Watch Us Pull a Rhinoceros Out of Our Hat
An Infinite Monkeys Manifesto

In The Beginning

Somewhere a long time ago there were an infinite number of monkeys playing an infinite number of musical instruments. Over the eons, they created the music we hear today. We are all Infinite Monkeys.

This is a paraphrase of the well-known adage, "An infinite number of monkeys sitting at typewriters randomly poking at the keys will with 100% certainty eventually type out the complete works of Shakespeare". The inference is that if one plays enough notes, some of them are bound to resemble music.Click here for literary references to infinite monkeys

Art = Creative Process

We have been actively studying the creative process itself, as opposed to studying the results of the creative process, since 1971. It quickly became apparent that a survey of the scant research in the field was not, and would never would be sufficient. Many approaches and experiments were undertaken. Infinite Monkeys is one.

Infinite Monkeys began as a conceptual art project. Its initial exploration was the application of techniques used in visual art to performance art and discovery of the processes that are common to all art. Thus the musical entity known as Infinite Monkeys was born.

Don't Think of a Rhinoceros!

The primary creative technique under examination is the suppression of the ego. The hypothesis is that in order to grow as an artist, in order to transcend one's limitations, in order to progress beyond the acquisition of physical skill, mental discipline, emotional expression, and spiritual awareness, it is necessary to some extent, to overcome the ego, that view of the self that is the boundary between what and where we are and what and where we want to be. Simply put, if we accomplish something that we thought we couldn't, we have transcended our ego. What Bob can not do, Infinite Monkeys can.

One way to transcend the ego is to attempt to take ourselves out of the equation. Many have defined the making of art as making a series of decisions. If the decisions are made by random chance, an infinite number of monkeys, or any process over which we have little or no control, we have reduced the involvement of the ego. Of course, choosing to employ stochastic methods is in of itself a decision made by the ego. It's not so easy to not to think of a rhinoceros.

Creativity is Realtime

All art is performance art. The painting hanging on the gallery wall is not art. Like a film of a dance, it is an artifact of the artist's performance.

Audience Participation

The observer re-performs the art in their mind, creating a new and unique work of art. In a dance performance the artist and audience create simultaneously, unleashing unmeasurable power.

Unleash your power! Join Infinite Monkeys today!