Cybernetic narrative: Modes of circularity, feedback, and perception in new media artworks

What is it about?

The purpose of this paper is to explore how second-order cybernetics (von Foerster, 2002) functions in new media artworks, specifically through information, system, and user. While formulating the relationship between new media artworks and the discourses surrounding cybernetics the paper analyzes Popp’s (2006) Bit.Fall, Wojtowicz’s (2007) Elsewhere News and Zeren Göktan’s (2013) The Counter, as exemplars of alternative methods of narration. This study further argues that these new media artworks employ a cybernetic narrative via modes of “circularity,” “feedback,” and “perception.”

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Why is it important?

New media artworks at least suggest a possibility of observing contemporary art and its history in the making if not generating it altogether through cybernetic modes of “circularity,” “feedback” and “perception.” The experience of these artworks for each user differs depending on their choice to either reject or become immersed in the work. The possible sensoria, however, may still be betrayed by the mind’s willingness to cooperate or at times by the ability to perceive.

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