ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Edmonds' work following Nineteen and on the influences that shaped his art practice in the 1970s. Important personal connections between Edmonds and artists in the Systems and broader Constructivist tradition grew stronger during this decade. Edmonds' working relationships and personal friendships with them were crucial in strengthening his ideas related to art, its structural processes and the significance of computation that were to be consolidated in the following decades. To contextualise the discussion, particular emphasis is placed on the development of notions of systems, communication and interaction and the inclusion of active audience participation as an integral part of the artwork in the UK through the work of four artists that had an influence on Edmonds' work. The chapter then continues by discussing Edmonds' early interactive work that was concerned with audience participation. It describes a path of development of his artworks that looked at human-to-human communication through electronic and computer systems in the 1970s.
