To make Mind Over Matter, I fed a computer three sentences:

"I think therefore I am." --Descartes
"I am what I am." --Popeye
"I think I can." --The Little Engine That Could

I programmed the computer to randomly generate every possible grammatical sentence from the combination of those sentences. When the piece is on display, the printer generates sentences which fall into the basket, slowly lifting the rock.

Here are some of the sentences written by the computer.

--Janet Zweig, 1996