Nicolas Schöffer

A founder of cybernetic art, Nicolas Schöffer bridges the boundary between living things and technology with his sculptures, paintings, and drawings. After studying at the School of Fine Arts in Budapest, Schöffer moved to Paris and began his career as a painter before transitioning to spatiodynamic constructions in the late 1940s; a decade later, he began working with the light effects that he referred to as lumino-dynamism. Among his best-known sculptures is CYSP 1 (1956), considered the first cybernetic sculpture, which used microphones, motors, and photo-electric cells to create an artwork capable of responding to its environment through feedback loops. Schöffer’s metallic sculptures relate to the Neoplastic aesthetics of Piet Mondrian and explore the fourth dimension of time and movement.