During the exhibit ‘TSAIBERNETICS: transgenerational cybernetic art’ at the Łaźnia 2 Centre for Contemporary Art in Nowy Port, Gdańsk, open until the 3rd of December 2023, you can see and experience how contemporary art enters into relations with the fields of cybernetics and mathematics and how you as an audience member can influence the shape and resonance of each piece.
Organised as part of the Art & Science Meeting programme, the art show is dedicated mainly to the oeuvre of Wen-Ying Tsai, a Chinese pioneer of cybernetic art who passed away ten years ago. It is certainly an homage to this artist. Some of his most famous artworks are put on display, including his unique interactive sculptures created from vibrating rods and strobe lights, using the feedback effect to control them with audio signals. As the title suggests, this transgenerational exhibition is complemented by the works of London and Ming, his twin sons who share their father’s interest in science and visual arts, thus upholding his artistic legacy – though they take a slightly different approach.
Originally, London Tsai was more passionate about classical forms in drawing. His sculptures were inspired by mathematics, which he studied for six years of his career. Drawing on the connections between science and the organic nature of the world of art, he created quasi-portals – metaphorical vessels whose intellectual character was intended to encourage viewers to look at science from a slightly different perspective. According to the artist himself, those who took a deep dive into mathematics as well as art would instantly recognize the wealth of creative similarities between these two subjects.
Despite his initial apprehension, London has recently decided to adapt and expand upon some ideas of his father, Wen-Ying. The exhibition in Łaźnia demonstrates how their works started to complement and fuse into one another. When asked why he took this step, the artist stated the following:
‘Growing up, my brother and I spent our summers working with our father in his studio. He taught us the secrets to making his sculptures, which are extremely complicated, unstable systems; I imagine this apprenticeship to be similar to how Stradivari may have taught his sons to make violins. Later, my brother and I travelled around the world installing his sculptures. When I became an artist myself, I made a point to avoid making such technically-complex artworks. It was only after my father’s passing that I had the notion to adapt and extend some of his ideas. In fact, the first time I actually verbalised this was the night of the new Tate’s reopening in March 2015, which included Wen-Ying Tsai’s ‘Umbrella.’ On our walk home that rainy night, I told my brother, Ming, that if anyone could continue our father’s ideas, it had to be us. He agreed completely. Not long after, I began making cybernetic works involving rotating structures and stroboscopic light.’
Following in his father’s footsteps, London embraced kinetics with an interactive component in order to evoke among the viewers a sense of inclusion and presence in the ‘lives’ of created forms. He transitioned from the static object to the movement and audience participation by offering them a possibility of triggering certain mechanisms with levers and sound sensors. A good example would be his ‘Cybernetic Duchamp’ – a bicycle wheel clearly referring to the kinetic piece by Marcel Duchamp titled ‘Bicycle Wheel.’ Yet in the case of Tsai’s work, the viewer takes part in the event arranged in the gallery by launching the mechanism, thus gaining a sense of being part of something more than just a passive reception. Other interactive works include ‘Thermopyle’ (2021) and ‘Rotary Hopf Sphere: A Dream Machine’ that allow the viewer to control the rotation speed or intensity of vibrations with the use of feedback, influenced by the external audio signals such as clapping, stomping or loud conversation.
The piece ‘Multi-kinetic Wall’ marks Wen-Ying Tsai’s first attempt at kinetic sculpture – a series of brightly coloured gyroscopic rings rotating around their axis by using the power of a motor. This piece was restored specifically for the Łaźnia exhibit thanks to London, who admits that the endeavour proved to be quite a challenge:
‘The original work consisted of 32 kinetic units that formed a wall of moving day-glo coloured gyroscopes; although they have been around me all my life, they never actually functioned. For the Łaźnia exhibition, I felt that it was critical that we feature a subset of this first kinetic work of my father’s. I chose four units to form a 2×2 matrix and I had to replace the 58-year-old motors that no longer worked. Due to the age and fragility of the kinetic units, I needed to find motors that I could control to have a slow gentle start and stop and also limit their running time. The entire process took months (owing in part to my great hesitance at each step along the way), but in the end it all worked out quite nicely – the effect is even better than what I expected and I have a feeling that my father would be happy with it too.’
Ming, the second Tsai brother, focused on his academic career by specialising in environmental research. Therefore, the exhibition also presents his purely analytical works dealing with subjects such as pollution and air quality. As part of his piece ‘Pollution Signal Board,’ special sensors are arranged in the gallery space, transmitting signals to the display board. Depending on the air pollution level and detection of CO2 compounds or micro dust, they light up the corresponding LED strips. Here, the viewer also becomes the medium that affects the shape of a work of art, albeit less directly. In such an uninhibited manner, the artist encourages reflection on this global issue caused by humans, which unfortunately keeps getting worse year after year.
However let’s go back to where it all started:
Wen-Ying Tsai was born in 1928 in China. Initially, he enrolled in engineering studies, which he continued in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Michigan. After he emigrated and settled down in New York, where he worked as an architecture engineer, Wen-Ying Tsai started exploring his interest in the arts by attending art college after hours and taking modern dance lessons. In 1963, he was awarded an art scholarship in painting that directly motivated him to create art full-time. Today, he is considered one of the pioneering Chinese artists that received international acclaim and inspired the next generations of Chinese people.
At the beginning, the art practice of Wen-Ying oscillated around abstract painting. However, owing to the following scholarships and residencies, his creativity swiftly gained momentum, started evolving and discovering common elements between both areas of his interest, namely art and engineering. Works opening the Łaźnia exhibition represent his first attempts at a new direction. For instance, ‘Multi-chromics’ – a composition of discs on a white canvas reminiscent of miniscule CDs – is based on the diffraction of light. Similarly, ‘Superimposed Painting: Blue & Orange’ (1963) uses fluorescent pigment, UV light and the principle of shear mapping. It is worth noting the fact that the piece was inspired by the drawings of D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, a Scottish biologist and mathematician born in the late 19th century. In turn, Thomson’s own diagrams and drawings were inspired by Albrecht Dürer’s 15th/16th century drawings. It perfectly encapsulates the way art and science have coalesced for centuries, providing inspiration for both inventors and artists. And that is exactly what happened in the Tsai family:
‘My father’s trajectory was a model for me: he studied mechanical engineering, became an engineer, then used his engineering to make cybernetic sculptures. I actually decided to study maths at university with the intention to make art. The guiding thought was to acquire new ideas for a future art practice. G.H. Hardy was absolutely right when he wrote in his memoir, A Mathematician’s Apology, that “nothing else has quite the [intellectual] kick of mathematics”: my study of maths swept me away on a six-year tangent that opened up vistas of worlds far beyond any I had ever imagined. During my mathematical studies, I made a few attempts to paint these mathematical landscapes, but it was only after finishing my master’s degree that I made my mathematical drawings and paintings.’
– London Tsai
Although typically in the case of cybernetic art the technology takes precedence over aesthetics, the artistic practice of the Tsais might be an exception to the rule. Sleek kinetic sculptures, colourful gyroscopes and the harmonious motion of a fountain – these components create refined and aesthetically pleasing compositions. What is more, though seemingly abstract, these forms offer very specific commentary on the sociological and social subjects. Examples include ‘Black or White?(Yin or Yang?),’ the sculpture referring to the immigration experience, or the aforementioned ‘Thermopyle’ which alludes to the historic events.
Cybernetic art was born at the intersection of multiple disciplines that have evolved alongside a development of technology. When displayed in today’s galleries, it might seem slightly naive but it did capture the attention of the art world fairly quickly at the time of its inception. And like numerous emerging art movements, it found its own proponents, theoreticians and creators all over the world despite its inherently obfuscating nature. The artists, looking for their own niche, were merging various subjects from the fields that were poles apart up to this point, influencing the trajectory of the history of art. It is worth mentioning that cybernetic art places an emphasis not only on the relation between art and technology, but also between the art and its observer. In the case of Tsaibernetics, one should also consider family ties and the emergence of brand-new ideas, connections and solutions which are continually emerging as a result.
The late 20th century marks the beginning of the digital, genetic and cosmic revolution. It all happened in such a narrow timeframe, that it exerted an irreversible impact on the mindset of scientists as well as visual artists, who could now reach another level and express themselves more deeply owing to the ingenious tools at their disposal. Artists experimenting with new mediums in the 1960s blazed the trail to cybernetic art. One of those artists was definitely Wen-Ying Tsai. Consequently, Tsaibernetics denotes the intergenerational practice of the Tsai family, inspired by cybernetics, mathematics or, to put it simply, science. The artists have been developing their practice in a variety of directions, which as a result has expanded beyond its original shape to encompass abstraction, op-art, kinetics and participatory art-culture. The Łaźnia exhibition showcases a broad spectrum of their artistic activities, making it feel vibrant. Although quite a long time has passed, these objects still offer a relevant commentary on today’s world.
Written by Daga Ochendowska
‘TSAIBERNETICS: transgenerational cybernetic art’
21.07.2023-03.12.2023
ŁAŹNIA 2 Centre for Contemporary Art
Strajku Dokerów 5 Street Nowy Port, Gdańsk
