Too predictable

Reading @derosnec's excellent post about theory in art, I engaged in a small talk with her about how theory and knowledge do matter a lot when making art. We briefly mentioned a theme I like a lot and I think a lot about: free improvisation. I wrote my master thesis on this.

The first question regarding free improvisation is "isn't improvisation always free, for start"? There's only one answer to this: yes. It is. That's the very concept of improvisation: an extemporaneous creation that doesn't obey to a pre-established form. We improvise every day, for example when speaking or even moving and acting.

But there's also a dubious concept when I say "we don't obey to a pre-established form". Don't we use the appropriate words and build phrases according to grammar? Don't we stick to only one language even if we are bilingual? And habits, and words and expressions... Without noticing, we do obey to a pre-established form and content, although unconsciously or without notice.

_{"Living Room Music", meant to be played with common living room objects such as books, glasses, etc. It's a true fun piece to be played with friends, making it a true "living room music"}

On the other hand, if we try at best as you can to free from formats and contents thus creating true randomness and indeterminism, we will always end in some predictable values. A study published on PLOS.one asked people to create a random number sequence, and generated a model that would, after a very quick learning period, predict which number was coming up next. Because if you try to be random, you search for the most unpredictable value, thus eliminating all the "obvious" ones, making you more predictable, not less. You can practice as much as you want, but at the end you'll state the obvious: we just suck too much at trying to be unpredictable, and we're miles away from true aleatoriety.

“I became interested [in improvisation] because I had not been interested. And the reason I had not been interested was because one just goes to one’s habits. But how can we find ways of improvising that release us from our habits?”

Composer John Cage worked a lot about this and about determinism in music, having written many works that relate to it. I'm a fan of John Cage's music and work, and I performed some works of him such as "Five", "The wonderful widow of eighteen springs", "Living Room Music" and many others.

This is where I-Ching - The Book of Changes, comes in. If you wonder what it is, I invite you to hear a great podcast episode about it in Stuff to Blow your Mind. John Cage used I-Ching in "Music of Changes" to compose indeterministic music, applying it to a large chart of sounds, durations, dynamics, tempo and densities. By delegating those decisions to true aleatoriety, he was able to create a more indeterministic work.

_{"Music of Changes", in which the I-Ching played a crucial role}

He still was, though, miles away from pure indeterminism. For example, the power of a specific sound is still dependent on player's performance. The instrument he's playing also determines a lot of things. The same for the room itself, the acoustics and background noise from the audience. We can even talk about the "unmeasurable" and say the "quality" of public's attention can make an explicable ambience that can affect the player. Not to mention the various ways people percept and assimilate sounds, since one can argue music only happens in our mind (if we play The Beatles in the forest and nobody hears it, is it still music?).

Famous work " 4'33'' can also be interpreted in an indeterministic way. Shifting the focus from the players to the public, one can achieve a less formal outcome. It's kind of poetic, thinking the ultimate free improvisation is silence. John Cage thought a lot about this and his work is a must for those who seek to understand XX century art and music. I do recommend reading his famous book "Silence".

_{4'33'' can be interpreted in many ways.}

Did you knew John Cage's work?

Have you ever trusted I-Ching to make decisions for you?

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