Generative Lexicon

2010-2013

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The letters in this work were randomly generated in collaboration with physicist Dr. Mads Haahr of Trinity University who has developed a system of using Relic Radiation to generate true random numbers for extremely large calculations. These data sets rely on the physical randomness of colliding particles rather than algorithmic mathematical randomness which reveals patterns over extremely large calculations.

 

Cosmic background radiation is the radiation left over from an early stage in the development of the universe. 

 

When the universe was young, before the formation of stars and planets, it was smaller, much hotter, and filled with a uniform glow from its white-hot fog of hydrogen plasma. As the universe expanded, both the plasma and the radiation filling it grew cooler. When the universe cooled enough, protons and electrons could form neutral atoms. These atoms could no longer absorb the thermal radiation, and the universe became transparent instead of being an opaque fog. The photons that existed at that time have been propagating ever since - growing fainter and less energetic as they come to fill a larger and larger universe.