Cybernetic-Existentialism in Interactive Performance: Strangers, Being-for- Others and Autopoiesis

A theory of Cybernetic-Existentialism is proposed and developed in relation to interactive performances that draw upon or encapsulate primary themes from the distinct but interrelated disciplines of cybernetics and Existentialist philosophy. Ideas from both fields are identified as converging in classic works across the history of interactive performance including by Kaprow, Beuys, Klüver, Abramović, and Galloway and Rabinowitz. Performance collectives Gob Squad and Blast Theory are discussed in detail and argued to exemplify the aesthetics of Cybernetic-Existentialism through their complex explorations of concepts proposed by cyberneticians including Wiener, Bateson, Maturana and Varela on communication and control, negative entropy and autopoiesis, and Existentialists such as Marcel, de Beauvoir and Sartre on ‘separation with communion’ [Marcel, Gabriel. 1995. The Philosophy of Existentialism, 39. Translated by Manya Harari. New York: Carol], freedom, authenticity, the ‘look’ of the stranger [Sartre, Jean- Paul. (1943) 2003. Being and Nothingness, 364–376. Translated by Hazel Barnes. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Classics], and being-for-others [Sartre (1943) 2003, 245–452]. 

Citation:
Dixon, Steve. "Cybernetic-Existentialism in Interactive Performance: Strangers, Being-for- Others and Autopoiesis." International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, vol. 13, no. 1, 2017, pp. 55-76, doi: 10.1080/14794713.2017.1301173.