how does one court chaos on a computer?

Given that most rand() functions do yield predictable
results, what are some of the methods you use to
escape this and introduce true randomness into a new
media art work?



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Lewis LaCook

net artist, poet, freelance web developer/programmer

http://www.lewislacook.com/

XanaxPop:Mobile Poem Blog>> http://www.lewislacook.com/xanaxpop/

Stamen Pistol: http://stamenpistol.blogspot.com/

Cell:440.258.9232

Sidereality: http://www.sidereality.com/



























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Comments

, Jason Van Anden

Hi Lewis,

If you focus on the 'not really random' path, you are going to drive yourself nuts, trust me, been there, done that, and wasted a lot time. Chances are (get it?), the end result is going to be imperceptable to you, and more importantly, to your audience.

If your work is interactive, keep in mind that your audience is also a random number generator, and thus can complement rand(). Since you don't know what or when your audience will do something, this presents an opportunity to seed rand() differently, unpredictably - making rand() more random.

My day job involves writing data visualization applications for actuaries at a reinsurance company. I know a lot of really smart mathematicians. I would leave this to the experts, and accept rand() as your best option.

Jason Van Anden
www.smileproject.com