Unforeseen Possibilities

: The Agency of Indeterminacy

Abstract

Chance was a significant creative strategy in the modernist era for its ability to successfully circumvent subjective intention. Through a referral to an historical context the thesis will construct an understanding of the utilisation and deployment of chance in the making of works of art and will establish a number of contextual and theoretical factors key to the research praxis. In identifying the inherent contradiction when working in league with chance through the necessary intervention and intention required of the artist, the thesis promotes the pedagogical applications of chance and demonstrates its relevance as a reinvigorating force within contemporary creative practice.

Utilising a process of appropriation, a practice-based methodology will appropriate the compositional strategies of several key art historical works by Ellsworth Kelly and John Cage. Through an interrogation of the research themes, these practical case studies will advance an understanding of chance into the creation of a number of original artworks developed for the thesis. Assimilating key principles derived from historical contexts such as Cage’s 4’:33”, the thesis establishes a range of visual and sonic analogies to demonstrate the research outcomes.

The profoundly uncertain times in which we are currently living deeply resonate with a twentieth century context and the original application of chance in creative practice. Through the dispersal and separation of knots of accumulated patterns of thought, the thesis presents how chance promotes new ways of seeing in the increasingly determined lives in which we live.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Aberystwyth University
Supervisor	Julian Ruddock (Supervisor), John Harvey (Supervisor), June Patricia Forster (Supervisor) & Thomas Cooper (Supervisor)