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Cybernetics and systems art in Latin America: the art and communication center (CAyC) and its pioneering art and technology network

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Abstract

Towards the end of the 1960s—a period of intense creative, technological and political changes—the Argentinian art critic and entrepreneur Jorge Glusberg founded the CAyC (Center for Art and Communication) in Buenos Aires. CAyC was an interdisciplinary experimental project that explored the relationship between art, technology and society. It sought to articulate a network of discussions and productions by a new style of Latin American artist, deeply influenced by science, technology and society. Glusberg defined such practice as Systems Art, which appeared in three ways, namely as a system of collective representation; a system of meaning that defied formal categories; and a system of relationships and processes for social inquiry. In doing so, the artist became a researcher who reflected on their social context and the latter’s processes of production. This paper will discuss CAyC’s pioneering work and its global influence through three main initiatives: its exhibitions Art and Cybernetics, Systems Art in Latin America and the International Open Encounters on Video. These events were driven by the revolutionary artistic and experimental promotion of the distinctive ways in which Latin American artists were using technology to respond to local issues at a time when computer systems and cybernetic models for management and organizational practices were being introduced across the region.

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Change history

  • 01 February 2022

    Overlap in the article was resolved.

Notes

  1. CAyC information diptych (1971)?. Rodrigo Alonso Archive, Buenos Aires.

  2. The Torcuato Di Tella Institute integrated three centres: the CLAEM (Latin American Centre for Advanced Musical Studies), the CAV (Centre for Visual Arts) and CEA (Centre for Audiovisual Experimentation). Unfortunately, the Argentinian dictatorship’s censorship and violence triggered a decline in its audiences and contributions and it finally closed its doors in 1971.

  3. The Intelsat 1 was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6, 1965. It was nicknamed “Early Bird” after the proverb "the early bird catches the worm."

  4. Both General System Theory and Beyond Modern Sculpture were not only published in the same year, but by the same publishing house, George Braziller, a small, independent publishing house based in New York City. It seems that this is how Burnham became acquainted with Bertalanfffy’s work.

  5. Centro de Estudios de Arte y Comunicación de la Fundación de Investigación Interdisciplinaria.

  6. At that time directed by Guillermo Whitelow.

  7. Their works were shown at Cybernetic Serendipity (1968) as well as in the 6th Paris Biennale (1968) and the 35th Venice Biennale (1970).

  8. In Buenos Aires, between March and April 1969.

  9. For more information on the IBM 1130, http://ibm1130.org/. The IBM 1130 was also used for the first experiments on graphical user interfaces developed by Alan Kay in his Ph.D. Thesis in the University of Utah in 1969.

  10. This group also created the Computer Arts Society in 1968.

  11. Installed in 1961 at the Computational Institute (Instituto de Cálculo) of the University of Buenos Aires.

  12. Cybernetic Serendipity, an exhibition of cybernetic art curated by Jasia Reichardt, held at the ICA, London, 1st August to 20th October 1968 (later touring the United States: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the Exploratorium in San Francisco).

  13. Some More Beginnings: An Exhibition of Submitted Works Involving Technical Materials and Processes at the Brooklyn Museum, New York organized by Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT), 25th November 1968 through 5th January 1969.

  14. The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age curated/directed by Pontus Hulten, Director of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, an exhibition of more than 200 works of art and related objects held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 27th November to 9th February 1969.

  15. Mind Extenders curated by Mimi Shorr, held at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts of the American Craftsmen' s Council, Minneapolis, from 19th April to 15th June 1969.

  16. Tendencies 4 organized by the New Tendencies movement, Galerija suvremene umjetnosti (Gallery of Contemporary Art, now the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb) in Zagreb, from 5th May to 30th August 1969.

  17. Information, an exhibition curated by Kynaston L. McShine, held at the MoMA, New York, 2nd July to 20th September 1970.

  18. Software—Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art curated by Jack Burnham, held at the Jewish Museum in Brooklyn, New York City, from 16th September to 8th November 1970, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., from 16th December 1970 to 14th February 1971.

  19. Jasia Reichardt. Personal correspondence with Jorge Glusberg. 20th April 1969. Jasia Reichardt personal archive, London.

  20. The titles of these two presentations were: Pop Art and Towards a Future of Art. Jasia Reichardt personal archive, London.

  21. Jasia Reichardt. Personal communication with the author. 19th Jan 2020.

  22. ACCION, 3rd July 1970. Jasia Reichardt personal archive, London.

  23. Reichardt met Borges during her first visit to Argentina and invited him to London, where he delivered four lectures (“Four evenings with Borges”) in Central Hall in 1971organised by the ICA. Jasia Reichardt. Personal communication with the author; 19th Jan 2020.

  24. In June 1970, the exhibition travelled, under the auspices of the National Commission of Fine Arts of Uruguay to the National Museo of Fine Arts in Montevideo, directed by Angel Kalenberg. The catalogue was prepared in cooperation with IBM Uruguay S.A.

  25. The exhibition was presented at the IAC (Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo) on the 19th October 1971 with the support of IBM Perú, and a panel on Arts and Cybernetics was held on the 27th October. Correspondence between Alfonso Castrillón and Glusberg dated 31st August 1970 discussed the plan to organize a Symposium on Art and Industry; however, that idea apparently never materialized (Alfonso Castrillón personal archive, Lima).

  26. A few months later, in February 1971, CAyC organized its second exhibition in London’s Camden Arts Centre under the same title, but this time it included a larger number of artists.

  27. The Biotron installation was presented at the 35th Venice Biennale, Venice, 1970.

  28. IRAM code was standard criteria defined by the Argentine Normalization and Certification Institute, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) member body for Argentina.

  29. It is said that the CAyC possibly produced 900 yellow sheets during the seventies. Many were delivered internationally, though it seems that during some periods the costs of international mail was prohibitive.

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Acknowledgements

This paper was based on original research, interviews and fieldwork undertaken at the Archives of ICA London, Tate Archive, (Tate Galleries, London, UK); the Victoria & Albert Museum; the Internationaal Cultureel Centrum (I.C.C.) Archives (Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium); the Continental Gallery Archives (Ricardo Palma University, Lima, Peru), as well as online revision of the material available at the Prints and Drawings Study Room (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK); the Documents of Latin American and Latino Art of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA); the Center for the Documentation of the History of the Visual Arts in Argentina (Espigas Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina); the Archive of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes—SURDOC (Santiago, Chile) and several personal archives. The data analysis has been processed using documentation from these sources, including letters, publications, press releases as well as CAyC’s documents and leaflets (yellow sheets) with the assistance of Almendra Otta. The author wants to thank the following people and institutions for their generous time and valuable information: Rodrigo Alonso, Julian Benedit Prebisch, Florent Bex, Ian Breakwell, Alfonso Castrillon, Tatiana Cuevas, Laura Güitron, Charles Harrison, Viviane Liekens, Roger Mac Entyre, David Maulen de los Reyes, Mariana Marchesi, Laura Quaggia, Jasia Reichardt and Raquel Romberg; Alexander and Bonin, New York, Henrique Faria New York and Herlitzka + Faria Buenos Aires.

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  1. Alta Tecnología Andina, Lima, Perú/LUISS-Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli, Rome, Italy

    José-Carlos Mariátegui

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Mariátegui, JC. Cybernetics and systems art in Latin America: the art and communication center (CAyC) and its pioneering art and technology network. AI & Soc 37, 1071–1084 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01341-7

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