One of the things that is often misunderstood about Allan McCollum's Shapes Project is that the Shapes are NOT "generated" out of a database, or a script, or a computer program, or a logarithmic procedure of some kind. While of course he uses a home computer, he only uses a common everyday graphics program — Adobe Illustrator — and pieces the Shapes together using a simple cut-and-paste method, piecing together smaller pieces he has constructed himself into larger pieces, and those pieces into larger pieces, and so on, according to a combinatory system that is mainly in his head, translated into a written protocol he keeps in notebooks. McCollum has a workshop-type approach, and understanding the tedious labor involved is something he considers to be an important factor in understanding and enjoying the project.
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