Abstract

A feedback model is presented to account for sigmoidal growth. Such a model, while making moot the question of cause and effect, may account for correlations in art-historical phenomena. Sigmoidal growth is characterized by initial slow growth, followed by rapid growth and eventually limited by saturation. Both behaviorism and cybernetics are based on a feedback model; thus, it is proposed here that the perception of historical ‘movements’, ‘periods’ and ‘styles’ is the result of sigmoidal phenomena, which in turn are related to feedback mechanisms.

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