Experimental actions:
automatism & chance operations
SM1011 / C01
Introduction to Contemporary Art
Dr. Linda C.H. Lai
TWO prominent features of contemporary art / p. 3
TWO kinds of ‘experimental action’ / p. 7
Chance Operation [Automatism] / p. 8-22
‘Open work’ / p. 23-39
Summary / p. 40
Further research/reference / p. 41
TWO key characteristics of Contemporary Art
Experimental actions
Intermedia
Exercise 1 -a
Drop random phrases and words on the surface of a piece of A3 paper.
Use both English and Chinese words.
Think of the surface of the paper as a space.
Interact freely with the music played.
Discussion…
1/ How should we look at these works? (understanding)
2/ How are they different from other artworks you have seen? (interface + structuration)
3/ How do we assess these works? (artistic judgment)
Exercise 1-b
Form new works by combining your work with others’…
Form a sequence?
Form a diptych (pair), triptych?
By contrast?
By complementary qualities?
Discussion…
1/ How should we look at these works? (understanding)
2/ How are they different from other artworks you have seen? (interface + structuration)
3/ How do we assess these works? (artistic judgment)
SUMMING UP THE IN-CLASS ARTMAKING SESSION
1-a Automatism
Perception > representation
Random factor
Montage of fragments
Performance of the mind / hand / words
Writing as space
1-b Open work
There is always a next possible work
Each segment of the work can be understood as a ‘seed’ that generates
its own system. A word is not just a word. An apple is not just an apple.
Each segment of the work is a productive fragment that can form new
relations with other fragments.
TWO kinds of “experimental actions”
Chance operations
randomness & rule-based art-making
– automatism, chance and accidents, release of the unconscious mind,
perceptual experience > comprehension
Open work
randomness & rule-based art-making
– structure, infinite possibilities, complexity / generative arts
e.g. composer + performer
The performer has to actually complete the work,
NOT JUST interpret the work.
Recommended take-home research: the Fluxus
CHANCE OPERATION
Automatism as one kind of experimental actions
Automatism and randomness: William Burroughs:
"The cut-up is actually closer to the facts of perception than
representational painting. Take a walk down a city street and put
down what you have just seen on canvas. You have seen a person
cut in two by a car, bits and pieces of street signs and
advertisements, reflections from shop windows - a montage of
fragments... Consciousness is a cut up. Every time you walk down
the street or look out of the window, your stream of consciousness is
cut by random factors."
William Burroughs & Brion Gysin, from The Third Mind
William Burroughs & Brion Gysin, The Third Mind – an open work
William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin use the term 'the third mind'
to describe the collaborative process. This is the idea that the
interaction of two minds produces a temporary third entity, one
capable of producing things that neither of the two individuals would
be able to create alone.
And here we find ourselves on Flickr, sharing our photos with our contacts, our
groups and the world, collaborating all the time – some consciously, some
unconsciously, but all reacting in some way to one another’s work.
Chance combined with structure: Dada artist Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters: Ur-Sonata
•
•
•
He wanted to unite the two extremes: randomness and order.
The selection of sound materials was random.
For instance, Schwitters found the word DRESDEN becomes “D D S S N R” which
then becomes “de des nn nn rrrr”.
•
The organization of those materials was not random. It was based on a strict structure:
It includes an introduction, four movements, a finale, and a cadenza.
•
Thus randomness and organization are combined together. The artist showed that
there is no contradiction between them.
Search on youtube:
“ursonate.kurt schwitters”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk-3W3c9Svg&feature=related (original)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voI5b5AIHqE&feature=related (arranged for 4 speakers)
http://www.ubu.com/sound/schwitters.html
Refer also to “The ABC’s of DADA” (3 parts)
Discussion:
• How do you think that artists can combine randomness
and order when using video or photography?
• In addition to the Yi Jing, are there other elements from
Chinese culture that can be used to produce works at
random.
On the nature and purpose of art… “automatism”
Automatism as an artistic impulse emphasizes:
Discovery
Adventure
The display/performance of the artist’s subjectivities…
Gaming
It is not primarily engaged with representation or asking a question although the
work may in the end…
Recommended take-home research: Dada
Automatism…as an artistic method…
• Chance over planning
• Process-oriented over goal-oriented
• Rule-based, game-like…
• The design of the initial steps with rules that enable immediate
action + possibilities to continue (sustain action)
• To proceed continuously (sustained action) often relies on a selfconscious blend of intuition and reason
Recommended take-home research: Surrealism
To tap our unconscious mind
as creative resources…
AUTOMATISM
This is one of the prime Surrealist motives.
Automatism: keywords
The unconscious
Free association*
Chance*
Dreams
No censorship
Improvisation*
* = related t work procedures
These are the keywords in the Surrealist account of automatism
See Manifesto of Surrealism (Paris 1924) by French poet André Breton.
Automatism: a short history
“Automatism is mainly a modern phenomenon, but it has various precedents.”
(Webster, US)
Pre-modern examples…
Leon Battista Alberti (in “De statua,” c. 1460): discovery of representational
images in chance in natural everyday environments
Leonardo da Vinci:
“If you look upon an old wall covered with dirt, or the old appearance of some streaked
stones, you may discover several things like landscapes, battles, clouds, uncommon
attitudes, humorous faces, draperies, etc. Out of this confused mass of objects, the
mind will be furnished with abundance of designs and subjects perfectly new.”
 Alexander Cozens - “blot drawings” – blots into landscape
Automatism: a short history
“Automatism is mainly a modern phenomenon, but it has various precedents.”
(Webster, US)
Modern examples… (20th century)
Dadaists:
Chance effects…
Automatism is a general approach, not a passionately sought theory.
Surrealists:
A creative outlook…
Automatism is exercised as a deeply personal method for the exploration of one’s unconscious.
Greater concern with devising methods to facilitate automatism…
Once an image is formed by automatic or chance means, it would be exploited deliberatly with
fully conscious purpose.
Abstract Expressionists, Action Painters:
mediumistic automatism…
Automatism permeates the whole creative process.
Automatism: a short history
“Automatism is mainly a modern phenomenon, but it has various precedents.”
(Webster, US)
Surrealist poets…
influenced by Freudian psychoanalytic theory:
Symbols and images produced via automatism – strange and irrelevant they
may appear to the conscious mind – actually constituted a record of a person’s
unconscious psychic forces, and therefore possess an innate artistic significance.
André Breton
Paul Éluard
Robert Desnos
Louis Aragon
Philippe Soupault
Automatic writing, therefore, is not for their lasting values, but for its power in
catching a here-and-now, momentary state of the writer’s being.
Automatism: a short history
Surrealist painters…
influenced by Freudian psychoanalytic theory:
Symbols and images produced via automatism – strange and irrelevant they
may appear to the conscious mind – actually constituted a record of a person’s
unconscious psychic forces, and therefore possess an innate artistic significance.
André Masson
Arshile Gorky
Max Ernst (collage, frottage, grattage, decalcomania)
Joan Miro
Les Automatistes (practices automatism), a group of Canadian painters (1946-51):
Paul-Émile Borduas, Albert Dumouchel, Jean Paul Mousseau, Jean-Paul Riopelle
Action Painters (US, 1950s): influenced by Masson, Gorky and Ernst:
Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Jack Tworkov, Bradley Walker Tomlin
(They looked for abstract pictorial equivalents for states of mind, experimented with chance
drippings of paint on the canvas and free, spontaneous brushstrokes...to unlock the artist’s
basic creative instinct. – Britannica)
Art Informel
Arte Nucleare
Automatism: different types of…
Chance…emphasizing the unconscious mind
Chance…tapping external factors
Focus…chance effects (Dada)
Focus… “A” as a creative outlook/principle
Psychological Vs mechanical automatism
Range of works:
Surrealist automatic writing, drawing and word-play, heatage, fumage,
cut-up techniques (William Burroughs), blot drawings (Alexander
Cozens), coffee-stained works…, free jazz, the Canadian
Automatistes (Montreal, 1940s), Abstract Expressionist paintings
(such as Action Painter Jackson Pollock), frottage (Max Ernst),
decalcomania, use of dream imagery in paintings (Dali)
Open Work
Open work’s generative quality
An open work is generative…
It focuses on ways to produce, to allow a work to grow without limit
(theoretically speaking)…
All generative art forms have an automatic quality,
some highlights chance and randomness;
others highlight the “machine” character with heavily designed
structure
Open work
• In most classical compositions, the performer has to add
a personal interpretation to a musical score. The
performer has to decide, for instance, how softly to play
a piece, etc.
• In an open work, however, the performer must do more
than that. The performer must actually complete the
work.
Open work: definitions
• An open work gives the performer a certain degree of freedom to
complete the work.
• Another term for an open work is: a work indeterminate with
respect to performance.
• Two performances of the same piece can be so different that it
becomes impossible to recognize that both come from the same
score.
• The performer does not necessarily have total freedom. The
composer often selects certain notes or structures that somehow
limit the performer’s choices.
• The only way to give the performer the highest degree of freedom is
for the composer to do nothing. Few composers go so far as that.
Open work: the case of music
Traditional music:
Composer
Performer
UNIFIED (thru’ SCORE)
Listener
Open work: the case of music
Cage’s experimental sound: each complete the
work in very different ways
Composer
Performer
Listener
Examples of open works
Example One: Klavierstuck by Karlheinz Stockhausen
• There is a single sheet of music with several note
groupings.
• The performer first chooses one grouping to start the
piece, and then others to determine the sequence.
• The freedom for the performer is how to combine sounds.
Examples of open works
Example Two: Third Sonata for Piano by Pierre Boulez
• In the first section, there are ten pieces on ten different
sheets of paper. They can be combined in any order,
within some limitations.
• The second section has four sections, organized as a
loop, and the performer can begin with any of these and
then continue until returning to the beginning. Once the
first section is chosen, the player has no freedom. But
some portions leave the beat open to the performer’s
choice.
• The composer does give instructions, like “continue
without interruption”, etc.
Open work: John Cage
Cage feels that traditional music imposes a rigid,
pre-designed concept from the composer.
He believes we should “let sounds be themselves”.
4’ 33” (1952)(BBC version)
Water Walk (a TV broadcast in the US)(Paul Schuette version)
Open work: John Cage
John Cage and others used multiple devices, such as for
instance many records on different turntables or multiple
radios, and letting visitors start and stop them at will.
Another work that uses tapes is Wikiup by Earle Brown.
Open work: John Cage
Another possibility involves using new methods to write
musical scores. This approach can give performers more
freedom to discover new sounds. John Cage was the
most important figure in this area.
John Cage’s transparency scores
• One method is to make lines (or curves) on a transparent sheet.
• Cage would then assign five types of sound for each of the five lines.
• The composer can explain what each type of sound means, or leave
the interpretation open to the performer.
• Then mark several points on a separate, non-transparent sheet of
paper.
• It is even possible to make more than one transparent sheet and
then superimpose all of them onto the non-transparent paper. This
can enhance the complexity of the composition.
• Cage does not specify the instrument or performance medium: it can
be any instruments or sound sources, even new instruments to be
developed in the future.
• Perhaps this should not be called a “score” in the traditional sense,
since the structure is not fixed by the composer. Cage emphasized
that “current experimental compositions.. have parts but no scores…”
– The parts can be combined in many unforeseen ways. This resembles
the mobile sculpture, a sculpture with multiple moving parts.
See notes on Cage’s Fontana Mix http://www.johncage.info/workscage/fontana.html
John Cage:
“let sounds be themselves…”
“27 sounds manufactured in a kitchen” (John Cage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGrhL49-YQw (on Youtube)
Noise with John Cage (1966)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSdBtJC42k (on Youtube)
Water Walk performed in January 1960 on a popular TV show “I’ve got
a secret.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSulycqZH-U (on Youtube)
A recent example: the Sea Organ
The Sea Organ – musical instrument played by the
sea…in Croatia
http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om24550.html
The musical Sea Organ is 70 meters long, located on
the shores of Zadar, Croatia. It is carved in white
stone, were built on the quayside. Underneath, there
are 35 musically tuned tubes with whistle openings on
the sidewalk. The movement of the sea pushes air
through, and – depending on the size and velocity of
the wave – musical chords are played. The waves
create random harmonic sounds.
Each musical organ pipe is blown by a column of air,
pushed in turn by a column of wave-moved water,
through a plastic tube immersed into the water. The
pipes' musically tuned sounds emanate to the
surroundings through apertures in the vertical planes of
the uppermost stairs. The 7 successive groups of
musical tubes are alternately tuned to two musically
cognate chords of the diatonic major scale. The outcome
of played tones and/or chords is a function of random
time and space distribution of the wave energy to
particular organ pipes.
Air Holes along the top row of steps let the Sea Organ
breathe in air to be transformed into musical sounds as
the next wave plays its song. The sound apertures are
visible along the center of the walkway.
A recent example: the Sea Organ
The Sea Organ – musical instrument played by the sea…in Croatia
http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om24550.html
Each musical organ pipe is blown by a column of air, pushed in turn by a column of
wave-moved water, through a plastic tube immersed into the water. The pipes'
musically tuned sounds emanate to the surroundings through apertures in the vertical
planes of the uppermost stairs. The 7 successive groups of musical tubes are
alternately tuned to two musically cognate chords of the diatonic major scale. The
outcome of played tones and/or chords is a function of random time and space
distribution of the wave energy to particular organ pipes.
The Sea Organ – musical instrument played by the sea…
This masterpiece of acoustics and architecture was created by expert
Dalmatian stone carvers and architect Nikola Basic in 2005, who recently
received the European Prize for Urban Public Space for this project.
Discussion:
• Can you think of any way in which the film projection can
be understood as a performance? What can happen
during this performance? What can be done? How would
you design a film in this way?
• Have you heard of any Asian film tradition where film
was combined with live performance?
• Do most film directors that you know about pay any
attention at all to the projection as a performance?
• Do they think of new ways in which a film can be
performed? Why or why not?
• Can the ideas of John Cage be relevant here?
More on the nature and purpose of art…
*Contemporary art seems to open up the purpose of art: from
representation of the world out there to asking questions about the
world and art itself [Class Meeting 01]
*Contemporary art opens up the meaning of “representation”…
“Representation” is the activity to re-present (i.e. to show once again,
but differently)
mimesis (imitation, a copy of) – improvement of reality – abstraction – philosophizing – deconstruction…
*Meeting 02 introduces the idea of a very different artistic/creative
impulse: automatism as one kind of experimental actions
Further Research
For students who want to explore more through reading and have high Englishlanguage proficiency, I recommend the following article on automatism and
photography…
“Automatism, Causality and Realism: Foundational Problems in the Philosophy
of Photography” (2008) by Diarmuid Costello and Dawn M. Phillips; In the
“Aesthetic & Philosophy of Art” session of Philosophy Compass (a journal of
philosophy and art)