Faces of Randomness

Faces of Randomness is a series of four prints, each showing a 3×3 grid of binary values generated through a different form of “randomness.” One print comes from quantum data I produced in a physics lab while performing the B92 quantum key distribution protocol, using polarized single photons attenuated to an average of one per pulse, then measured in a different polarization basis. The resulting random shared bit string—free of hidden variables—formed the “alive” or “dead” Schrödinger’s cat motifs in the quantum print. (Full experiment here.)

​

The second print comes from a classical process—coin flips—shown as heads or tails. The third is a human attempt at randomness, expressed as hand gestures for zero or one. The fourth is from a computer’s pseudorandom number generator seeded with a fixed value—its output is technically deterministic and perfectly reproducible if the seed is known, unlike the coin flips, where the relevant hidden variables exist but are virtually impossible to know in practice.

​

Although all four grids appear equally “random,” their origins reveal starkly different natures. The coin flips and computer sequence are deterministic in principle but differ in the accessibility of their hidden variables; the human-generated sequence may be shaped by subconscious biases and environmental factors; and the quantum sequence is provably indeterminate, with no hidden cause. By placing these sequences side-by-side, the work exposes the physical, computational, and psychological mechanisms behind our idea of randomness, and invites reflection on how unpredictability can arise from such different foundations.

​

This piece is conceptually linked to my sculptural work Quantum Pillars, which also transforms quantum randomness into physical form.