Nicolas Schöffer

Born in 1912 in Kalocsa, Hungary, Nicolas Schöffer is a pioneer of spatio-dynamic cybernetic light art.

After studying at the Beaux-Arts in Budapest, Schöffer moved to Paris in 1936. Building on the legacy of fellow Hungarian László Moholy-Nagy, who invented the Light Space Modulator in the 1920s, Schöffer enunciated a theory of Spatiodynamism in 1948, which he defined as « the constructive and dynamic integration of space in plastic arts ».

In the 1950s, he started experimenting with spatio-dynamic kinetic light sculptures and producing robotic cybernetic pieces that could travel through space autonomously. He is therefore remembered as the first artist to incorporate electronic computation to achieve a certain degree of interactivity in art history.