Indeterminacy, the I Ching, and John Cage: A New Design Method for Landscape Architecture

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Barry R. Morse

Indeterminacy, the I Ching, and John Cage

A New Design Method for Landscape Architecture

Barry R. Morse

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Jenny Stanford Publishing
02 December 2025

Landscape art & architecture; Western "classical" music; Individual composers & musicians, bands & groups; The I Ching

The creative use of indeterminacy, that is, “chance,” is an often-overlooked design opportunity despite the universality of chance in art, nature, science, and life. How can “chance,” a seemingly capricious phenomenon, be made to work for someone? One controlled use of chance is through the Chinese I Ching “chance operations” method of composer and artist John Cage (1912–1992). This book addresses the questions of how one might approach using this method in landscape architectural design, what the outcome of such an indeterminate design would be, and whether or not it could lead to a viable constructed landscape.

In addition, this book answers the question: What is the relationship between the I Ching, John Cage, and the constructed landscape anyway? The final product of the exploration of this method is a new hypothetical redesign of an existing plaza using Cage’s techniques and a comparative evaluation of the new indeterminate concept and the two pre-existing designs, using the original program objectives as a guide against which the three designs can be judged for effectiveness.

By: Barry R. Morse
Imprint: Jenny Stanford Publishing
Country of Publication: Singapore
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9789815129885
ISBN 10: 9815129880
Pages: 200
Publication Date: 02 December 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Introduction PART I THE FOUNDATIONS OF INDETERMINACY 1. Man and the Landscape 2. The Origins of Indeterminacy PART II A SPECIFIC MODEL FOR DESIGN: JOHN CAGE’S APPROACH TO INDETERMINACY 3. A Short Biography of John Cage (1912–1992) 4. Cage’s Attitudes Regarding Indeterminacy 5. Cage’s Use of Chance Operations in Music 6. Cage’s Use of Chance Operations in Visual Art PART III: APPLICATION OF INDETERMINACY TO A SPECIFIC LANDSCAPE 7. The University of Arizona Alumni Plaza: Two Deterministic Designs 8. The University of Arizona Plaza: A New Indeterminate Design 9. A Comparative Analysis of the Three Designs Appendix A: Equivalency Tables Appendix B: Hexagram Cast Tables Appendix C: Miscellaneous Charts Appendix D: Materials Charts Appendix E: Comparative Evaluation Chart Appendix F: Design Process Statistics Appendix G: Additional Images Appendix H: Other Modes of Indeterminacy

Barry R. Morse, a native of Maine, USA, is an unaffiliated composer, sound artist, and improviser who is interested in the fusion of diverse art forms, especially landscape design and musical composition, the two fields in which he holds graduate-level academic degrees. He is the founder and director of the world’s only improving theremin ensemble, the Etherphonic Theremin Orchestra.