This page is meant to go into a little more depth on the catalog system I’m trying to implement, so as to help organize my work, which covers a wide variety of incarnations from photo series to zines to physical design objects, and so on.
As a system, it’s not perfect and it will change over time, and it’s entirely possible that, someday, it will either be eliminated altogether or be replaced by a better system. Who knows. It’s what I’m working with, however, at least for the foreseeable future.
Everything I make that gets finished and put here gets a catalog number, and this page explains how the numbers work, how to read them, and why I bother with them.
If you only want the short version, open the How This Index Works section on the front page. This is the longer explanation.
Reading a Catalog Number
Every released work has a number in this format: CCC-YYMM-NN.
- CCC is the category, a three-digit code for what kind of thing the work is.
- YYMM is the year and month of the work’s first public release.
- NN is which release it was within that category that month.
So 120-2603-01 is Rolling the Dice on Urban Experience: category 120 (Zines), released in March 2026, and the first zine that month. And 310-2508-01 is the Toe Strap Doublers: category 310 (Cycling Related), released in August 2025, and again the first of its kind that month.
Most numbers end in 01, because I rarely release more than one thing in the same category in the same month. If I do, the second one is 02, the third is 03, and so on.
The Categories
Categories work on two levels. A range of a hundred, like 100-199, is a broad area. The tens inside it, like 110 and 120, are specific categories.
- 100-199 Publications: 110 Books and 120 Zines
- 200-299 Photography: nothing here yet
- 300-399 Objects: 310 Cycling Related and 320 Photography Related
- 400-499 Paper Goods: 410 Diaries and Planners
The numbers skip on purpose. Leaving gaps means a new category can slot in beside an existing one without renumbering anything that’s already out in the world. The categories are mostly about what kind of thing a work is, not what it’s about, so a zine about cycling would still be filed with the zines.
What a Number Means
A few rules are meant to keep the catalog consistent:
- A number is given based on when a thing is released, and it records the year and month the work was first released. That never changes.
- Numbers are never reused, even if I retire something.
- One thing gets one number. A diary that comes in several sizes and layouts is a single entry, not a separate entry for each file, as it’s basically just versions of the same thing as far as my thinking is concerned.
- A revised edition keeps its number. A genuinely new work gets a new one.
- Anything that comes in a series with a shared name, like a planned Aleatorist Asks zine series, will come in numbered volumes, and each volume gets its own unique catalog number. The series name is part of the title and is separate from the catalog number.
- If I decide something was filed in the wrong category, its number will change. Its page address won’t, because addresses use readable names rather than numbers.
Work That Isn’t Finished
Some entries on the Index will have no number. Work that’s underway shows its category code and the label In Progress. Ideas I intend to pursue show the label Potential. Additionally, work that is paused, with plans to resume, is labeled On Hold, and work that has been canceled or put on indefinite hiatus is labeled Mothballed.
Works with such labels get a proper catalog number only when actually released, because the number includes the release month, which I don’t usually know in advance. It also means that ideas that never come to fruition won’t use up a number, so the numbered works have no gaps left behind by abandoned works.
Released work that is still growing is different. A photo series I keep adding to, for example, already has a catalog number, so it is labeled Ongoing rather than In Progress. Ongoing is the only one of these labels that appears alongside a catalog number. When the series is finished, the label comes off and the number stays the same.
Finding Your Way Around
The front page lists everything by category, with a contents list at the top. Each category also has its own link by number, so aleatorist.com/#120 jumps straight to the zines in the index. If you’d rather be spontaneous, use any of the random page links or buttons around the site and see what happens.
Why Number Things at All
I make a lot of different kinds of things, and one numbering scheme lets a zine, a bicycle part, and a printable diary sit in the same list without any of them feeling out of place. Because every number includes a date, the catalog also doubles as a timeline of what I’ve made and when.
The structure borrows from the Johnny Decimal system, a method for organizing files and notes into numbered areas and categories. I’ve adapted it to suit a catalog of finished work, with dates built in.
An index system on a site with a random-page button is perhaps an odd pairing at first glance, but I think it’s a good balance that reflects the dual nature, ordered and chaotic, of my thinking and creative practice: numbers for finding things on purpose, and chance for finding them by accident.