Mit dem Zufall gegen den Zufall spielen
Flusser wrote the essay “Mit dem Zufall gegen den Zufall spielen” (Playing against Chance with Chance) for the exhibition Zufall als Prinzip. Spielwelt, Methode und System in der Kunst der 20. Jahrhunderts (Chance as a Principle. Game World, Method and System in the Art of the 20th Century) at the Wilhelm Haack Museum in Ludwigshafen am Rhein that was originally planned for spring 1991 but actually took place from January 18 to March 15, 1992. Looking at an ancient frieze, he muses on the relationship between fate and freedom and between necessity and chance. Until our understanding of history is based on historical and linear causality, the word freedom has no meaning. To achieve some freedom, we must be wary of scientific explanations and favor a magical-mythical consciousness: everything in the world owes its origin to chance, to coincidence, since the Big Bang. In prehistoric times, at the time of this frieze, freedom was the vain attempt to rebel against fate: it was a sin. Today, in post-history, freedom is an attempt to rebel against coincidence and evoke the improbable. Creativity is a game attempting to prevent chance from becoming a necessity and freedom the post-historical synonym of sin.