Heinz von Förster

Heinz von Förster was born in Austria in 1911. He studied physics at the Vienna University of Technology and completed his doctorate in theoretical physics at the University of Breslau in 1944. After emigrating to the United States, he held research and teaching posts including staff physicist, director of the Microwave and Plasma Research Laboratory, and director of the Electron Tube Research Laboratory. He was later appointed professor of electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where from 1958 to 1975 he founded and directed the Biological Computer Laboratory. Alongside this work he served as chairman of the Cybernetics Research Institute and directed Systems Research Limited.

Von Förster founded the Biological Computer Laboratory at the University of Illinois in 1958, which became one of the most influential centers for cybernetics in the world. The lab attracted researchers such as Gordon Pask, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, and Stafford Beer, and it served as a hub where scientists, engineers, and artists could exchange ideas on self-organization, systems, and perception. It was here that von Foerster advanced the concept of second-order cybernetics, focusing on the role of the observer and the construction of reality. These ideas reached beyond science into the arts, providing new ways to think about feedback, emergence, and interaction in relation to computers. His publications included the Cybernetics: Transactions volumes from the Macy Conferences, the collaborative Cybernetics of Cybernetics report created with his students, and Observing Systems, later followed by Understanding Understanding. Other titles included Understanding Systems: Conversations on Epistemology and Ethics. Together these works circulated internationally and were taken up by artists and theorists exploring generative systems and interactive media. Through his writing, lectures, and collaborations, von Foerster offered a language and framework that shaped the intellectual climate in which early computer art developed.

His influence was recognized through two Guggenheim fellowships in 1956–1957 and 1963–1964, and his election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In Heidelberg he held seminars and lectures with Helm Stierlin and his team at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Basic Research and Family Therapy, collaborating with Niklas Luhmann and Francisco Varela on “Reality Constructions of Systemic Therapy.” At the Heidelberg Constructivism Congresses of the 1990s, his contributions reached thousands and offered new ideas and practical impulses. His writings were translated into multiple languages, with collections such as Sicht und Einsicht, Las semillas de la cibernética, and Wie wir uns erfinden  reaching wide audiences, while later volumes including Understanding Understanding and The Beginning of Heaven and Earth Has No Name consolidated his position as one of the most widely read figures in cybernetics. Förster passed away in 2002.