Chancebooks is a publishing-on-demand experiment using Wikipedia and chance operations. Each Chancebook is a one-of-a-kind collection of up to 100 randomly pulled articles from Wikipedia. The selection and sequence of content is generated in real-time as I repeatedly click the “random article” button that appears on all Wikipedia pages and individually add each page to the book. The total number of articles is determined by first pulling a random number (1–100) at random.org.
Full Description
Each book in series— Digital print-on-demand Edition of 1 Perfect binding 5.5 in. x 8.5 in. Variable pages
Work metadata
- Year Created: 2013
- Submitted to ArtBase: Wednesday May 15th, 2013
- Original Url: http://soulellis.com/projects/chancebooks/
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Work Credits:
- Paul Soulellis, primary creator
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Artist Statement
Chancebooks is a publishing-on-demand experiment using Wikipedia and chance operations. Each Chancebook is a one-of-a-kind collection of up to 100 randomly pulled articles from Wikipedia. The selection and sequence of content is generated in real-time as I repeatedly click the “random article” button that appears on all Wikipedia pages and individually add each page to the book. The total number of articles is determined by first pulling a random number (1–100) at random.org.
The title is selected from the list of article titles.
Only one copy of each Chancebook exists, printed on-demand and delivered to me. The book’s design is automated and determined by the print-on-demand service. Included within each book are my location and exact date and time of the book’s creation.
Chancebook #1 (Why Does It Hurt So Bad) [39 articles] was created at 2:29pm on 26 March 2013 and delivered to me 29 March 2013.
Chancebook #2 (Livin’ on the Fault Line) [86 articles] was created at 12:49pm on 3 May 2013 and delivered to me 8 May 2013.
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