“We are more interested, though, in the mechanically chance process, and here Duchamp did the pioneer work. In 1913 he undertook what seems to be the first explicituse of chance for the creation of an affective image, in the “3 stoppages etalon.” He made these images by holding a thread one meter long, “straight and horizontal,” one meter above a blank canvas. After letting it fall onto the canvas, it was fixed with a trickle of varnish into the chance convolution in which it fell. This process was repeated to give three such canvases. Duchamp seems to consider three phenomena basic to his exploitation of chance: wind, gravity and aim... ...” Brecht 1966

Brecht, G. 1966 Chance-Imagery Ubu-Classics  Series Ed. Tencer, M.

Originally published in 1966 as a Great Bear Pamphlet by Something Else Press,

1966.

last accessed 12.01.2012