Event 1 | COLOR LIGHT MOTION: Featuring Ryszard Kluszczyński

Event 1 | COLOR LIGHT MOTION 

by: Arianne De Leon

April 28, 2024 

I greatly appreciated Ryszard's presentation and insight on the role of cybernetics in contemporary art and the exhibition process of Chinese American cybernetic sculptor, Wen-Ying Tsai. Prior to this event and experience I was not familiar with the art of cybernetics or what it was. However, after attending this event I left with a greater understanding of time-based media art and the importance of concepts such as embodiment and interaction with the art itself. Ryszard highlights that there is an importance placed on the relationship and energy shared with the viewer and art, which is interchangeable. 

"Wen-Ying Tsai in his studio at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, 1968–1971. Photo: Center for Advanced Visual Studies" (Vuković 2023). 

"Cybernetics uses parallelism between the forms of communication of machines, such as computers, and the process of the human brain in processing information" (Coelho, 2022). "Cybernetics was transformed by the hands of artists from science into art...offers a model for explaining how ideas that emerged in experimental art eventually spread through the culture at large" (Coelho, 2022). 

"Tsai's art is deeply dialogic 

1. sensory: between audience and artwork 

2. technical: between stroboscope and vibration 

    flickering light effects became central to his subsequent work" (Kluszczyński, 2024). 

    

                                

                                            

Consequently, I would recommend this event to my classmates and anyone who is interested in learning something new in the arts. As a creative and artist this event can benefit you in a sense that you learn to look introspectively in your own creative process, after learning about the artistic process and exhibition of Wen-Ying Tsai. For example, I appreciated the vulnerability of London Tsai, the son of Wen-Ying Tsai. He shared a picture of his late father explains that his father and family members and explained that his father had to get away often from the city and get into nature in order to create. There is a real empathy that we find with these kinetic sculptures that established empathy and intimacy, that is further created through the process of solitude. This event will help me as I draft my midterm as I can use the concepts and ideals presented that you have to be with the work as an artist and interpreter; not only seeing it but feeling it and receiving how they act onto our bodies and the physical world. 

Resources

Vuković, Vuk. “Restoring Time in Media Art: The Cybernetic Sculpture of Wen-Ying Tsai.” Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh, 18 Sept. 2023, www.constellations.pitt.edu/content/restoring-time-media-art-cybernetic-sculpture-wen-ying-tsai.

Coelho, Antonio. "Cybernetics in art - a brief overview." Medium, 2 Aug. 2022, https://medium.com/@AntonioJSCoelho/cybernetics-in-art-a-brief-overview-150c7ec36635 

Kluszczyński, Ryszard. "Color, Light, Motion." DESMA 9: Art, Science, and Technology, 27 April. 2024.