carries the telly in their pocket. Not a huge box rented from Granada or Radio Rentals.
Cybernetic Serendipity wasn't the only time a computer changed my life, that happened a couple of times later as well; but it was the first and the most forceful.

References:

An unofficial archive: http://cyberneticserendipity.net
Bruce Lacey's robot (also tons of other Robots): http://cyberneticzoo.com/robots/1965-rosa-bosom-bruce-lacey-british/
Computer art: http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/exhibitions/serendipity/images/1/
SAM: http://www.senster.com/ihnatowicz/SAM/sam.htm
http://ccg.doc.gold.ac.uk/serendipityaisb18/papers/paper_9.pdf
http://www.senster.com/ihnatowicz/SAM/sam2.htm
Studio International: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/cybernetic-serendipity-history-and-lasting-legacy
SAM at the Science Museum Robot show: https://twitter.com/tillyblyth/status/833845557659594753
Catalogue online (or I have a copy): https://www.flickr.com/photos/tinrocket/sets/72157625225644742/with/5107991945/ It's bit expensive if you want to buy one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cybernetic-Serendipity-Computer-editor-Reichardt/dp/B0007JAI5Q/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
There's even a convention this year: http://ccg.doc.gold.ac.uk/serendipityaisb18/#about
Looking back with Jasia Reichardt : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSwovB28B34