Colton, David, G (2019) Canned chance - the commodification of aleatory art practice. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University. Downloaded from: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/623579/ Usage rights: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Deriva- tive Works 4.0 Please cite the published version https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk Canned Chance - The commodification of aleatory art practice. David G Colton A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Manchester School of Art Manchester Metropolitan University 2019 1 | David Colton Abstract: My practice involves re-imagining aleatory art systems and practices to create products that push the user into a direct relationship with chance. Initial research revealed that modernist aleatory practices have largely been recuperated into the canon of contemporary art techniques. It was my intention to re- invigorate these practices by re-imagining them in a new context outside of art practice: to change perspectives, ‘reality tunnels’ and to transcend culture and social conditioning. There are differences between work that has been made using chance in the creative process, and work that pushes the artist or viewer into chance encounters and situations and exploring the differences between them has been an important part of this project. The resulting works situate the user within the chance process, and in effect, make them the subject of their own experimentation and practice. My insights and discoveries develop out of a range of experimental artistic works that critically examine the re-imagining and commodification of chance processes. This thesis documents the development of each work in a series of chapters which also explain the research and developmental processes, in addition to setting the works in a theoretical and contextual framework. The project defines a new category of aleatory practice which I call aleatorickal and is also an interdisciplinary study of aleatory practice across the artistic disciplines of conceptual art, visual art, music and writing. The primary methodology is practice-based; using the commercial techniques of graphic design, creative computer software, photography, copywriting and model making. These works are ephemeral and throw-away, but ontologically, they offer access to chance which enables the discovery of insights and the opportunity to make connections with other realities. I also argue that if something is useful to us then it can be commodified and made available to a wider audience. Therefore, the consumer retail market is the ideal place to present my work - this is my art gallery. 2 | David Colton Acknowledgements: This PhD acknowledges the excellent support and assistance of my supervisors: Dr Jane Turner, Dr Adam Fairhall and Dr Myna Trustram. I would also like to thank the University of Wolverhampton for their assistance, and those colleagues, family and friends who have encouraged me on my PhD journey. I’d also like to thank Julie for her encouragement and support, and George Cockcroft (Luke Rhinehart) for reading early chapters and for his generous comments and suggestions. 3 | David Colton Contents: Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 6 Research Aims and Objectives 13 Research Methodologies 14 Part One: Critical Framework for the project: CHAPTER 1: Beyond aleatoricism? The case for varying distinctions 18 between types of aleatory, or chance processes in art practice CHAPTER 2: Reality tunnels: Truth is in the eye of the beholder 29 CHAPTER 3: Chance: The sewing machine and the umbrella 35 CHAPTER 4: Canned Chance: The potential to commodify aleatory 43 processes Summary of Part One 58 Part Two: Practice Section 1: CHAPTER 5: The Suicide Box 62 Section 2: CHAPTER 6: Raw Words 73 CHAPTER 7: The Luckybag of Life 88 CHAPTER 8: Instant Karma Scratch Card and Karma Kards 100 CHAPTER 9: Commuter Curve-ball Cards 111 4 | David Colton Section 3: CHAPTER 10: Gentlemen’s Travel Dice 122 CHAPTER 11: The Zen Mop and the Zen Tea-Towel 133 Project Summary and Conclusions 146 Appendix A: Works that have not been discussed in 152 the thesis but have been made available to the examiners Appendix B: Excerpt from 2015 correspondence with 155 George Cockcroft (Luke Rhinehart) author of The Dice Man Image References 157 Bibliography and References 162 5 | David Colton Introduction: The primary aim of this practice-as-research PhD project is to explore the appropriation and commodification of aleatory processes, to discover how they can be used to make changes in lives outside artistic practice. The result of my praxis has been a range of consumer products that can be used to facilitate various relationships with chance. Duchamp’s 1914 term ‘Canned chance’ (Hasard en conserve), which he used to describe the ‘fabrication of accidents’ (Moulderings, 2010: 2) has been used in the title of this thesis. The term lends itself well to my aleatory consumer products; literally encapsulated or ‘canned’ methods for engaging with chance. The term aleatory comes from the Latin for a dice game, alea, and gambler, aleator. 1 The use of the word aleatoric or aleatory to describe the use of chance in the creation of an artwork is accredited to the Belgian/German physicist and founder of the WDR Electronic Music Studio, Werner Meyer-Eppler in 1957. The thesis is divided into two parts: The first part sets out four chapters that explain the critical framework for the project, discussing the key research, the people and ideas that have informed thinking, insights and practical work. The second part, made up of seven chapters in three sections, sets out different aspects of the commodification of aleatory processes which have been explored through practical experimentation. Each of these chapters includes a literature review covering the research and areas of interest that have been relevant to each aspect of the project. An important catalyst for this project has been eastern spiritual practices, in particular, Buddhism and Taoism. A primarily western understanding of, and appropriation of these practices underpinned much of the original aleatory processes presented here. This will be introduced and discussed as it becomes relevant to the development of the different works in Part Two. Contemporary global culture can no longer simply be labelled as eastern or 1 Merriam-Webster dictionary ,2016. It was first used in English in the late 17th century as a term for anything with an uncertain outcome like the roll of a dice. 6 | David Colton western, so I use the term, ‘contemporary secular culture’ when referring to the modern cultural sensibility that is relevant to the project. Throughout the thesis I have included personal thoughts from my notebooks that contribute to the narrative. These are delineated using italics. In 2013 I discovered the novel, The Dice Man, by Luke Rhinehart. Reading this book had a profound effect on me. As a person who likes to be in control of myself, the idea of giving this up to the random throw of a dice both horrified and intrigued me. This was the starting point which led to this PhD project. Rhinehart’s novel is a ‘thought experiment’ on what it might be like to give up one’s life to chance decision making. In Rhinehart’s later book of the die (2000) he developed this philosophy of ‘dice living’ and explained that this book was intended as a provocation; a challenge ‘…to force us to reconsider the ideas we usually live by’ (Rhinehart, xii: 2000). I began to speculate that it might be possible to utilise chance to make useful changes in our lives - that Rhinehart’s philosophy and ideas could be re-imagined and developed through other chance processes and methods. Another starting point, was conceptual artist, Joseph Kosuth’s ideas on how art of the past can inform new art. His 1969 essay, Art after Philosophy, set out his proposition that artworks from the past are the remnants of previous philosophical experiments into the nature of art and his suggestion that: Art ‘lives’ through influencing other art, not by existing as the physical residue of an artist’s ideas. The reason that different artists from the past are ‘brought alive’ again is because some aspect of their work becomes ‘usable’ by living artists. (1969: 19) Initial research revealed that these modernist aleatory practices seemed to have largely been recuperated into the canon of contemporary art practices and techniques. There have been sporadic re-emergences of chance primers in the intervening years; Eno and Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies2 mentioned in the REM song Diminished (1998) and the Radiohead album, Kid A (2000) in which Thom Yorke’s lyrics were created using cut-ups, are two examples. More recently (2010), the writer, Austin Kleon’s Newspaper Blackout poems have given new life to Burroughs’ and Gysin’s textual cut-ups (see chapter 6). Aleatory practices 2A set of interventionist cards devised by Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno in the 1970s. 7 | David Colton were due a revival and I wanted to explore whether they could be re-invigorated or ‘brought alive’ as Kosuth had suggested; but instead, appropriated3 and re-invented for use outside of artistic practice. I wanted to examine how, and to what extent, aleatory processes could be re-introduced; and used in a transformative sense, outside of artistic practice; how these aleatory processes could be brought to life again, in a new way. One that would re-imagine these art primers and philosophical ideas for use in personal lives as Rhinehart had advocated in his book. I intend to argue that by connecting with chance, personal realities can be examined and changed. Just like the artists who developed these aleatory techniques, chance can be used to facilitate an escape from habit and repetition, but, outside of artistic practice they can be used to alter personal habits and to transcend culture and social conditioning.