'Coincidences' determine an individual’s state of being, balanced and in harmony with the universe. In this sense, coincidences can be understood as nature’s purest law, and beyond nature they represent the perpetual bond between the relative and the absolute, as well as the birth of all forms of life and love. They’re a link between reality and imagination, between desire and fantasy, between the body and the spirit, between life and death. The importance of such moments should form the basis of all scientific, artistic, economic, political and religious laws, as they determine the existence and subsistence of human beings upon the Earth, as well as upon any other planet. As the laws indicated above, like their establishment, are inseparable from one another, this theory becomes the bond that could further the quest, the growth and the evolution of mankind.
A theory of coincidences in art would have to differentiate itself from the concept as it is formulated in science. Coincidence, in science, would only apply if a chance occurrence of events displayed simultaneous or identical results despite different initial conditions. For a scientist the existence of a coincidence implies an event has occurred beyond known parameters and this would initiate a search for experiment to show that the event was not coincidental, but was the result of unknown cause and effect.
For example: If I throw a ball it will follow a path to a given point of impact with the ground. This path can be measured and predicted. If I repeat the exact set of circumstances - the power of the throw, the direction of the aim, the wind speed and the density of the atmosphere and the gravitational effect, etc. - the ball will land in exactly the same place time and time again. This is not coincidence but an observed fact brought about by cause and effect. Coincidence would occur if I threw a ball one-day in a strong wind and threw it again from the same spot on another day in calm air, but it landed in exactly the same place. This would be a remarkable coincidence that could, theoretically, happen. I could chose a set of numbers at random and win the lottery but is this coincidence or is it because a set of circumstances exist that allow, from millions of combinations of numbers, for a match to eventually occur?
In art, this definition of coincidence would have to show us that a controlled result can be arrived at by chance or accident. For a painter this would require the creation of a work that displays repetition of images from an uncontrolled input of circumstances that would give identical results time after time. An example of this would be to throw paint at random so that it always formed the same pattern. This, obviously, is unlikely to occur. If I keep throwing paint there is a greater chance a matching of a pattern will occur but, like the lottery, the chances of winning are millions to one. In music, coincidences in art would imply choosing musical notes at random and creating an identical score time after time without any input from the composers knowledge of arrangement. We know this is also very unlikely to occur. We understand that to create repetitious images or music requires a controlled and organised input from an artist’s mind. To formulate a theory of coincidence in art an artist would have to find a way to display controlled results without input. The artist would only be involved in setting up the variables at the beginning of a work that will, once set in motion, create the required result. These variables would have to ensure that they never repeat themselves but, from this, a repetitive image or musical score would emerge.
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(last entry by Christopher Hollins - 16/09/2012 at 13:38)