What the coin flips are determining is whether you will be supplying only sound, only image, or both.

If you get two tails and one head or you get three tails, you should provide something with both sound and imagery. This may be moving video with sound, or one or several still images plus a sound file. You may integrate the visuals and the sound yourself or include them as separate files that the Lead Operator will edit together.

If you get two heads and one tail or you get three heads, you should provide either sound or image, but not both. Visuals may be moving video or static images.

In addition, if you get all three of the same side, either head or tails, this means the Virus Machine has mutated, and you have the additional responsibility of changing the steps.

If you get three heads, you should create a new step. This step should be based on randomness, though it does not have to replicate the types of randomness already present in the steps (coin flips and dice rolls). There are many potential approaches to randomness.

In the case of three tails, you should alter an already-established step. This may include deleting a step completely (though not Step 1), changing what one of the rolls of the dice means, or some other change that doesn’t eliminate randomness, which is essential to the process.

In both cases of step alteration, the first step should not be changed, nor should another step be added before it.

Visual imagery is anything the viewer may look at on their screen while the final, fully incorporated video is playing. To use examples from the Corona Lectures, this included a speaker talking to the camera; still photos from nature; slow-motion video of fire, the wind in the trees, a river flowing, or rocks skipping across the water; text printed on a piece of paper and photographed; text – static or moving – chyroned on the screen; photos and videos found online; and others. It may be standard video, slow-motion video, time-lapse video, static images (one or several), or text to be chyroned. I’m sure there are other types of visuals that may appear on screen. It may be an image of you – moving (choreographed or not) or static – of the world that you’ve captured, or something you found. It may be found or staged.

Audio is anything the viewer may hear while they watch the final, fully incorporated video. To use examples from the Corona Lectures, this included the Operator’s voice reading his own text; contributors’ voices reading text not of their own writing; the sound of a fire crackling; dream recordings. Other examples might include music or sound of your own composition, design, or performance; audio grabbed from the internet; sounds from nature; background noise from the street, a restaurant, a ballgame. It may include a human voice but need not. It may go with the visuals (if you came up with two or three tails) or not.

You are welcome to do this. Add this person’s name and email to your line of the Operator list, not in the next Operator’s slot. It is important that the three coins are flipped six times and six times only.

You may, though, work with a co-Operator twice (or more, if there are more Operators and there are enough slots remaining). In this case, run the Omicron Machine once to create the blueprint for the first contribution, execute the assignment, and only then run the Omicron Machine for the second time. This means that if you flip three of the same side (three heads or three tails) in the first run-through of the Machine, you will be changing the Machine you will use for the second run-through. Please contact the Lead Operator at AnthelionProjects@gmail.com if you have any questions about this.

You may not provide more than one solo contribution in a row. You may contribute again if the instructions come back to you after another Operator has contributed.

Look to the existing steps as guidance. Any new step should be chance-based, with the precise method of chance operations up to you. A coin flip leads to two possible, equally likely results. A die roll leads to six possible, equally likely results. Flipping three coins leads to four potential results, two more likely and two less likely. Rolling two dice and using the sum leads to eleven possible results, with a distribution of possibility like a bell curve (7 is most likely, 2 and 12 are least likely, the others increasing likelihood as they approach 7). Your step should indicate outcomes for every possible result of the aleatoric method you choose.

But there are other means of creating randomness that don’t involve rolling dice or flipping coins. What if you asked someone to go to a body of water (assuming they can find one that isn’t frozen), find a good skipping stone, and count the number of times it skips when they throw it across the surface of the water? The Greeks had a type of oracle in which they went to the statue of Hermes in the marketplace, covered their ears and asked a question of the oracle. They then walked some distance away, uncovered their ears, and the first words they heard were the oracle’s response. I don’t think it’s a good idea to ask anyone to sacrifice a chicken or goat so they can read the entrails, but you could certainly invite them to look to the sky and have the birds they see work as the method of determining how to execute the step. It is up to you to create clear instructions for your aleatoric method.

It is important to consider the potential results of whatever method of randomness you choose and have an executable action based on all outcomes (even if part of the step is, “For all other outcomes, do X.” The Machine may fail if the aleatoric act leads to a result that has no associated action.

Keep in mind that the purpose of introducing chance is to take some of the power away from the creator’s intention, ideally opening up new possibilities for what they create.

I can’t tell you. The instructions came to you at a particular time. You were concerned with particular things at that time. Maybe you were reading a great book – or a terrible one. Maybe you were caught up binge-watching a TV series. Maybe you were deciding whether your kids should attend school in person. Perhaps you’re writing a poem. Perhaps you’ve just given up on a poem, but have a few lines you really like. You might be sick of being stuck indoors. You might love the long nights of winter. Consider the timing of your receipt of the instructions as another chance operation and use it.

Each Omicron Oracle has an associated inquiry. Does this provide any guidance? Assuming you were not instructed to refrain from viewing the previous Operators’ contributions, they might provide some inspiration. Hopefully the Machine has given you something to think about, whether it’s a restriction that pens you in, or a hint that opens you up. We all love being inspired and dislike being frustrated, but frustration can be productive if we can figure out how to let it.

My suggestion is to run through the Machine as soon as you can, then move through the world with its blueprint as a companion. Be open to what happens around you, what is said to you, what you see, and what you feel. You most likely have a cell phone on you that you can record your voice or take photos or video on. It doesn’t have to be any more than a thought you have or a scene you encounter while you’re out on a walk.

If none of this is enough, you can see what has been done so far in the Corona Lectures and the Absence Canvases project.