A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates by Rand Corporation

Those codes tell the relays when to open and close to match the numbers in the book. He then fed A Million Random Digits into a computer that converted every number into a binary code. As he read in the book's introduction, the first copy of A Million Random Digits was neither hardbound nor soft but printed on 20,000 computer punch cards.ĭunham wired together a panel of electromagnetic relays, the nerve cells of early computers that open and close to control the flow of electric current. This is what he does his art and research focus on revisiting old technologies to create new understandings of sound and rhythm. At the time, he was mulling how to coax sound from old computer punch cards. One submarine captain was reputed to keep a copy of RAND's book with him on patrol, to help him chart courses no enemy could predict.ĭunham found his copy in a used bookstore in Germany. Pollsters use random digits to ensure they're calling an unbiased sample of potential voters. Internet encryption requires random numbers to protect everything from bank numbers to state secrets. But having a million totally random numbers at hand is actually very useful. The work produces a series of pauses, breaks, and off-beats as patterns move between moments of synchronized and syncopated rhythms.”Ī book of random digits might seem about as exciting as … well, a book of random digits.

“Click::RAND is more than just hearing a series of clicks. student in sonic arts at Victoria University of Wellington. “I liked the idea of giving the book a voice,” said Dunham, a Ph.D. The result, as the relays work through a million random digits, is a clattering, chattering sonic machine. Each creates a distinct click as it switches on and off. In keeping with the '50s vibe, he used a series of electric relays to represent numbers.

Paul Dunham created a sound sculpture to allow listeners to hear the sound of random. But a sound artist in New Zealand thought the work could make its own kind of music. The title of RAND's 1955 classic, A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates, doesn't exactly dance off the page.

A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates by Rand Corporation