Filed under: Developing the Process, Duality in God's Nature, Random (Ha!) Thoughts
“God’s Appointment Book for 2-16-09″
I owe a lot to www.random.org for supplying me daily with wonderful “true” random numbers. Their website also provides a copious supply of math philosophy that dumps me pretty quickly into the deep weeds. In reading the ponderings of these high-octane math minds, I can see I’m definitely just skimming the surface of this whole idea, but It’s fun to see what goes into the search for “true” randomness.
One irony I love is that this random number stuff is a great balance of opposites. It’s NUMBERS, right? How more technical and cold and mechanical can you get than that? I view the numbers part of my art as the “control” end of control/chaos, the “head” part of the head/heart balance. But, random.org tells me their numbers are generated “by atmospheric noise,” which I understand as basically radio static picked up from charges in the atmosphere. So, what turns out to be the source of the mechanical, strict control aspect of my artwork? It’s nature! Apparently a machine can’t do as good a job at manufacturing randomness as nature does. Now add on top of this that the Bible says randomness is solely the province of the Creator: Proverbs 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” So is randomness a kind of signature of Deity?
My usual procedure for making my paintings is to set up a canvas on the floor, and cover it with a grid of wooden blocks to act as masks for each cell of the grid. I then go to random.org and have it generate enough numbers for all the blocks, and appropriate digits for what I have planned. For instance, if I have a 20x 20 grid and want to remove 1/5th of the blocks, I’ll have random.org generate 400 digits between 1 and 5, and remove a block every time a “1″ comes up. Instead of printing these integers out and having to look at a piece of paper and remove blocks at the same time, I have my Mac speak the number list to me which leaves both hands free.
The result? I make my paintings by listening to and obeying —quite literally— a voice from the sky.
