Before finishing the video, I genuinely thought that randomness in code is something that simply makes the outcome unpredictable. I didn’t think of randomness as something that could be controlled by the artist, as for the name, random. But throughout watching the video, the idea that stood out to me the most was the relationship between rules and chance. In the middle of the video the lecturer included a quote. “Above all, it’s never a blind chance, it’s a chance that is always planned but always surprising.” I found this saying very interesting because it almost sounds like a contradiction at first. In the beginning I didn’t really get it because how can something planned be considered something with chance. However as the video went on I started to understand that an artist can plan the boundaries without actually planning the exact outcome. Even when a computer is producing different results, the artist is still the person who creates the system and decides what is allowed and what is not allowed.
This concept started to really make sense to me because I feel like it really connected with what I am doing in class the past few weeks. In my work I would want to incorporate randomness through things like colors, sizes, positions, or patterns. I personally would still not give up complete control because I would still have an idea of what I want my artwork to look like, however adding randomness can balance out into something more artistic than it seems. The video made me realise that randomness does not necessarily mean losing control. Instead I can control the rules while allowing the computer to surprise me with what happens within them. Overall, this video made me feel a sense of spontanousness with a balance of structure. All the examples given in the video really inspired me and opened my eyes to new forms of code and graphic designs.