REICHARDT, Jasia (editor). Cybernetic Serendipity. The Computer and the Arts: A Studio International Special Issue. London: Studio International. 1968.
Folio. Original cerulean cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, with the original pictorial dust jacket; pp. 100, [1 (blank)], [3 (ads)], [2 (subscription forms)]; some light wear to extremities; some creases and wear to folds of jacket, small chip and one short closed tear to upper margin of jacket (with small internal repairs), otherwise very good; internally near fine; bookplate of Håkan E. Strömberg to front pastedown.
First edition, rare hardback issue, of the catalogue of the groundbreaking 1968 exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity.
From 2 August to 20 October 1968, Cybernetic Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts was exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Nash House, in London. Curated by British art critic, editor, and ICA Assistant Director Jasia Reichardt, the exhibition was the first major international showcase of computer art. It marked a pioneering attempt to explore the full spectrum of computer-aided creative activity, including art, music, poetry, dance, sculpture, and animation. The exhibition included robots – poetry-generating, musical and painting machines – and a wide variety of works in which chance played a central role.
The exhibition catalogue took the form of a special issue of Studio International magazine, edited by Reichardt. This 100-page issue featured over 300 illustrations and was published to coincide with the exhibition. The colour frontispiece reproduced a computer-generated image by American artist John C. Mott-Smith, created using time-lapse photography exposed through coloured filters on an oscilloscope connected to a computer. The cover, designed by Polish-British painter, illustrator, filmmaker, and stage designer Franciszka Themerson, incorporates actual computer graphics from the exhibition.
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