Recursion: Rock/Paper/Scissors
In mathematics recursion is the process of defining a problem or its solution in terms of itself.
In this video, the recursive nature of the traditional children’s hand game, Rock Paper Scissors, is observed through cyclical sequences of all possible outcomes.
Unlike a conventional round of the game, the players here follow pre-determined instructions and can be seen to enact a choreographed simulation of the game’s fundamental code.
Chris Finnegan is based in Cork, Ireland.
Chris Finnegan is a visual artist and educator whose practice explores common phenomena and occurrences, primarily through lens-based media.The mundane qualities of objects and events are often exploited and presented with a pseudo-scientific rigour. Permutations, sequencing and progressions are employed, sometimes logically.Throughout the work, the photographic image can be seen to occupy two simultaneous states; empirical artefact and conceptualist proposition.