Australian cybernetic: a point through time

In 1968, an exhibit in London entitled Cybernetic Serendipity helped acquaint a new generation with the ideas of cybernetics. It used art, design and emerging technologies to create room for new kinds of conversations about the role of computational technologies in the 20th century.

In response to Cybernetic Serendipity, 7 years later, Australia 75: festival of creative arts and sciences brought electronic arts to an Australian audience for the very first time.

Australian cybernetic: a point through time is a new exhibition on at the Australian National University (ANU) that revisits both exhibitions and introduces reflections on contemporary approaches to cybernetics underway at the ANU.

In 1969, management guru Stafford Beer wrote:
'Design sits between rigidity and chaos, sciences and arts; it seeks to understand the constant change within order that characterises cybernetic systems.'

At ANU School of Cybernetics, design is an essential component to thinking about complex systems and the relationships between them in order to imagine and enable new approaches to shaping the future through and with technology.

Join the School’s Design Convenor Andrew Meares for a conversation about Australian cybernetic: a point through time and how the School of Cybernetics is reanimating cybernetics for the 21st Century. Through design perspectives, Andrew will discuss how cybernetics investigates the interdependencies within and between systems, and how we can use this knowledge to ask questions and build intentionally towards the futures we want to see.

This event is free to attend but bookings are essential.

For those unable to make it to Canberra for the panel discussion, it will be livestreamed online via the Library's Facebook page. No bookings are required to watch the online stream.

Cybernetic thinking for a new world is presented by the ANU School of Cybernetics in partnership with the National Library of Australia.

About Andrew Meares

Andrew Meares is the Design Convenor at the School of Cybernetics. He joined ANU as a Senior Lecturer (industry practice) in 2019 and was part of the Masters of Applied Cybernetics teaching team. He joined The Sydney Morning Herald as a cadet photographer in 1991 and was made chief photographer in 1998. He has covered diverse events from politics, protests and portraits to bushfires, coups and war zones. He won a Walkey Award for Best Online Journalism in 2010 and was Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery President 2015-2017. He joined the office of the then Leader of the Opposition, The Hon. Bill Shorten MP, between 2017-2019.