Cybernetics in the Lowlands

Although the place to be for technological dreams is, or was, Silicon Valley in the United States, the Lowlands have their own valley: Eindhoven. In the seventies and the eighties a museum called the Evoluon exposed modern technology that might change the world. Some say that UFO-like building looks like a boob, including the nipple. With silicones!

Entering the building that time you walked into an environment full of high tech machines. One of them was the Senster, a cybernetic sculpture made by Edward Ihnatowicz. It was the, so it’s claimed, first computer controlled piece of Art. The machine responded to people’s movement, their voice by radar and by a microphone. A bit like the SAM, we MoM theories students talked about in class last week.

The Senster, as can be said for the Evoluon as a technology museum, has been dismantled for many years now. You can read about the machine on the Senster website. If you’re not a tekkie, the little videos on Youtube about the Senster and the exhibitions in Eindhoven’s silicons are at least fun.

The Senster in the Evoluon:

First part of a promtional film about the museum, probably made by Bert Haanstra:

Second part:

The SAM: