Inspiration: Patterns in Nature
The universality of patterns at a macro and micro scale
I used to think of patterns as something beautiful but eternally repeating, static and complete, frozen in time.
Then…I came across this book.
I found Patterns in Nature (Phillip Ball) in a second hand book shop on Brunswick Street many (many) years ago, and as I paged through it, I began to think of, and visualise, patterns, not as fixed absolutes, but as dynamic states in motion that emerged through interactions between systems.
I began to think of, and visualise, patterns, not as fixed absolutes, but as dynamic states in motion that emerged through interactions between systems. I began to think of patterns, not as permanent, but as alive.
This book also got me thinking about the universality of categories of pattern, and how similar patterns appear at all levels of the universe, at a micro and macro scale, in the most awesome structures and the most ordinary of places.
I find a lot of my inspiration for my work in my everyday life because the way that I see these ordinary patterns has been forever changed by this book.
QUOTE:
“ …Richard Feynman said about the workings of the universe: ’Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organisation of the entire tapestry’.
The principles that operate in the world are general ones, and you can sometimes read them as clearly in a small corner as in a big vista: in a saucepan on the stove you might see an intimation of the convection patterns that arrange the clouds across the sky, for example, while the network of veins in your body echos (for good reason) the great river networks that cross continents and shape mountain ranges.”