Chance operation¶

chance_operation · procedural · catalogued

A composition whose choices are settled by an external random source rather than by the writer's judgement.

Provenance¶

Source: John Cage, Silence (1961)
Attribution: primary — a named author, work and year this catalogue stands behind
Checkability: none — no computable acceptance criterion exists
Attested: author-stated — the originator set this rule down

Details¶

Kind: constructive
Languages: en
Requires: tokens
Deterministic: no

Prompt hint¶

Let a random source decide each choice, and record the result without editing.

Why this has no checker¶

This procedure has no computable acceptance criterion, so it will never be implemented. It is catalogued because the form belongs in an honest survey of the field, and denckring status counts it separately rather than reporting a gap that cannot close.