ABSTRACT
Behavioral patterns are relevant for thinking about relationships among entities separated in time and space. Behavioral patterns, in particular, bridge scales by linking the behavior of physical systems or beings, such as energy or animals, to abstract systems, such as information expressed as digital signs. Cybernetics is the study of control and communication in systems. Systems theory focuses on the elements and structure that define a system, and cybernetics focuses on how a system functions. Gyorgy Kepes believed that a visual language of patterns could bridge science and art, just as McLuhan believed in the importance of pattern recognition as a means to achieve environmental awareness; for both, new tools of observation were essential for bringing forth these invisible environments. The behavioral patterns the progeny of mid-century systems-based art in that they are multimedia, engage participation in ways that change the outcome or form of the work itself, and are crossovers between "natural" and "artificial" worlds.
