Randomness

Artistic experimentation with randomness in the early part of the 20th century can be seen as a response to the sterile functionality of rationality and empiricism wrought by the Industrial Age, and later, as a deliberate reaction against World War I. Consider Marcel Duchamp's ''Three Standard Stoppages'' (1913-1914). According to his description of the piece, Duchamp dropped three meter-long pieces of string from the height of one meter and let gravity and chance dictate the paths of the twisting string downward. He then glued the twisted string onto canvas, the shape and length of which he preserved in 1918 in wooden cutouts, creating three new "stoppages," parodying the supposed rationality of the meter. When Duchamp described his method in 1914, he observed that the falling thread distorts “itself as it pleases” and the final result becomes "the meter diminished," subverting both the straightness and the length of what commonly goes unquestioned. On his use of randomness, Duchamp said, “Pure chance interested me as a way of going against logical reality.” Duchamp, like the other Dada artists with whom he associated, saw "logical reality" as a failure, epitomized by the horrors of World War I. Satire, absurdity, and the embrace of indeterminacy seemed to the Dadaists to be the most reasonable response to Modernity. In the words of the Dada musician Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia, “Dada wished to destroy the reasonable frauds of men and recover the natural, unreasonable order. Dada wished to replace the logical nonsense of the men of today with an illogical nonsense.” To Jean (Hans) Arp, a Dada artist, individual authorship was synonymous to authoritarianism and random elements were used to liberate the work.

Artistic experimentation with randomness in the early part of the 20th century can be seen as a response to the sterile functionality of rationality and empiricism wrought by the Industrial Age, and later, as a deliberate reaction against World War I. Consider Marcel Duchamp's ''Three Standard Stoppages'' (1913-1914). According to his description of the piece, Duchamp dropped three meter-long pieces of string from the height of one meter and let gravity and chance dictate the paths of the twisting string downward. He then glued the twisted string onto canvas, the shape and length of which he preserved in 1918 in wooden cutouts, creating three new "stoppages," parodying the supposed rationality of the meter. When Duchamp described his method in 1914, he observed that the falling thread distorts “itself as it pleases” and the final result becomes "the meter diminished," subverting both the straightness and the length of what commonly goes unquestioned. On his use of randomness, Duchamp said, “Pure chance interested me as a way of going against logical reality.” Duchamp, like the other Dada artists with whom he associated, saw "logical reality" as a failure, epitomized by the horrors of World War I. Satire, absurdity, and the embrace of indeterminacy seemed to the Dadaists to be the most reasonable response to Modernity. In the words of the Dada musician Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia, “Dada wished to destroy the reasonable frauds of men and recover the natural, unreasonable order. Dada wished to replace the logical nonsense of the men of today with an illogical nonsense.” To Jean (Hans) Arp, a Dada artist, individual authorship was synonymous to authoritarianism and random elements were used to liberate the work.

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.