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from the perspective of the performer. Even from the simplified description I
have given of its functioning, it seems clear that one could not think one's way
through Musicolour, anticipating its every adaptation to an evolving sequence
of inputs, and this becomes even clearer if one reads Pask's description of all
the subtleties in wiring and logic (1971, 78-80). But still, there was a wiring
diagram for Musicolour which anyone with a bit of training in electrical en-
gineering could read. So we have, as it were, two descriptions of Musicolour:
as an exceedingly complex system (as experienced in practice) and as actually
quite simple and comprehensible (as described by its wiring diagram). I am
reminded of Arthur Stanley Eddington's two tables: the solid wooden one at
which he wrote, and the table as described by physics, made of electrons and
nuclei, but mainly empty space. What should we make of this? First, we could
think back to the discussion of earlier chapters. In chapter 4 I discussed cel-
lular automata as ontological icons, as exemplifications of the fact that even
very simple systems can display enormously complex behavior—as the kinds
of objects that might help one imagine the cybernetic ontology more gen-
erally. One can think of Musicolour similarly, as a material counterpart to
those mathematical systems—thus setting it in the lineage running from the
tortoise to DAMS. And second, we could take Musicolour as a reminder that
representational understandings of inner workings can often be of little use
in our interactions with the world. Though the workings of Musicolour were
transparent in the wiring diagram, the best way to get on with it was just to
play it. The detour through representation does not rescue us here from the
domain of performance.
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ontology and aesthetics
As one might expect from a cybernetician with roots in the theater, ontology
and aesthetics intertwined in Pask's work. I have been quoting at length from
an essay Pask wrote in 1968 on Musicolour and its successor, the Colloquy of
Mobiles (Pask 1971), which begins with the remark that (76) “man is prone
to seek novelty in his environment and, having found a novel situation, to
learn how to control it. . . . In slightly different words, man is always aiming to
achieve some goal and he is always looking for new goals. . . . My contention
is that man enjoys performing these jointly innovative and cohesive opera-
tions. Together, they represent an essentially human and inherently pleasur-
able activity.” As already discussed, with this reference to “new goals” Pask
explicitly moved beyond the original cybernetic paradigm with its emphasis
on mechanisms that seek to achieve predefined goals. This paragraph also
