PLEASE tell me about the google sheets randomizer, i am fascinated with it
well, besides the heavily self-explanatory name, it's a way for me to practice having & entertaining ideas. while the purpose is to help me make art, most of my work on it is never really supposed to be completed, or even attempted in the first place. it's meant as practice, an exercise in "how would i do this?" and "what would i do here?" & similar questions.
most prompts don't get past the brainstorm phase, and that's okay. they still sharpen my skills and give me practice, and data to carry forward, so that when the time comes to actualize a project, i will be properly equipped. you have to develop the skills to bang it out, when your big idea comes. this can only occur through starting projects and following your curiosity. that being said: you don't have to use it this way. forge your own path.
(rest under the cut)
i started working on this specific gsheet in early 2021, with my first iteration: "prompt gen." inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's "Oblique Strategies," i wanted to develop prompts that make me think, that are unique to my interests and general skill wheelhouse.
i split my prompt into three categories: Type of Art (technique or form), Subject Matter (what it is depicting), and Themes (of which there are two per prompt). then, i brainstormed options for each category, using a free writing, blue sky technique. more options are typically better here, and the fun part is that you can get really wild with them. since the final prompt doesn't have a specific format or structure, you can be really creative here.
using gsheets formulas, i was able to figure out a way to randomly generate one box entry from a named range. i dropped each category's brainstorm into a single column per category, and then called the boxes that were filled of that column in the formula.
the page looks like this:
the formula process i use is this: 1. select the box you want to generate an entry. type in "= INDIRECT("columnletter" &RANDBETWEEN(#, #))" without the outside quotes, and replacing "columnletter" with the letter of the column that has your list of options, still in quotes here. then, in the first #, put the number row your list starts on. for me this was 2, because of the title row. in the second # put the very last row that has an entry on your list. for example, 50. i have like 232 or something at this point but start small.
after that, i would just need to refresh the document by selecting a box and hitting backspace, or reloading the tab. and it generates a random prompt for me. here are some examples:
this ^ actually is the insp for my zine: moving quickly is not a virtue
eventually i updated the structure to streamline it a bit, and also updated my list of elements too, forming: 'prompt gen 2' lol
this one has only two columns: form and subject matter, which it calls thrice per prompt.
here are some examples of prompts from this one:
most recently i've been in need of prompt without specific forms attached, so i made another tab and simplified it to the following (shown with examples):
i hope this was at least somewhat interesting lol thank you for asking about it!!!!
