Physical high entropy processes like paint splatter, shotgun blasts, rain, snow, etc have fine grained randomness and second order or higher fine grained randomness and second order or higher uniformity. There is much art that reinterprets this.
Programs that generate this with lines or dots resemble it but often lack the physical complexity that creates multiple levels of hierarchy e.g. the snaking river
Rust on a wall, decay in general. fire. the grain of wood. the edge of paint. we can mostly appreciate these things, given a certain amount of staring.
Sonically, the the waves crashing, foaming receding. The wind rushing, shifting leaves, and whistling sometimes. the river flowing, the creek trickling. the stream streaming. The fire crackling and popping of course.
Animals too contribute and benefit from the texture that arises. The frogs croaking overwhelmingly so like an orchestra that only plays three notes. the slow chirp of crickets that builds to a steady rain. The cicada.
The traffic of a freeway. the rhythmic stop and go of the city that is too large for us to hear individually but together we experience it and know it.
The sound installation captures this more than the linear composition. Sculpture and painting are well suited to this, more so than video. Ironically, the time based media is less suited to it despite most of the processes of entropy taking place over time. It could be that the comprehension or beholding of the structure is a fleeting timeless moment.
I didn’t mean for this to read like a poem. I don’t want to presume it does either. Please take this interlude as a no pun intended.
I find myself looking around my room, looking for something to build with my own hands, which doesn’t have any traditional finesse for art, but wanting to capture these examples of physical entropy as a proxy.
People have done it with mirrors, shadows, magnets. It resembles architecture only because the planning is more easily observable than the control of the instrument.
Perhaps I should make sound installations without sound or paintings without craft. Or romcoms or time loop movies.
But going back to the room, why is it that it always seems devoid of materials for these creations, when there are so many fascinating structures and processes everywhere, waiting to be seen with Your perspective. Somehow they are easier seen outside the window. There feels a strict and unforgiving border surrounding the apartment that keeps creative materials at bay. Maybe it’s related to a lack of political statements or identity that comes from being interested in the mundane daily process. Maybe it makes life easier.