indeterminacy, part 1

Project: Places We Go

My half of the project: I couldn't really think up a chance-based art piece until I dreamt this up! I believe it was inspired by BART maps, google maps, battleship, and those visualization maps we saw at GAFFTA. Anyway, I think it came out really nice. After my presentation and class discussion, my professor suggested it being transposed on top of any mapped location for a tour made by chance. (Which I did and will blog about in another post).

Supplies

1.     12x12 in. canvas

2.     Triangle

3.     Ruler

4.     Pencil

5.     Tape

6.     5 ultra fine tip sharpies in different colors  (One must be Black, which will be reserved for labeling coordinates)

7.     Internet access

8.     Microsoft Excel

Method

1.     Take the 12x12 inch canvas and make small 1 inch incremental marks along the four sides using a ruler, pencil and tape. 

2.     Label the marks on the top and bottom in alphanumeric order (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K.).

3.     Label the marks on the left and right 1-11 (Start from the bottom with 1 and work up to 11).

4.     Use the raw lists excel worksheet I’ve made to import into random.org’s random sequence generator. Paste the revised lists into a new worksheet labeled randomized lists.

a.     The first list is of all 121 possible coordinates on the canvas grid. Copy Column A (cell 1-cell 121) into random.org’s sequence generator.

b.     The second list is of eight possible combinations of line types: thick solid double, thick solid single, thin solid double, thin solid single, thick broken double, thick broken single, thin broken double, thin broken single. This must be done 4 times (to make a total of 32 cells)—just copy and paste the new sequence in Column B of the new worksheet.

c.      The third list is of the four possible colors to be used. I’ve used fuchsia, salmon, chartreuse and yellow—fill in your own colors, reserving the Black sharpie for labeling coordinates). This must be done 8 times (to make a total of 32 cells)—just copy and paste the new sequence in Column C of the new worksheet.

d.     Coordinate #33-#121 in Column A of the new worksheet may be deleted to avoid confusion. There should be a total of 32 coordinates—each will be one of 8 possible line types and of 4 possible colors.

5.     Use the Randomized Lists worksheet to plot coordinates on the canvas grid. Once coordinate #32 is plotted, create the last line leading back to coordinate #1.  Label each coordinate (in black) according to its assigned number to avoid confusion.

      Below is an image of Aaron's project using my indeterminacy method. Personally, I like how his looks better than mine. I was so caught up with where I had left off with my lines that I ended up numbering them. This was not how I intended it to be. (I added that last part in Step 5 later on...) Aaron, however, totally made my mental image of this project come to fruition!