Boursier-Mougenot installation captures chance at its fundamental level and allows the artist to ‘sit-out’ and let the composition take place. This captures the raw state of chance that I am fascinated by, though my work relates closer to the experiments by Robb Gray. Gray classifies his music in the genre Aleatronica: “A genre of music where the primary elements of the composed works are left to chance or to the determination of its performers” (Aleatronica 2013). Gray collects algorithms in the same manner of accumulating sound samples. Integrating both mathematical and musical influences within the DAW and other appropriate software, Gray creates his Aleatronica compositions. The following example Life, Gray transformed a cellular automaton programme ‘The Game of Life’ into a step sequencer. Gray explains: “Organized patterns dissolve to randomness, and random patterns organize into stable states or die” (2013) (audio media 7).
Although Grays chance procedures are based in mathematics, his approach derives similar aesthetic results to my work. This is due to the following factors. Firstly, our chance procedures use the same input/output devices: MIDI, VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plugins and the DAW. Secondly, we both strive to achieve compositions that are both derived from the combination of chance and conscious choice. Thirdly the similarities in aesthetic qualities are due to using the element of chance itself. Chance procedures can start from completely different concepts yet, like the chance landings of birds on guitar, eventually can lead to similar patterns of sound. Robert Charles Clark notes the similar aspects heard in both Karleheinz Stockhausen and Cage's chance compositions including “… presence of silences, absence of regular rhythms, continuous use of voice range, and highly variable amplitudes” (Clark 1970).
