Troika, Reality Is Not Always Probable, 2018

2018

Medium

22,695 black dice, 10 mm

Dimensions

162.4 × 121 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-155910

Reality Is Not Always Probable (2018) is a wall-based work composed of thousands of dice arranged to form a structured visual pattern. The piece is defined by a strict binary reduction to black dice, on which only the numbers one and six remain visible. Emerging from Troika’s ongoing interest in the relationship between chance and control, the work materializes a computer-based simulation applied to a simple grid of elements. Such algorithmic systems have been used since the 1970s to model complex processes — from population growth and musical composition to artificial life and even evolution. Troika translates this logic into a visual structure: beginning with a random sequence in the top row, each subsequent row is generated by the configuration above it. What appears as an organic pattern is in fact governed by a deterministic rule set. The work also references the historical use of dice as instruments of fate, chance, and probability. While the throw of dice follows statistical laws, the algorithm here operates in contrast — as an autonomous system, detached from real-world contingency. At the same time, it reflects how contemporary life is increasingly shaped by invisible computational processes. In this way, the work exemplifies Troika’s broader inquiry into how emerging technologies permeate physical reality and reshape individual perception.