SAM or the Sound Activated Mobile is one of the first cybernetic artwork from the 1960s. It was the first moving sculpture which moved directly and recognizably in response to what was going on around it. This artwork is created by Edward Ihnatowicz and was exhibited at the “Cybernetic Serendipity” exhibition in London in 1968 at the Institute of Contemporary Art and later moved the exhibition to Canada and US.
SAM is constructed with aluminum castings and had flower-like fiberglass reflector with an array of four small microphones mounted in the front. There are miniature hydraulic pistons inside the vertebrae which can make SAM move in relation to each other and the whole column could twist and lean forward and backward. There is an electronic circuit used as signals for the four microphones to determine the direction which any sound in the environment was coming from and two electro-hydraulic servo-valves moved the column in the direction of the sound. When people walked around SAM, there is movement and it fascinate observers. The sculpture also was sensitive to quiet but sustained noise, rather than shrieks. People would stand in front of SAM and try to produce the right level of sound to attract its attention and movement.
This artwork is a classic example of cybernetics because it follows the second wave of cybernetics which contains reflexivity: the relationship between system and its environment. Its behavior of system changes the environment as well and there is a feedback loop that’s happening between the art piece and the human interactions.
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