Practice question · Put in order
Arrange the steps of setting up a rule-governed series in the order they must be settled.
- Decide what will vary, and over what range
- Fix the format, the palette and the schedule by rule so they stop being decisions
- Decide what will be held constant so that it can be seen
- Write the rule down and date it, so that any later change is visible as a change
- State what the work is trying to make visible
Hints
- Something has to be being made visible before anything can be held or varied.
- The last step is what makes the rule enforceable against yourself.
Show the answer
- State what the work is trying to make visible
- Decide what will be held constant so that it can be seen
- Decide what will vary, and over what range
- Fix the format, the palette and the schedule by rule so they stop being decisions
- Write the rule down and date it, so that any later change is visible as a change
Why
The last step is the one that separates a system from an intention. A rule that only exists in the painter's head can be amended silently at the difficult point, which is exactly when it was about to do its work, writing and dating it turns a later change into an event rather than a lapse.
Practise Series, Constraint and System
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