Chance Art

Flip a die, or a coin, generate random numbers, zig, but don't zag. Do anything you can, but don't you be the decider, and there you have it - chance. And what are the chances that your decision to not decide will turn out random?

The choice is yours - do not choose and see what happens when others do the choosing for you. That is my Chance Art project. I began with an idea: circles, numbers and colors. Next, I wrote my recipe. I found that thinking about what I wanted to do and writing about it were quite different. Amazing how ideas, concepts and images that are a flash of inspiration require many words for adequate translation.

I asked the die for a number and added one to it. That determined the number of circles. I chose colors by choosing every third pencil from a row of pencils until I came to the last one. I ended up with eight colors. How much of each color was determined by numbers 1, 2, 3, relating to the number of spaces in each circle. The size of the circles was determined by how many spaces were chosen by respondents. The more spaces needed to include in a circle, the larger the circle.

I went to my facebook and sent a request to my friends. They were asked to make three choices.
1. Choose a number between 1 and 5
2. Choose one color from the following: apple green, mulberry, canary yellow, crimson red, metallic silver, violet or tuscan red.
3. Choose a number 1, 2, or 3

I sent this message to approximately 180 people, and received 76 responses. I made a chart to keep track of each response. I numbered each response, and included the first name of each person that responded, circle number chosen, color chosen and number of spaces chosen. Once the chart was finished, I added the number of spaces for each circle and drew out the circles on a sheet of paper. Then, I divided each circle into the number of spaces needed to include all the choices.
I will be posting a photo of the finished product soon.