Far-future research dialogue by Philips Design

Electronic Brains

Recently I was reading an article that added a new chapter in my knowledge of the Philips cultural heritage. I guess everybody knows about 'poême électronique' the famous '58 world expo Philips pavilion created by Corbusier, Xenakis and Varèse. The same probably goes for the electronic music of Dick Raaijmakers a.k.a. Kid Baltan. I would however never guessed that Philips was also involved in making one of the first cybernetic sculptures. The CYSP-1 (CYbernetic SPatiodynamic) was as an art piece by Nicolas Schöffer, it was a serious attempt in creating an autonomous being. A lot of articles refer to a sculpture with electronic brains, a few functions of the CYSP-1 are sensory organ, nerve system, brain and muscles. Another cool example of a famous Philips cybernetic sculpture was the Senster by Edward Ihnatowicz, it was located at the entrance of the Evoluon from 1970 til 1974. The Senster reacted on noise by moving towards it, but it could also move away when trying to touch it or producing loud noises. After the machine was removed from the evoluon a lot of people thought it was destroyed, but luckily the company who did the original welding saw the significance of the work and rebuilt it in front of their company. There must be tons of other interesting stuff in the Philips archive, maybe it is a good idea to post more of this 'probe' projects here if you run into them.

A few additional clicks to gain more information on the: CYSP-1 and Senster. I also uploaded a video of the Senster in action.