Randomness in Sound

The Click::RAND by Paul Dunham (2019-2020) is fascinating to watch. Dunham used a series of electric relays and random numbers to generate clicking noises that become sonic beats. He used the RAND’s 1955 book “A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates” as a database of random numbers to feed into the electric relays. The book is a giant table of a million random digits that contain small but statistically significant biases. The largest bias the table had while running tests was about 2%. Dunham fed the digits to a computer that converted every number into binary, which told the relays when to open and close. The result is a very fun and cool syncopation of clicks and metallic rings. Sometimes there are patterns that appear in the clicks, but they quickly dissolve into something else. I admire the simplicity of the installation, as well as the results it produces. The clicking pauses, breaks, quickens, slows, just like the rhythms of everyday life do as well. He will sometimes add more than one panel of relays to create even more poly-rhythms. There are no algorithms in his work, only randomness and relays. His artistic vision of giving the book a voice, and having the audience listen to randomness, is a highly effective one that definitely manifested in the final form.

Dunham’s other work is also very interesting and I highly recommend viewing his Click::TWEET project from 2020. In that project, he transcribed tweets into morse code using multiple telegraph machines to highlight how ‘loud’ social media is these days.

Click::RAND from Atticus Finch on Vimeo.