Extraordinary World of Nicolas Schöffer english storyboard by laszlo diabolus

Nicolas Schรถffer

Extraordinary World of

Nicolas Schรถffer storyboard

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

A video az Emberi Erõforrások Minisztériumának megbízásából készült 2015-ben

Insert: „The role of an artist today is not to create art, but to create the (process of) creation.” (“Le rôle de l’artiste n’est plus de créer une œuvre, mais de créer la création”) Nicolas Schöffer A significant feature of the 60s was an optimistic faith in the power of the human intellect and an unprecedented collaboration Stáblista between scientific and artistic groups. Rendezõ: Gerebics Sándor Nicolas Schöffer, being one of the best Gyártásvezetõ: Ördögh László Diabolus known artists of the era had a tremendous influence on future trends and is regarded Forgatókönyv: as the father of cybernetic art. Ördögh László Diabolus Gehér Klára Mag. Art. Naomi Devil . Vágó: Zeneszerzõ: Sven Vikokel Operatõrõk: Farkas Attila, Tóth György Speciál effektek: Mag. Art. Naomi Devil Virtuális modellek: Naomi Devil Ördögh László Diabolus Narráció magyar: Narráció Olasz: Narráció Angol: Richard Rifkin Narráció olasz szöveg: Gehér Klára Narráció angol szöveg: Alsaesser Klaudia A rendering munkák a Vivetech Kft. támogatásával készültek.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Kalocsa-BudapestParis Schöffer Miklós was born in 1912 in Kalocsa, a town by the Danube. He was raised here until he started his studies at the university. Insert: Schöffer Miklós (Nicolas Schöffer) 1912 Kalocsa – 1992 Paris Schöffer first studied law at the university in Budapest. Dargay interview: Following his father’s request who was anxious that one cannot earn a living from art, he studied law. He praised his studies often saying that the closed logical system of Roman law changed his way of thinking. Later he enrolled in the academy of fine arts in Budapest. From 1936 until his death he lived in Paris. He was a student of the National School of Fine Arts (Nekem franciául jobban tetszik az intézmény neve. Különben is az Academy kifejezés jobb, mint a School. Mindenki így ismeri : L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts). He became known with the French version of his name as Nicolas Schöffer. His artistic activity was very complex: he dedicated himself to painting, sculpture, architecture, urbanistic, film, television, music and cybernetics. In his spiritual world that was based on avant-garde thinking and the awareness of the artists’ role in society he switched aptly between the fields of art, science and technology. In 1982 he became elected member of the French Academy of Fine Arts as recognition of his rich oeuvre.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas SchĂśffer

The master and the follower

Dargay interview: He was a perfectly free person. He had an astonishing energy to create and was unscrupulous during the process of creation. It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even occur to him to think of what people will say, he did what he thought was best without any further thoughts. Not even art historic precedents obliged him to control himself.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is an interdisciplinary field of science researching the general rules of regulation, and control, information processing and communication. Norbert Wiener made a major contribution to its birth. Insert: Norbert Wiener: Cybernetics or regulation and communication in human beings and machines (1948) It is examining such dynamic systems that function in connection with and in interaction with the environment after a certain cycle of reconnection. The system has an impact on the environment and the occured changes impact back on the system. This is the fundamental thought of cybernetics. Nicolas Schรถffer was groundbreaking as he integrated the fundaments of cybernetics into arts: an art that was responding to the impact gained from the environment.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Control

The two sides of the interaction with the environment in a cybernetic system are control and feedback. The system exerts its influence on the environment through effectors, also called actors. The feedback requires the perception of environmental signals with the aid of sensors. Due to the development of technology, control and regulation has been implemented in the most varied forms. Mechanic control of the elements was taken over by electro mechanic and later by modern electric or electronic control. Meanwhile, the basic principles have barely changed.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Feedback

The feedback compensates the disturbing effects of the environment and enables the system to adapt to the environmental changes. Prerequisites are that the system should be able to detect changes in the environment and to receive and process information. In the course of the feedback output signals of the cybernetic system are redirected and used in unmodified or modified form as input signals of the same system.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas SchĂśffer

Sensors

Insert: Sensors are mechanical, electrical or other devices that in a technical or biological system of control and regulation and in its environment detect the values of a characteristic physical property (/quantity) or its changes. A common feature of the sensors used in technology is that the measured values of chemical, physical or biological data are converted into electrical signals, which are further converted into numerical data, and in this form are processed from the computer. The sensors of the cybernetic sculpture, titled CYSP 1 were microphones and photocells, which detected changes in the environment. The collected signals were processed by a computer, which from our contemporary (todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) perspective seems utterly simple. The result of the conversion was a sequence of data to describe movements of the sculpture, which were carried out with the help of numerous electromechanical relay.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Effectors, actors

Insert: The effectors, also known as actors, are devices, which in a system of control and regulation after processing the sensor data trigger the appropriate change to the cybernetic system. Nicolas Schöffer could obviously use only the effectors available on the level of technology in his times. He’s repertoire included (Among the tools of his trade were) electric motors hydraulic, pneumatic and electromechanical components, moving reflective surfaces (mirrors), flamethrowers, water cannons, reflectors and laser light. Those artists, who followed in the footsteps of Schöffer applying the cybernetic principles, could achieve a more elaborate level only thanks to advances in technology rather than theory. The recent appearance (emergence) of virtual worlds has expanded the range of possibilities by leaps and bounds. In the virtual world the creation of actors and the determination of their characteristics can be performed almost without limits. There is such a wide range of effectors generated using digital graphics and audio-visual equipment that no contemporary of Schöffer could have imagined such a multitude even in his wildest dreams.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Interaction

Interaction on many levels played an important role in Nicolas Schöffer cybernetic art. His ability to see into the future is well expressed by the way he programmed his creations which was very close to todays’ softwear development. His statues, while switched on, constantly observed their environment and changed their further functioning according to signs received from the environment.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

The 5 focus points of Schöffer’s art

The scientific achievements of the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century changed radically our view of the world. The unbreakable faith in the power of science was a significant feature of the mid-century but most of all of the 60s. The changes have profoundly influenced the development of art as well. All these changes are reflected in Nicolas Schöffer’s artistic activity. Contemplating the contemporary world and interpolating current phenomena into the future, he was able to predict, sometimes with stunning accuracy, numerous social and cultural processes that have been verified in the meantime. In the course of his carrier Schöffer synthetized such distant fields as the natural and social sciences, technology, music and art. Dargay interview: Real artists create notions or reduce to notions and mould shapes to match these notions. Not genuine artists borrow notions and copy the nature. Schöffer reinterpreted according to the spirit of his times the most basic media of artistic expression, such as light, space, music or the dynamics of movement. Dargay interview: The two fundamental ways of discovering the world are the scientific and the artistic approach, this was Schöffer’s main idea.

He reduced everything to key concepts and these three crucial artistic media are space, light and time. He treated these as materials, though he claimed that art should dematerialize, in other words not be confined into material. In accordance with it, he did not regard time as a symbol of transience.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Space Insert: Space is an abstract concept that we have created to describe the relative physical location of objects and events. To the purpose of an exact definition we have created a mathematical model, a reference system of three or more dimensions. Time is generally regarded as the fourth dimension, which forms along with the three spatial coordinates a system, in which the location and exact timing of several events can be specified. Generally, in the focus of the attention is therefore that portion of the space that is filled with an object. Schรถffer and his contemporaries, as Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner, have consciously modelled the empty, negative space of the sculptures. Dargay interview: He simplified the essence to such an extent that for many years a Schรถffer statue will be in evidence. He removed every superfluous detail of the artwork. His first extensive series of artworks dealt with space dynamics. Schรถffer gave up the concept of modelling solid and static objects. From the end of the forties with his so-called space-dynamic sculptures he created space segments, which were distinct from each other and shaped with the use of material reduced to the minimum. The perception of space is transmitted by the effects of movements. The important feature of the structured space was less the tangible structure than the virtual space created through rhythmic movement. Dargay interview: It began in the autumn of 1956 when he attached optical grids and perforated disks to a space dynamical statue. When light

penetrated through the structure, the shadow on the wall was wiggled, especially when the source of light or the statue itself was moved. The idea of adding a motor was born, thus light and time were added to space.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Time and rhythm Insert: Time is a fundamental physical quantity with a predefined unit of measurement which allows organising events on a scale from the past through the present into the future. It allows further defining the duration of events or measuring the interval elapsed between them. The timing of various events became a key tool in Schöffer’s art. Programming cyclical events did not satisfy him. He defined the order of events, their occurrence and the duration of their effect strictly so that the observer had a constantly changing experience. The perception of events in the environment and their transformation into an aesthetically pleasing spectacle plays an important role in most of his works. Insert: „This equals a revitalizing mental massage.” Nicolas Schöffer Since computer programs exist, time has started to play a more important role in improving the aesthetic quality of artistic creations. Dargay interview: Schöffer was ahead of his time. The tool of a sculptor used to be a chisel but today they use computers - he used to say that as well very often.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Light

Insert: Light is a narrow spectrum of electromagnetic waves. The visual perception of the world is impossible without light. Light and shadow underline (/ highlight), but sometimes also change the spatial impression of objects. The human eye perceives the light reflected from surfaces as colours and textures. Since 1957 Schöffer dedicated himself intensely to the effects of light and their dynamics. He altered the space around the cybernetic sculpture through lumino-dynamic [Schöffer’s expression] effects thus creating a new architectural rhythm. Light is a source of information as well. Emanating from cybernetic towers it informs the observer for example about the time of the day, about the weather, about the traffic in the city and at the airport or about the stock market index. This dense information stream, this incredible, pulsating aesthetic phenomenon highlights the urban metropolitan character of the city and is the symbol of the future. Schöffer presaged (predicted/ foresaw) the phenomenon that is known (/made history /went down in history) as the information society

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Sound

Schöffer introduces in his theoretical writings instead of traditional music, which is limited in time and space, and therefore accessible only to a few, the concept of democratic sound structures that are constantly audible at an urban scale. He considered sound, just like light as a source of information. However, the empire (/kingdom) of sounds is much larger than the range of musical clang. Again, Schöffer was a pioneer in this field: besides artificially created sounds he used the noises of nature as well. Another major achievement of this period was the application (/ use) of electronic sound generators. The noise of the moving parts of the sculptures mixed with the cacophony of the city was the natural sound background of Schöffer’s kinetic and cybernetic works.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

CYSP 1 1956

The sculpture titled CYSP 1 was built in 1956. It was the first sculpture based on the principles of cybernetics. It was able to detect the intensity and color of the ambient light with the aid of photocells, and to observe the urban sounds using microphones. According to the program of the microcomputer installed in the sculpture it converted the physical signals into electrical ones first and then into motion commands. It was able to move its parts and to change its location, further to activate or stop the various mobile elements. The energy supply was ensured by rechargeable batteries located at the bottom of the structure (/ in the socket). Before the first public presentation the statue played a key role in a modern dance workshop: Maurice Béjart, the magician of contemporary ballet, and his company including Claude Bessy, the prima ballerina of the Paris Opera house, danced in Schöffer’s atelier and on the roof of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation together with the cybernetic sculpture CYSP1 that reacted to their movements.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

TLC 1970

Nicolas Schöffer’s masterpiece is the plan of a cybernetic light tower for the Parisian district La Défense. However, the TLC (Tour Lumière Cybernetic) has never been realised (/built). The lack of success had two reasons: Georges Pompidou, president of the republic and the main supporter of the plan passed away and the first oil crisis dried up the sponsors’ financial resources. Its planned height of 307 meters surpassed (/ exceeded) that of the Eiffel Tower. It would have been controlled and operated by a central computer. According to the plans, the TLC would have collected a range of data provided by sensors placed all around the city. After digital interpretation and processing, these data would have affected the operation of effectors located on the tower. According to Schöffer’s long-term intentions, similar towers situated around the world would have been organised in a web of cybernetic communication. The idea was almost an anticipation of the Internet of our times. Due to the effects of light, the optical size of the tower exceeded considerably the size of the steel construction. Schöffer wanted to express the superiority of intellectual values over material ones with this gesture.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

SCAM 1 1973

One possible way to go beyond the traditional boundaries of the visual arts is for example to reduce the limitations in space, in other words to make the artworks mobile. Schöffer experimented even with this idea. The artwork entitled SCAM 1 was a chrono-dynamic sculpture fixed vertically onto the chassis of a car. It was connected to the vehicle by a rotating platform. Due to his impatience, Schöffer created the structure that was rotating around a vertical axis long before the construction of the vehicle. So his creativity was not impeded (/ thwarted) by being forced to adapt to a pre-fabricated vehicle. His aim was obviously to create a bearing structure that would be in harmony with the sculpture. The moderate style of the car’s framework matched the statue well. The realization of the plans drafted by the Renault Company was financed by Denis René, a Parisian art dealer. The automobile cybernetic sculpture appeared on the streets of Paris and Milano causing mayor traffic mayhem . The spectacle conceived by Schöffer truly mesmerized the observers.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Chronos 8 1982

Although the gigantic light tower designed for Paris has never been realized, smaller towers based on similar principles were built in different European cities and overseas. The cybernetic tower Chronos 8 was completed in 1982. It was built next to the central bus station of Kalocsa, not far from Schöffer’s birthplace and family home. Dargay interview: The theory behind every single piece of the Chronos is the same. This is a series. There is a structure that was composed applying the golden section rule several times. They are powered by motors. Mirrors and reflectors are attached to them, and these are organised into families to carry out specific tasks. He created these cybernetic sculptures in a way that they could theoretically be linked to a world-wide web, so in fact he predicted the Internet. Schöffer entrusted me with the task of realising the tower in Kalocsa. Everything works electronically. The tower is the symbolic model of the universe.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Hydro Thermo Chronos 1983-84 Very few information is available on the fountains entitled Hydro-Thermo-Chronos. Unfortunately, they remained in the phase of planning and have never been published nor realised. Dargay interview: We were once watching a scientific program on French TV. It discussed the MidAtlantic-Ridge where the Eurasian tectonic plate submerges under the North-American Plate. Despite the tremendous pressure and difference in temperature fire is blazing, lava and gases are erupting and everything bubbles with tremendous impetus. He stood up and left. I did not know where he had gone. An hour later he came back with a complete plan: we would squirt water high up in the air and shoot a burning gas flame into it that would turn the water into steam. Into the billowing steam we would fire rays of laser light. It would be a jaw-dropping spectacle followed by a tremendous sound effect. This is the way he got his inspiration. The random control is constituted by a combination of programs designed by the artist, and the reactions to the signals coming from the environment. The visual effects are accompanied by acoustic phenomena. The sensors are partly photocells and partly microphones. The photocells are used to perceive the light of the sun and the shadow, further to differentiate between day and night. The microphones listen to the noises of the environment that are converted and used to control the effectors.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Development of cybernetic art after 1990 A significant increase in the performance of electronic devices has determined the main direction of development in the 90’s. After the end of the last millennium, the rapid development of computer performance and increased speed of graphic data processing induced a high demand for the creation of virtual spaces in real time. Even this progress confirms Schöffer’s visionary abilities.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Metaverse Art Social Network

The concept ‘metaverse’ means a universe beyond the real universe, in other words a parallel universe. The first metaverse named Second Life was developed in 2003 by Linden Lab in San Francisco. The word metaverse was mentioned for the first time in 1992 in Neal Stephenson’s science fiction story entitled Snow Crash. In those days, nobody would have thought that these ideas would become an everyday reality within a decade. In the virtual world of Second Life one can live a life that compares to our real life. Anybody can satisfy his creativity, being able to build his environment, to design and create virtual objects, etc.

Nicolas Schรถffer

Collaborative Industrial Cloud

The appearance of virtual reality not only influenced the development of art, but also that of the technique. T he industry is beginning to use these technologies. The most advanced media of cybernetic art use intensively and in a very clever way the refined tools of computer science, sensors and elaborated devices of display technology

Nicolas Schรถffer

Nicolas Schöffer

Nicolas Schöffer Múzeum Kalocsa

The city of Kalocsa is welcoming visitors in the new museum that was built where Nicolas Schöffer’s birthplace and family home once stood. The cybernetic tower Chronos 8 proudly reminds of the ground breaking carrier of the famous son of the city, of the founder of cybernetic art. Time: Dargay interview: In my opinion Schöffer is going to be always significant. He was the prototype of the exploring and researching artist.

Nicolas Schรถffer