PERSPECTIVE
Trigger Happy
Shoot first, ask questions later
STEVEN POOLE
Randomisation is the enemy of artistic expression. Luke Rhinehart’s cult novel The Diceman (1971) depicts a psychiatrist who outsources his life choices to the roll of a die, but the writer himself (real name George Cockcroft), who had experimented with the idea in his own life, didn’t take random choices while composing the story itself. It mattered that one thing came before another, that the novel had a designed narrative shape.
Randomisation is also the essence of artistic freedom. The aural content of any given performance of John Cage’s piano piece, “4’33”, is left entirely to chance. William Burroughs cut up pieces of writing and arranged the pieces in random new ways to create unforeseen texts. Composers of ambient or generative music may use pseudorandom pitch generators. To delegate some artistic choices to the roll of a metaphorical die can be a liberating route to new ideas.