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© Robert White Scott, 2011 © Robert White Scott, 2011 AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL FOR DESIGNING A SOCIETY BY ROBERT WHITE SCOTT DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Policy Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Antonia Darder, Chair Associate Professor Pradeep Dhillon Associate Professor Yoon Pak Assistant Professor Rebecca Ginsburg ABSTRACT This dissertation traces the roots of an experimental art school for social change called the School for Designing a Society. It focuses on the history of a group of intellectuals, and their ideas, during the latter half of the twentieth century. The composer Herbert Brün (1918-2000) formulated many of the original ideas used by the school in concert with his students and colleagues at the University of Illinois. This study focuses on how their ideas about composition led to the founding of a school. It begins with the turmoil of World War II, which influenced experimental artists such as Brün; the development of cybernetics as an interdisciplinary field; the attempt of Brün and cyberneticians to offer an experimental interdisciplinary course in 1968. As the 1960s faded out, a new crop of music composition students rallied around Brün. They formed an ensemble and renewed the bridge to cybernetics; the ensemble achieved a high level of professionalism and toured internationally. Elements of Marianne Brün’s course on Designing Society, and Susan Parenti’s skill at organizing an experimental arts ensemble led to a 1992 proposal to start a school. Members of the ensemble needed a discursive context to engage the political and social consequences of experimental art production. Rather than scatter to various university jobs, or wrangle with the local University’s structure, the group decided to create their own school, off-campus. The School for Designing a Society thus arose out of a necessity that was generated by desire. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are due to Susan Parenti and Mark Enslin, without whom the School for Designing a Society wouldn’t exist. I am grateful to Maria Isabel Silva for her video footage, and her generosity in sharing it. Thanks to Arun Chandra and Marianne Brün who provided answers to my interview questions. Last but not least I thank my friend Michael Gaiuranos for his comments on various drafts of the text. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF COMMONLY USED ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................... vii PREFACE ........................................................................................................................ viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 A Note on Intellectual History and the History of Ideas ................................................ 3 Method of Selecting Methods ......................................................................................... 5 Survey of the Intellectual Roots of the School for Designing a Society ...................... 11 Atonal Music ............................................................................................................. 12 Cybernetics ............................................................................................................... 14 (Radical) Constructivism .......................................................................................... 17 The Frankfurt School ................................................................................................ 19 Situationist International ........................................................................................... 22 Paulo Freire ............................................................................................................... 26 Myles Horton and the Highlander Folk School ........................................................ 29 Black Mountain College ........................................................................................... 32 The Development of the School for Designing a Society ............................................. 34 CHAPTER 2: FOUNDATIONAL IDEAS OF THE SCHOOL FOR DESIGNING A SOCIETY ..................................................................... 37 Design Groups .............................................................................................................. 39 Fundamentals: Course Proposal by Herbert Brün ........................................................ 42 My ‘inner’ committee of criteria ............................................................................... 44 The ‘main interest’ threat .......................................................................................... 45 Choice ....................................................................................................................... 46 The Art of Instantaneous Remembering ................................................................... 49 The Establishment of connections and The establishment of Connections .............. 49 Performance (in Everyday Life) ............................................................................... 50 Truth–Honesty–Lies ................................................................................................. 51 Utopia, Chaos, False Statements ............................................................................... 52 Ethics, Morals, Manners, Principles ......................................................................... 53 Second-order Cybernetics ............................................................................................. 56 Information and Communication .............................................................................. 57 Systems ..................................................................................................................... 58 Drawing Distinctions ................................................................................................ 60 Self-Reference and Self-Description ........................................................................ 61 Language as a Dynamic Force ...................................................................................... 63 The Social Role of Language .................................................................................... 64 Formulation ............................................................................................................... 66 Specific Linguistic Structures ................................................................................... 68 Interdependence and Incompleteness ........................................................................... 71 iv CHAPTER 3: ROOTS OF THE SCHOOL FOR DESIGNING A SOCIETY: HERBERT BRÜN, HEINZ VON FOERSTER, AND CYBERNETICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS (1960s-1975) ..................................................... 74 Cybernetics ................................................................................................................... 74 Herbert Brün ................................................................................................................. 78 Brün and Cybernetics .................................................................................................... 80 Information Theories .................................................................................................... 81 The Biological Computing Laboratory ......................................................................... 86 The Heuristics Courses, Fall 1968 - Spring 1970 ......................................................... 88 Anticommunication: an Attempt, Not a Refusal ....................................................... 91 Outcomes of the Heuristics Class ............................................................................. 93 The Meetings with Ivan Illich in Cuernavaca ............................................................... 95 Cognitive Technology: A Citizen-Society Problem Solving Interface ......................... 99 Heinz Von Foerster and Humberto Maturana discontinue Work at the University of Illinois ............................................................................................. 101 What is the Consequence? Critically Reading the Period .......................................... 106 Brün's Information Theory ...................................................................................... 106 Anticommunication ................................................................................................. 107 The Heuristics Course ............................................................................................. 110 Why did the BCL, and cybernetics in general, fall into decline? ........................... 112 The 1960s Effect ..................................................................................................... 115 CHAPTER 4: THE RISE OF THE PERFORMERS' WORKSHOP ENSEMBLE (1976-1990) .............................................................................................. 119 New Students, New Music, New Projects ..................................................................121 The Noticings Group ................................................................................................... 123 Sawdust ....................................................................................................................... 126 The Performers' Workshop
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