One idea from Casey Reas’s talk that stood out to me was the relationship between randomness and control when creating art with code. Since I am still new to coding, I try to make my code as neat as and understandable as possible. The ability to visually comprehend my code is something I find important, such as where an object appears, what size it is, and how it should look. However, Reas made me think differently about randomness. Instead of seeing it as something that makes a piece messy or unorganized, I think randomness can make digital art feel more alive and less predictable. Reas touched on the topic of emotion and how something as simple as randomness can evoke emotion when used with direction and intention. This idea resonated with me because I like looking for deeper meanings behind things that may not initially seem meaningful. Randomness, for example, can easily seem meaningless or accidental, but Reas made me realize that when it is used intentionally, it can contribute to the emotion or message behind a piece of art. If I were to incorporate randomness into my own work, I would probably use it on smaller elements rather than the entire piece. For example, I could slightly change the position, size, or movement of certain shapes each time the program runs. This would allow every version to look slightly different while still keeping the original idea recognizable. I especially like the idea of using randomness to create imperfections or “jitter,” because those imperfections add a human touch, and add more meaning to the artwork.
While watching the video, I came to realize that I do not think there is one perfect balance between randomness and complete control. I think it depends on what the artist is trying to communicate and how they want the artwork to feel. Personally, I would lean more toward control because I still want the message I am trying to convey to be clear. However, Reas examples made me realize that adding elements of randomness does not mean that the meaning of the image would be erased. The artist is still the one deciding what specific code, elements, shapes and amount of randomness in the artwork. This made me question whether randomness in coded art can ever actually be considered completely random if the artist is still the one setting the boundaries for it.