Gordon Pask

Born 1928 in Derby (GB)—died 1996 in London. Pask, who was named «Mister Cybernetics, the Cybernetician’s Cybernetician« by Heinz von Foerster, studied Chemistry, Sciences and Psychology at Liverpool Technical College and the University of London. In the 1950s he and Robin McKinnon-Wood began to construct «Musicolour» (1953), an adaptive machine, which transformed music live into projected light and changed its behaviour when the music was too monotonous. With Stafford Beer he did electrochemical experiments to develop «artificial neurons.» Pask's many research projects explored a. o. self-organizing systems, group behavior and issues of learning and teaching. His »Conversation Theory« developed a comprehensive epistemological model. He constructed adaptive teaching and learning machines like «SAKI» (1956), «CASTE» (1972), «Thoughtsticker» (1974) and published various articles and books, e.g. «An Approach to Cybernetics» (1961), «Conversation, Cognition and Learning» (1975) and «Conversation Theory» (1976). 1953 he founded with Robin McKinnon-Wood the research company System Research Limited. 1969 he was appointed Professor at the Department of Cybernetics, Brunel University. 1974–1979 he was visiting professor at the Institute of Educational Technology of the Open University. Other teaching positions included the universities of Illinois, Mexico and Amsterdam, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, the Concordia University, Montréal and the Architectural Association (UK).