← Statement

Recognized September 6, 2026

Random sourcing protects discovery

Sourcing method as the mechanism enabling genuine discovery: Both World War One and World War Two began as tests (compositional test toward a larger format for WWI; a 'can I make this work with a bunch of photos' test for the sourcing method itself), with fast, near-random source selection rather than researched curation. This randomness is identified as the mechanism that makes the retrospective readings surfaced during cataloguing (Allied/German color-technology skew, named-vs-anonymous framing, cross-painting anachronism leaks) genuine discoveries rather than confirmations of an argument already quietly built in through deliberate curation — protecting the 'recognition not influence' principle at the sourcing level, not just the compositional level.