John Venn’s graphical indication of randomness Appears in The Logic of Chance

English logician and mathematician John Venn constructed “a very fair graphical indication of randomness,” according to himself in the third edition of his seminal book, The Logic of Chance. A precursor to generative art and systemic art and thinking, Venn’s illustration consisted of a single, simple rule: Draw “a line which at every instant is as likely to take one direction as another.” From this simple rule, infinite possibilities of randomness can occur and a basic generative system was born. This book also ties together earlier moments in Chapter 1 that discuss logic and the visualization of mathematics. Here, Venn combines the two to visualize rules or as they’re more commonly referred to today, algorithms.