Without Composing_n°5

Without Composing_n°5 is a sound-and-image installation in three parts, and it puts a question to those who encounter it: what is true randomness?

Mathematics, statistics, and countless algorithms are never short of random systems—yet these are randomnesses that have been generated. True randomness occurs only in the physical, analogue world. And in the motion and decay of radioactive particles it appears with singular clarity: no model can foretell when the next particle will arrive.

Contrary to common belief, radioactivity is omnipresent on Earth—at levels that are benign, far below those at the core of a nuclear reactor. Each of the three devices houses Geiger–Müller counters, registering the faint radioactivity emitted by the mineral at its centre: granite, allanite, zircon. Much of this radiation issues from the chemical elements the minerals contain, silicon above all—the very material from which computer chips are made. Every particle that triggers a counter is translated into a random number, driving the parameters of images computed in real time: coordinates, forces, attraction, particle counts. Three screens stand side by side, like paintings in motion—made, as the title has it, without composing.

On the screen at the left, a million particles align along their lines, quickening and slowing, expanding and contracting. At the center, a rotating figure of rock, drawn from thousands of fine lines, shifts subtly in brightness and density. On the right, a flat grid slowly twists and swells, then collapses inward, folding into itself.

In each, the artist relinquishes a measure of control, letting the flow of energy dictate the movement. Random and unforeseeable, these signals trace an elusive map, turning radioactivity into a visual experience—three paintings, made by the hand of the invisible.

With the support of the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan.

《Without Composing_n°5》是一件由三組件構成的聲音影像裝置，向觀者拋出一個問題：什麼才是真正的隨機？

數學、統計與各式演算法之中，從不缺隨機的系統；然而那些終究是被生成的隨機——真正的隨機，只發生在物理的、類比的真實世界裡。而在放射性粒子的運動與衰變之中，它顯現得格外分明：沒有任何模型能預言下一顆粒子何時抵達。

與常識相悖的是，輻射在地球上無所不在——只是強度溫和，遠低於核電廠反應爐核心。作品的每一組裝置皆內置蓋格-穆勒計數管，各自偵測裝置中央的礦石所釋放的微量放射能——花崗岩、褐簾石與鋯石。這些輻射大多來自礦物所含的化學元素，尤以矽為著；而矽，正是製造電腦晶片的常用材料。粒子的每一次觸發被轉譯為隨機數，牽動即時運算影像的參數——座標、作用力、牽引力、粒子數——三組畫面並置，宛如動態的數位繪畫，一如標題所示，未經編排而生。

左側那組裝置的畫面裡，百萬顆粒子沿線排列，時而加速、時而遲緩，時而擴張、時而收縮。中間的畫面，是一幅由千萬條細線構成、狀若岩石的旋轉圖像，在明暗與疏密之間細微推移。右側的畫面，一片平坦的網格緩緩扭轉、膨脹，最後向內坍縮，沒入自身。

在每一組畫面裡，藝術家皆讓渡出部分的控制權，任由能量的流動主宰運動的方向。這些訊號隨機而不可預測，勾勒出一幅難以捕捉的地圖，將輻射轉化為一場視覺的經驗——三幅畫作，出自無形粒子之手。

本作品獲臺灣國家文化藝術基金會贊助。