Portraits of the chance Cover Image

Portrety przypadku
Portraits of the chance

Author(s): Jakub Jernajczyk
Subject(s): Visual Arts, Aesthetics, Special Branches of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Sociology of the arts, business, education
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Papieskiego Jana Pawła II w Krakowie
Keywords: art and science; deterministic chaos; dynamic chance; fractals; generative art; random number generators; surrealism; Winiarski R.;

Summary/Abstract: We used to identify the scientific reflection over the idea of the chance with mathematics or philosophy. In this paper we shall look at the problem from the perspective of visual arts. The history of philosophy and science shows that the idea of the chance was understood in many different ways. Also today we can differentiate at least three distinct paths of apprehending the topic: 1) the objective chance – when we presume that random events exist actually in nature, 2) the subjective chance – when what we presume to be random, results from the lack of sufficient knowledge about what could happen, and 3) the dynamic chance – when the randomness appears as an effect of complex interactions in determined systems. It seems that all the faces of the chance find their examples in arts, too. We notice them in the heritage of great masters, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Max Ernst, André Masson, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock, or Ryszard Winiarski. We also see that the chance plays a crucial role in contemporary arts.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 5-20
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish