John Cage created a series of etchings late in life. In them, he placed shapes on an etching plate based on random throws of the I Ching. He was asked if he ever changed the resulting composition based on his own preferences. He responded, 'When I find myself at that point, in the position of someone who would change something — at that point I don't change it, I change myself. It's for that reason that I have said that instead of self-expression, I'm involved in self-alteration.' Allowing a creation to alter us, without filtering it based on our likes or dislikes, can be very freeing and informative, just as you may have found in appreciating other things as they are. We can then receive messages beyond our habitual ways of seeing and thinking.
Rebekah Younger