Edward Lorenz (b. 1917, USA – d. 2008, USA)
Chaos Theory, 1961

It’s not totally fair to attribute the whole Chaos Theory to Lorenz, but he was an early pioneer and my blog is structured on the basis of the names rather than works (possibly, lamentably), so this will have to do.

And I will not pretend to be well versed in the theory either, but some of its central tenets are quite central to my own thinking in general and to my artistic practice alike. In particular I would point out the discovery of “deterministic chaos” – a seemingly chaotic behaviour that is caused by deterministic systems with no element of chance. Something may seem totally random, but if you know the principles that rule the system, you can predict its behaviour. For me it is a useful tool for sense-making – to not be blinded by apparent randomness of the perceived and rather think under what conditions it would be the only or the most likely outcome. Thus I may do my work intuitively, but then stop and try to consider it as a fact representative of the higher order of meaning rather than a chance. That might not be “appropriate” use of the theory, but I am using it as an artist and not as a scientist 🙂

I also use it the other way round – in strictly conceptual pieces where a simple score may generate a complex pattern. Rather than reducing the result to its known causes I can then engage with the pattern considering the emerging meanings from or beauty in it “as is”.

Butterfly effect comes also handy – in terms of “attention to detail”, trying not to disregard details as inconsequential “in the larger picture” by default, but rather to consider what they may enable if given enough attention. But also the other way round – e.g. by presenting a series where each piece has only minor variation, but letting that variation to dramatically change the perception and meaning generation.