Pre-order the deluxe hardcover edition of The Disruption Generator here!
The smaller, cheaper paperback Portable Disruption Generator available here!
I had hoped for some questions.
This week’s article was supposed to be a FAQ. You can’t really have Frequently Asked Questions when only one question is asked so the majority of today’s article will be a NAQ, Not Asked Questions, and I will be pulling this out of the same random place I found The Disruption Generator.
To kick of the NAQ, we get the one and only query we received:
The obvious one that comes to my mind is, how did you come up with the idea for such a unique project? Were there inspirations?
This question came from writer and creator of Love Chaos, Derek Hunter. Derek recently appeared on an episode of Pragmagick! Thanks for the question, Derek!
I would say that my biggest influences came from the surrealists, dadaism, and the various work of William S. Burroughs. The unifying thread between all of them being that they allowed the universe to speak through the materials without attempt to influence the outcome. Allowing the random to steer the work is akin to creating a direct conduit to what Alan Moore termed Ideaspace, the open sea of thought and idea that all artists tap into when they create.
The next question I would assume people would want to know:
What materials did you used to create the art for each component?
As a general rule I try to use the simplest tools I can. I hate the idea that art has a pay gate in regards to materials. For this project I stuck to one kind of pen: the Pilot HI-TEC-C, a cheap Japanese import gel pen. It has a nice scratchy line and the ink flow is exquisite. For paper, I used the leftovers of two cheap sketchbooks that I never filled out. They have no labels and I have no clue as to the weight of the paper. I used them more for the emotional connection, since I’ve been moving with these unfinished sketchbooks for nearly a decade and this project finally allowed them to be set free from the prison of disuse.
On to the next not asked question:
Were there any words you couldn’t make work?
Yes! Due to the random nature of things, I never knew what word I would be given on any given day. I consider myself truly lucky that I only had one word that I just could not make work. That word was Eigenvector, a mathematical term meaning a vector which can only change in a linear way. After four aborted attempts I decided it would be better for my sanity and the project that I move forward.
Another little bit of trivia: I ran through a couple different names before settling on The Disruption Generator. This system was nearly called The Oracular Odditorium!
Keats Ross, fellow haunt and driving force behind We The Hallowed, asked:
Explain some shuffling techniques and various uses of the bibliomantic tool?
The simplest way to come up with your component is to thumb through the pages until you feel the urge to stop and open the book. The options are only limited to your imagination. If you can find other ways, use them!
Another fellow haunt, RUUNE, suggested the use of dice to come up with your components. For this you would need a twelve sided die(D12) and a ten sided die(D10). The twelve sided die determines your 10’s (10,20,30, etc.) and the ten is for your singles (1,2,3,4, etc.).
For an example:
You roll a 7 on the D12 and a 6 on the D10. This gives you 76.
Now, the most important part, the only way to make this work, you subtract 10 from this number. In our example above you would now have 66, Trap.
Techniques like this are the main reason I gave every component a numeric value and placed them in a list in the beginning of The Disruption Generator books. It opens up the ability to use different mathematical or chance based ways to determine your components. Alexx Bollen suggested using astrology in our chat on The Alexxcast. I like the idea of utilizing a random number generator. However it’s done, determining your Components is completely up to you. Do what feels right.
The last question I want to address is that of medium:
Why is The Disruption Generator a book? Doesn’t a deck of cards make more sense?
I’m split on whether or not I really want to explain this part of the system. On one hand, I like to keep some mysteries and secrets in my work and, on the other hand, I want people to understand why they’re not going to get something they want.
It’s a precarious position to be in as a creator and artist.
I think I explained my main reasoning most coherently in a chat with Keats Ross, over why I’ve been resistant to the creation of a deck:
I was okay with the deck thing at first. And then I started thinking about what the core of the project was. It’s in the title- DISRUPTION. People are comfortable with cards and decks. They’re deep and complicated tools but the mechanism is simple. We learn to play cards as kids, as games. Putting it into book form takes that comfort away. It makes a person NEED to change how they work. You can’t look at is as cards anymore. You have to actively choose how to read it and how to choose. Maybe a way doesn’t work but maybe another will? It’s all about disruption of thinking and working.
It’s not chaotic at its core, not like a deck. It’s a machine. A machine with a set function and layout. It’s why I started to call the cards components instead. It’s a machine built to make you change how you think or how you use divination. The chaos comes from the reader instead of the medium. I made everything else random so the device didn’t need to be.
During the discussion the question of familiarity was brought up, the thought that you would eventually memorize the location of components within the book, thus making your readings flawed:
I understand that people will eventually need to find other ways to get randomized results but that makes the work belong to them even more.
You’re running a machine. It’s built to have flaws you need to fix yourself.
It’s supposed to be a book. It was always supposed to be a book. The challenges of the format are a feature, not a bug. And picking components would be like using a marked tarot deck! Why would you cheat?
My other main concern was a combination of money and comfort. It’s hard for me to invest capital into a project like this. Budgetary constraints keep me working in the mediums I work in and I’ve learned to embrace this limitation as a positive. I love books and putting my art in cheap print-on-demand volumes has made it possible to put out a lot of work for relatively nothing while still existing in a form that brings me a great deal of joy.
Making a deck of cards is expensive, especially when the deck size in so large. There are 120 components in The Disruption Generator. A Tarot deck only contains 78! Think about how much you paid for your last tarot deck. Now imagine that price having to be 50% higher.
I really want The Disruption Generator to remain as affordable as possible. I personally believe that financial inclusiveness is just as important as any other kind. The more expensive an occult implement is, the less people can take part. This is the main reason that The Portable Disruption Generator will remain evergreen as the deluxe hardcover version disappears at the end of July.
I hope that answered some of the questions surrounding The Disruption Generator. Feel free to contact me or Keats through the We the Hallowed or Pragmagick social media sites or email if you have any other questions or theories about the system.
Head Haunt Keats Ross will be doing a guest appearance here next week but I’ll be back after that with another peek into the guts of The Disruption Generator.
More soon.
HAUNT ON
Pre-order the deluxe hardcover edition of The Disruption Generator here!
The smaller, cheaper paperback Portable Disruption Generator available here!
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