Chance.

Bird claims that the representation of chance in art was brought about by WWI. Specifically in Zurich where one of the main Dada groups developed, they were opposing a "Bougeois" lifestyle that could have lead to such destruction of humanity. Artists were opposing a world, and their art, of reason and logic, when this had lead them to devastation. This idea was a catalyst for the surrealists, where they explored psychic automatism in order to get in touch with their unconscious. These Freudian theologies were carried over with Carl Jung's idea of the subconscious in the work of Abstract Expressionists. All of these art forms oppose logical, purposeful intent, but instead rely on making artwork automatically and responding to the unexpected surprises of the mediums and techniques.

For this reason I could see my students eliminating intent and incorporating chance into their work by:

• Putting large sheets or rolls of paper down outside like Pollock, and using some of his techniques with materials. Paint dripping, splashing, using a stick, pouring it directly from the can, walking over it, etc. They should use large gestural movements as they feel them arise.
• Students should see this process like "Leaving footprints as they dance"
• Students who would get messier could use their body to apply the paint by putting it on their feet and dancing, rolling in it, making full body movements over the surface.
• What if we could black out paint tubes, ink bottles, or watercolor somehow, and have students grab one and apply it to the surface without knowing what color was going to come out, and having to make it work from there.
• Could work well with webbing as a background, spraying unknown colors onto it. Finding happy accidents that we wouldn't have normally thought of
• Eliminate sight by using a blindfold as students use two dimensional mediums. Not knowing what color or mark you are making leaves the work absent of control and the artist relying on what they feel could be right.
• Taking pictures without looking through the viewfinder, such as from over the shoulder or from the stomach, not being able to control with your eye what ends up in the frame, hoping for something good.
• Doodle/scribble randomly for a few minutes, then make a more realistic drawing evolve from the doodles.
• Dropping a pile of objects onto a table or area, seeing what breaks and doesn't, what ends up where as a setup for a still life. The artist has to make an interesting composition from their own perspective and choice of cropping, not through conscious control of the placement of objects.
• Throw paintballs at a canvas from far away and make a work evolve from these marks, or do so at a near-completed piece.
• Mix india ink into a bubbles, blow bubbles at the paper outside and make a work evolve from these marks.