Duchamp, quoted on why he wrote what he wrote on fountain:
> Mutt comes from Mott Works, the name of a large sanitary equipment manufacturer. But Mott was too close so I altered it to Mutt, after the daily cartoon strip "Mutt and Jeff" which appeared at the time, and with which everyone was familiar. Thus, from the start, there was an interplay of Mutt: a fat little funny man, and Jeff: a tall thin man... I wanted any old name. And I added Richard [French slang for money-bags]. That's not a bad name for a pissotière. Get it? The opposite of poverty. But not even that much, just R. MUTT.
Why did he choose "Mutt" after reading the strip, and not before? Why did he make the piece after moving to the US, and not before? Why was fountain made only a few short years after economies were industrialized, and not before (or 100 years later?)
The point is, can an AI point out novel things well? All these little things add up to make it novel, and the search space for all the possible combinations of little things is infinite, when only a select few will click with the public at any given time.
> Mutt comes from Mott Works, the name of a large sanitary equipment manufacturer. But Mott was too close so I altered it to Mutt, after the daily cartoon strip "Mutt and Jeff" which appeared at the time, and with which everyone was familiar. Thus, from the start, there was an interplay of Mutt: a fat little funny man, and Jeff: a tall thin man... I wanted any old name. And I added Richard [French slang for money-bags]. That's not a bad name for a pissotière. Get it? The opposite of poverty. But not even that much, just R. MUTT.
Why did he choose "Mutt" after reading the strip, and not before? Why did he make the piece after moving to the US, and not before? Why was fountain made only a few short years after economies were industrialized, and not before (or 100 years later?)