Systems art
Systems art is art influenced by cybernetics and systems theory, reflecting on natural systems, social systems, and the social signs of the art world itself. It emerged as part of the first wave of the conceptual art movement in the 1960s and 1970s, when artists became less interested in making precious objects than in setting up processes, inputs, and feedback loops. Theorist Jack Burnham's 1968 essay "Systems Esthetic" gave the tendency its name, arguing that the artwork was becoming an open environment rather than a discrete thing. Closely related and overlapping terms include anti-form movement, cybernetic art, generative systems, process art, systems aesthetic, systemic art, systemic painting, and systems sculpture. The approach shifted attention from the finished object to the behavior of the whole system around it.
Defining characteristics
- Art organized by explicit rules or systems rather than by hand composition
- Serial, modular, and repeated units whose arrangement follows a stated logic
- Feedback, input/output, and change over time - the work behaves like a system
- Materials of industry and information: plastic, light, water, machines, data
- Process and environment valued over the finished, static object
- Institutional and social systems examined as part of the work
Key figures
- Jack Burnham (1931-2019) — Theorist whose 1968 essay "Systems Esthetic" defined the approach
- Hans Haacke (b. 1936) — Built living and institutional systems (Condensation Cube, 1963-1965)
- Nicolas Schöffer (1912-1992) — Pioneer of cybernetic sculpture that reacts to its environment (CYSP 1, 1956)
- Gustav Metzger (1926-2017) — Auto-destructive art and the 1960s art-and-technology debates
Example works
- Condensation Cube — Hans Haacke (1963-1965)
- CYSP 1 — Nicolas Schöffer (1956)
Sources
- Systems art - Wikipedia encyclopedia