CYBERNETIC SERENDIPITY
Summer 1968 -
It's 1968, I am 20. It is the summer holiday after my first year at University. I am staying at my brother David’s flat in Ladbroke Grove -
It was billed as ‘The synthesis of Art and Computers’, and has since gained cult status as the first manifestation of computer art. I had no idea what the ICA was, but it sounded new and exciting -
Cybernetic Serendipity opened on the 2nd of August, the second exhibition in the newly converted building, curated by Jasia Reichardt deputy director of the ICA, so the space was brand new, though I didn’t know this. It was very crowded; I think we had to queue.
Looking at the catalogue now I see all sorts of fascinating exhibits which I don’t actually remember. My most vivid memory is of being in ‘the pit’, a rectangular area about three feet lower than the rest of the gallery, and encountering a free-
Frankly the thing was an extremely primitive heap of junk lashed together with apparently no electronics to speak of, it was very puzzling how it could be so intelligent. And then I noticed, dodging back and forth through the crowd on the upper level, about thirty feet away, a furtive figure staring at us and bent over a small hand held box which he was manipulating with intense concentration. Step forward Bruce Lacey -
As it happens, the only other exhibit I remember was also by Bruce Lacey – the ‘Orgasmatron’. This (because of the danger of overheating) was only operated once every fifteen minutes, consequently one had to queue for half an hour. It may have been concealed by screens so you didn’t know quite what to expect, and resembled a sound proof coffin mounted on a central horizontal spindle. It started upright, one stood in it and the door was closed. Inside it was luxuriously padded and heated and soft stereo dream like music began to play with a random coloured light display close in front of our eyes so it was out of focus (it may have been responding to the music). It started very slowly rotating from vertical to horizontal, the aim I think was sensory deprivation and your body was gently pummelled through the padding. I must say it did nothing for me, from the locations I think the pummelling was designed for girls! ‘Orgasmatron’ subsequently became part of the language as a hippy head massager and a machine in the film ‘Barbarella’.
So I became interested in Bruce Lacey. He turned out to have an absolutely gorgeous wife, Jill Bruce (now Jill Smith), and they performed together. I especially remember a performance they gave, again at the ICA -
Fifty five years afterwards, when interest in him was reviving, I went to a 2012 retrospective of his work at the Campden Arts Centre which included ROSA, looking much the same, but not operating; and after his death in 2016 a showing of his Arts Council financed 16mm colour films at the British Film Institute National Archive. The only two I can remember were rather a shock. Without warning we were shown ‘Double Exposure’, consisting of Bruce and Jill having sex, but both semi transparent, so you could see his penis inside her, and ‘Lacey Family Rituals’, their every day family activities, like the children brushing their teeth and Jill doing her ‘’Tit’ exercises’; both again never to be forgotten. I see you can buy ‘Lacey Family Rituals’ on DVD, but not apparently ‘Double Exposure’! It’s amazing what you could get the Arts Council to give you money for.