Randomness

In addition to the visual arts, randomness has a place in music as well. To musicians such as Douglas Cope, who make generative music, randomness serves as an accompaniment to the structure of a piece. To keep things simple, we have constructed an audible clone of 10Print which interested readers may like to type in and try out. It takes many more lines than 10Print because the C64 was never endowed with specific BASIC commands for making sound and graphics. The heart of this program is lines 35-75. RND(1) is used to select whether a C or F# note is played. After entering the program and typing RUN, the listener will hear a sequence of evenly-spaced alternating notes, similar to how 10Print displays evenly-spaced alternating / and \ symbols. Of course, the stream of audio does not have a "wrap" function like the terminal does, so there is no means for a "maze" to appear. Readers can judge for themselves, however, what kind of equivalences there are between the visual and audible version of the program.

In addition to the visual arts, randomness has a place in music as well. To musicians such as Douglas Cope, who make generative music, randomness serves as an accompaniment to the structure of a piece. To keep things simple, we have constructed an audible clone of 10Print which interested readers may like to type in and try out. It takes many more lines than 10Print because the C64 was never endowed with specific BASIC commands for making sound and graphics. The heart of this program is lines 35-75. RND(1) is used to select whether a C or F# note is played. After entering the program and typing RUN, the listener will hear a sequence of evenly-spaced alternating notes, similar to how 10Print displays evenly-spaced alternating / and \ symbols. Of course, the stream of audio does not have a "wrap" function like the terminal does, so there is no means for a "maze" to appear. Readers can judge for themselves, however, what kind of equivalences there are between the visual and audible version of the program.

10 poke 54296,15:poke 54277,190:poke 54278,248

10 poke 54296,15:poke 54277,190:poke 54278,248

31 a(0)=17:a(1)=37:a(2)=21:a(3)=76

31 a(0)=17:a(1)=37:a(2)=21:a(3)=76

70 poke 54276,16:for t=1to15:next

70 poke 54276,16:for t=1to15:next

75 goto 35

75 goto 35

Continuing on with the musical interpretations, it is important to mention John Cage. Within the twentieth century, John Cage is most responsible for promoting random processes within the arts. Cage was strongly influenced by Duchamp. From Cage's point of view, random elements can remove individual bias from creation; they may be used to go beyond the limitations of the taste and bias through “chance operations”. In additional to his work as a composer following these ideas, Cage influenced generations of artists through his writing, lectures, and classes. In this text “Experimental Music”, Cage wrote, “Those involved with the composition of experimental music find ways and means to remove themselves from the activities of the sounds they make. Some employ chance operations, derived form sources as ancient as the Chinese Books of Changes, or as modern as the tables of random numbers used also by physicists in research.” [Cage 66, p. 10] [Note: Earle Brown used the following random sampling number tables: "M.G. Kendall and B. Babington Smith, A Table of Random Sampling Numbers. Tracts for Computers no. 24. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1939)."] Cage's style of random composition was to create a system of parameters, then leave the results to circumstance. Cage explained, “This means that each performance of such a piece of music is unique, as interesting to its composer as to others listening. It is easy to see again the parallel with nature, for even with leaves of the same tree, no two are exactly alike.” [Cage 66, p. 11] Random components are used to transform a single composition into a space of potential compositions. Over the decades, Cage used an array of techniques to insert unexpected elements into this compositions. He defines the range of techniques used by himself and his contemporaries in the 1958 lectures “Composition as Process”. There are generally two methods for utilizing random values – using them at the time of composition to define the work, or to allow for variation while the work is performed. This second category of is most similar to 10 Print, where the random decisions are made during the programs execution, or to say it a different way, while the instructions are performed by the C64 operating system.

Continuing on with the musical interpretations, it is important to mention John Cage. Within the twentieth century, John Cage is most responsible for promoting random processes within the arts. Cage was strongly influenced by Duchamp. From Cage's point of view, random elements can remove individual bias from creation; they may be used to go beyond the limitations of the taste and bias through “chance operations”. In additional to his work as a composer following these ideas, Cage influenced generations of artists through his writing, lectures, and classes. In this text “Experimental Music”, Cage wrote, “Those involved with the composition of experimental music find ways and means to remove themselves from the activities of the sounds they make. Some employ chance operations, derived form sources as ancient as the Chinese Books of Changes, or as modern as the tables of random numbers used also by physicists in research.” [Cage 66, p. 10] [Note: Earle Brown used the following random sampling number tables: "M.G. Kendall and B. Babington Smith, A Table of Random Sampling Numbers. Tracts for Computers no. 24. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1939)."] Cage's style of random composition was to create a system of parameters, then leave the results to circumstance. Cage explained, “This means that each performance of such a piece of music is unique, as interesting to its composer as to others listening. It is easy to see again the parallel with nature, for even with leaves of the same tree, no two are exactly alike.” [Cage 66, p. 11] Random components are used to transform a single composition into a space of potential compositions. Over the decades, Cage used an array of techniques to insert unexpected elements into this compositions. He defines the range of techniques used by himself and his contemporaries in the 1958 lectures “Composition as Process”. There are generally two methods for utilizing random values – using them at the time of composition to define the work, or to allow for variation while the work is performed. This second category of is most similar to 10 Print, where the random decisions are made during the programs execution, or to say it a different way, while the instructions are performed by the C64 operating system.