Gordon Pask, «The Colloquy of Mobiles», 1968
Installation view, ICA London 1968, «Cybernetic Serendipity» | ©
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With this idea for an «aesthetic potential environment,» Pask developed a cybernetic model for the relationship between viewer and artwork, as well as a unique case for showing the relationship between man and his environment. Pask tells us that human beings investigate their environment for new situations, which they then learn to understand and control. This investigating of the environment, instances of abstraction, and assimilating knowledge qualify as «enjoyable forms of activity». Moreover, an «aesthetic potential environment» should have the following qualities: it should offer a sense of variety able to convey newness, but nevertheless remain intelligible; it should contain forms whose interpretation can be understood by the viewer, and instructions for allowing the learning process to transpire at all. «It may, in addition,» says Pask, «respond to a man, engage him in conversation, and adapt its characteristics to the prevailing mode of discourse.» Making a reference to Abraham A. Moles, Pask emphasizes that, on principle, all good artworks fulfill these demands, and that they even «integrate» the viewer in paintings. «Our internal representation of an image, our active perception, answers and begins an internal dialogue with that part of our psyche responsible for producing our immediate attention.» And an «adaptive or reactive environment allows us to externalize this discourse». In this way, the «conversation» between the viewer and the work becomes observable. Of course, while interacting with the environment, the viewer can also assume the role of the artist. «Whether there is any virtue in this,» says Pask, «I do not know. But there might be.»