Topic > Review of John Cage's use of the I Ching in his compositions

A random operation is a method of generating something independent of the creator's will; it is part of a generative system. John Cage used random operations to “imitate nature in its mode of operation,” notably using the I Ching in his mid-20th-century compositions. He used the symbol system to create compositions controlled by chance, "asking" the book questions about aspects of the composition and using the answers to work with. The best known of these pieces may be the Music of Changes, a piece made by applying decisions made using the I Ching to decide on graphs of sounds, durations, dynamics, tempo and density. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay He and Marcel Duchamp, another artist, used chess and random operations. Together they filmed “Marcel Duchamp and John Cage,” a document of a chess game between the two, using a semi-random arrangement of camera placement, focus setting and shot duration; those used random operations. He also made a film about a game played by Cage and Teeny, Marcel Duchamp's wife. In general, random operations can be used to make any work of art by taking the decision out of the creator's hands. Each possibility should be associated with an outcome; for example, a dice could be rolled and, depending on the numerical result, the artist would select a particular color. Or, as in Cage's case, one could consult the I Ching to specify the attributes of the work of art, created by human hands. In the case of computational art, in some cases the human only needs to prepare the ground and random operations can be performed by a computer. Wolfram's behavioral classes of evolutionary automata divide cellular automata into four classes. The 2nd class is that of periodic and alternating models; repetitive and ultimately predictable. An example of this in the real world is the revolution of the earth around the sun, which denotes our years. A complex, intentional pattern that is not necessarily repetitive belongs to class 4 of the behavior classes. One of these models is human thought; our thoughts are often focused, hopefully complex, and although we sometimes repeat ourselves, typically each thought is new and part of a complex train of thought or stream of consciousness. An example of computation in the world that is feasible but unpredictable is the creation of a person's musical work. We can know the possible notes, intervals, instruments, tempos and the like, but even knowing almost all the possible components, it is not plausible to predict the end result of someone composing a piece of music or, along the same lines, another work of music. art. Emergent behavior is what happens when complex behaviors emerge from individual entities that obey small sets of rules and interact with each other. My understanding of this is that it occurs when many small actors/beings create something that appears greater than the sum of its parts; every individual follows strict rules, but the result can be surprising and unexpected. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay One example of emergent behavior we examined in class is that of biomorphs, a term coined by Richard Dawkins. Specifically, a popular derivation of that idea was Roger Alsing's implementation of the "evolution" of the Mona Lisa from simple polygonal shapes. It was a kind of technique.