"A 'bit' of information is defineable as a difference which makes a difference. Such a difference, as it travels and un dergoes successive transformation in a circuit, is an elemen tary idea.[...] In principle, if we desire to explain or understand the mental aspect of any biological event, we must take into account the system—that is, the network of closed circuits, within which that biological event is determined. But when we seek to explain the behavior of a man or any other organism, this "system" will usually not have the same limits as the "self"—as this term is commonly (and variously) un derstood.Consider a man felling a tree with an axe. Each stroke of the axe is modified or corrected, according to the shape of the cut face of the tree left by the previous stroke. This self-corrective (i.e., mental) process is brought about by a total system, tree-eyes-brain-muscles-axe-stroke-tree; and it is this total system that has the characteristics of immanent mind.More correctly, we should spell the matter out as: (dif ferences in tree)-(differences in retina)-(differences in brain)-(differences in muscles)-(differences in movement of axe)-(differences in tree), etc. What is transmitted around the circuit is transforms of differences. And, as noted above, a difference which makes a difference is an idea or unit of information."

-- Gregory Bateson, The Cybernetics of 'Self': A Theory of Alcoholism, 1971 (I: Steps to an Ecology of Mind) http://a.aaaarg.org/text/4668/cybernetics-self-theory-alchoholism

"Serial compositions are multipart pieces with regulated changes. The differences between the parts are the subject of the composition. If some parts remain constant it is to punctuate the changes."

-- Sol LeWitt, "Serial Composition" (I: Aspen nr. 5/6, 1967)

http://www.ubu.com/aspen/aspen5and6/serialProject.html

"Around the beginning of the 1960s the problem presented itself as to what alternatives could be found to the Abstract Expressionist mode of arranging. The Minimal presented a powerful solution: construct instead of arrange. Just as that solution can be framed in terms of an opposition (arrange/build), so can the present shift be framed in terms dialectically: don't build... but what? Drop, hang, lean -- in short, act. If the static noun of 'form' is substituted for the dynamic verb to 'act' in the priority of making, a dialectical formulation has been made. What has been underlined by recent work in the unconstructed mode is that since no two materials have the same existential properties, there is no single type of act that can easily structure one's approach to various metarials.

-- Robert Morris, "Towards a Phenomenology of Making" (I: Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris, s. 91)

"The systems approach goes beyond a concern with staged environments and happenings; it deals in a revolutionary fashion with the larger problem of boundary concepts. In systems perspective there are no contrived confines such as the theater proscenium or picture frame. Conceptual focus rather than material limits define the system. Thus any situation, either in or outside the context of art, may be designed and judged as a system. Inasmuch as a system may contain people, ideas, messages, atmospheric conditions, power sources, and so on, a system is, to quote the systems biologist, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a "complex of components in interaction," comprised of material, energy, and information in various degrees of organization. In evaluating systems the artist is a perspectivist considering goals, boundaries, structure, input, output, and related activity inside and outside the system. Where the object almost always has a fixed shape and boundaries, the consistency of a system may be altered in time and space, its behavior determined both by external conditions and its mechanisms of control."

-- Jack Burnham, "Systems Esthetics" (1968)

http://a.aaaarg.org/text/948/systems-esthetics

Frank StellaAstoria (1958) The Marriage of Reason and Squalor (1959)

Morris LouisDelta Theta (1961)

Morris LouisWhere (1960) Point of Tranquility (1959-60)

Robert RymanUntitled (1965) Untitled (1965)

Jan SchoonhovenT 62 104 (1962)

http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/artists/22

GM 19 Arcering (1967)

Hanne DarbovenEin Jahr (1970-)

Roman OpalkaInfinity (Five Works) (1965)

Vertical Brushstrokes (1994)

Sol LeWittPlan for a Wall Drawing (1969)

Bernard FrizeGiacobini (1999) Suite a onze no 15 (2007)

Katharina GrosseUten tittel (2001)