The Dadaists were the first to popularize the element of chance in art. The artistic movement that emerged as a reaction to the First World War included artists, musicians, writers and many others. The direction radically denied war and aggression, worked with everything that was opposite to logic and rationality. Because the horror that the world saw was impossible to imagine to a sane mind. Therefore, artists focused on unconventional working methods, absurdity, chance, and irrationality.
Visual arts
“The ‘law of chance,’” Hans Arp wrote, “can be experienced only in a total surrender to the unconscious.” Reacting to the absurd state of Western Civilization in the wake of World War I, the Dadaists privileged the random and accidental as more important than authorship and intention in art. The French artist Hans Arp created chance collages like this by throwing scraps of paper into the air, and pasting them down in the positions in which they landed.” [online] At: https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-18-spring-2010/if-first-you-dont-succeed-celebrate (Accessed 17.12.2023)
Jean Arp (Hans Arp) According to the Laws of Chance, 1933 [online] At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/arp-according-to-the-laws-of-chance-t05005 (Accessed 17.12.2023)
“I love walking,” William Anastasi explained. “I find that walking does something to my thinking, to my mental process, that is different from sitting or lying down.” The artist has tried walking with a pad of paper, looking at his destination as he drew. He also folded paper into sections, put it in his pocket, and pressed a pencil against the paper as he walked, recording his movement. Through these drawing experiments, Anastasi invited the element of chance into his art making.” MOMA, Letting Go: Making Art with the Element of Chance Cari Frisch, Jul 31, 2020 [online] At: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/393 (Accessed 17.12.2023)
Photography
“Many stories unfold in Dayanita Singh’s Museum of Chance, which includes more than 160 photographs shot by the artist over many years. The arrangement of the photographs can be chosen each time they are shown, allowing countless possibilities for presentation and storytelling.” MOMA, Letting Go: Making Art with the Element of Chance Cari Frisch, Jul 31, 2020 [online] At: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/393 (Accessed 17.12.2023)
Music
One of the most famous composers of the 20th century, John Cage, also involved an element of chance in his work. The progressive composer placed various objects on the strings of the piano so that in any order they were dissonant with the musical work itself. Or turned on the radio in random order or used the sound of flowing water, which in itself is not repeated in detail.
Dance, choreography
Director and choreographer Bill T. Jones
«In Story/Time, Jones fuses the age-old art of storytelling with a vibrant landscape of contemporary movement and music. Similar to a busy streetscape or a crowded room, the experience challenges audience members to find meaning and connection in the sweep of randomized, disparate elements. Jones’ short stories are drawn from his own life and tales handed down through the generations of his family. In layering a traditional form against the avant-garde compositional concerns of the mid- century modernists, the tension between high and low art is called in to question.» Story/Time [online] At: https://newyorklivearts.org/event/storytime/ (Accessed 17.12.2023)
Literature
“The Unfortunates” by the English novelist B. S. Johnson
«“The Unfortunates” comes in a box of 27 unbound chapters (plus the novelist Jonathan Coe’s invaluable introduction). The “First” and “Last” chapters are designated as such. The intervening 25, ranging from 12 pages to a single paragraph, are to be read in any order we choose. Far from some modernist stunt, the form of the book dovetails beautifully with Johnson’s subject — the accidental yet persistent nature of memory.» Piece This One Togethe. By Charles Taylor Aug. 22, 2008 [online] At: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/books/review/Taylor-t.html (Accessed 17.12.2023)
Theater
"Punchdrunk" Theater
“Sleep No More tells Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Macbeth through a darkly cinematic lens, offering an audience experience unlike anything else on the New York scene.
Audiences move freely through the epic story of Macbeth, creating their own journeys through a film noir world.” Sleep No More [online] At: https://www.punchdrunkenrichment.org.uk/project/sleep-no-more/ (Accessed 17.12.2023)
A unique experience that I had the opportunity to experience in Shanghai at the Punchdrunk Theater. Since the performance takes place in a building where the audience moves freely, the element of chance complements the performance, so although there is a script, the experience is always different.
And this is probably the main feature of involving the element of chance in this kind of art - the recreation of life itself. On the one hand, we have a scenario, for example, I was born a woman, with certain genes and inclinations, which, like a script in a theater, will be told throughout my life. On the other hand, there is always an element of unpredictability. It's like if I hadn't missed my bus, I wouldn't have met one person. And so you can only list those incidents in life that changed the course of events.
In addition, involving the element of chance in art is always a new level of experimentation and creative interpretation. So, for example, Anselm Kiefer (German painter and sculptor) uses this “chance” technique if he does not know what to do next with the artwork. He simply exposes his work to the open sky so that the sun and rain can work a little on the material.
There is always an element of chance in my work. The most common case is when something breaks. Then I need to compose something new. Or, for me, it’s also possible that while working on an object, I might happen to see a form or an idea on social media or in an unusual place, like eating something in a restaurant, that somehow touches on the theme of my work. And then this element or idea will be included in the final work.
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