Reas’ insights on randomness in art had my mind filled with ideas. When he described the paradigm shift from order to uncertainty in physics and culture, I realized I had falsely assumed randomness was somehow “less intentional” in creative work. Tracing how artists have deliberately experimented with chance way before coding was even possible blew open my assumptions even further.
I love how Reas constantly tries to balance structure and surprise within his algorithms for that sweet spot of organized chaos. Like how adding a smidge of noise to those otherwise uniform lines in “process 18” made the composition pop with organic energy. You could vividly see homeostasis at play. I also loved seeing the psychedelic patterns generated from the 10 Print Commodore program. I had childhood flashbacks to PC screen savers!
It intrigued me to learn Reas often repurposes snippets of code from other pieces to birth totally new visuals. His “Written Images” with its ever-morphing permutations seems like a concept that has potential for everything from music videos to merch design. As someone getting more into creative coding and graphic design, I find Reas’ perspectives hugely inspiring. The intersection of algorithms and chance is such a rich territory for innovation. Rules exist to be broken!
By engineering the tango between random and restrained, predictable and unprecedented, Reas’ work made me recognize chaos as creation rather than destruction. I’m now excited to further explore similar computational art by pushing boundaries and creating creative messes.