Casey Reas’s talk opened my eyes on the ways in which the idea of randomness is perceived in art. Reas talks about randomness in nature and how it tends to be chaotic and not in the “order” us humans like to believe nature is. This idea of the importance of “order” dates back centuries as throughout history humans have been very concerned about the idea of maintaining order in art. So, in my eyes, this idea of randomness that Reas mentions throughout his talk attempts at fighting this supposed human urge for order and pushes us to embrace randomness and, in a sense, chaos, that randomness in digital art brings.
Thus, this makes me think a lot about the nature of this urge for order that has ruled human civilization for centuries. Why is it that we desperately need order? Why do we need to translate our urgency for order into the art that we produce? These questions cannot be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer but I believe that there is something that Reas says that may help with answering these questions. “Make your reality, Make your own world,” this very sentence said by Reas suggests that the reason we so desperately need order is for comfort. When we do not know what to expect, whether that is in our routine lives or even in art, a sense of discomfort arises, and to a certain extent fear as well. This attachment to monotony and repetition of life is holding us back and therefore the only way to embrace chaos, randomness, and unpredictability, is to move away from comfort and actually build our own reality, not the one we are accustomed to. Thus, by becoming uncomfortable and embracing chaos, we are able to create art that embodies the concepts of randomness that Reas mentions throughout his talk. It is only when we do so that we will see randomness being embraced worldwide.