Unique?

We treasure our individuality. And each of us, is of course, totally unique. However, we also know that much of who we are is shared. In this piece I wanted to produce uniqueness, but not lose sight of commonality.

I've drawn 3430 little puffballs each made up of 200 lines drawn from its centre. Each line follows a pseudo random trajectory unique to itself in all the world. 200 totally unique lines make for unquestionably totally unique puffballs. To put its uniqueness beyond any doubt, each line's colour is randomly selected, with a slight bias towards a darker shade of gray if its initial trajectory is closely aligned with the vertical and horizontal axis.

When viewed from a distance, these totally, completely, unequivocally unique puffballs tend to exhibit... commonality. They look similar from a distance, yet, are unique up close. They are each made up of unique lines, yet the algorithms that govern their creation are common.

So are they unique? Absolutely yes. Absolutely no.

ps. There is a pair of identical twins amongst the 3430 puffballs. Can you spot them? :)

Interlaced

This is a variation of a theme I've been exploring lately. I want to visualise the paths taken when sometimes opposing forces of attraction and repulsion act on point bodies. In this case, 4 points are paired up, and filled lines with a gold border are drawn between the members of the pairs. These pairs are attracted to each other and will move closer until they reach a certain threshold, whereupon the attractive force changes to repulsion. The pairs are thus constantly either drawn together, or pushed apart. In addition, hidden, non-moveable points are placed in the virtual world. These points also exert forces on the dynamic points according to the same rules of attraction and repulsion. Each dynamic point is given an initial velocity and over time, their paths are traced out. Although theoretically, given enough time it may settle into a static equilibrium, the complex interplay between the myriad of forces and the discrete time nature of computational simulations means that that time is a long way in coming if at all.

Here are some closeups of the tracks.

Interlaced has been uploaded to redbubble should you want a printout.

Luminosity

Back in school, we were taught about venn diagrams. Here's my not so strict interpretation! It's "not so strict" because the borders, upon close inspection, aren't well defined. It's a venn+artistic license. I call it mathematical graffiti.

Here're some closeups...





In the overlapping region, the lines that make up the disks clearly fight for space. Unlike a venn diagram, where usually the overlapping regions combine according to some logical criteria. Here, the component sets fight for indentity.

The non-regular shape of the border region is evident here. Each disk is comprised of thousands of individual lines, emanating from its centre. They have a pseudo-random perturbation from the vector pointing directly away from the centre of the disk.

I think I'll call it Luminosity. The white background seems to penetrate through the disks, giving them a lightbox type of visual effect.

Have a look here should you want a print of Luminosity.

Metalmorphosis

So. Here's my first post. What you see above is an image generated through the use of mathematical algorithms controllinga pair of points tied together using a simple filled rectangle. The fill color changes gradually. The pair of points work their way around a virtual world

attracted to each other, but should they come too close, will be repelled away. They are also attracted/repelled in the same way by static (invisible) points in the virtual world. Give them time, an initial velocity, and the pattern appears. The laws of attraction/repulsion mimick the inverse square nature of natural laws governing magnetic and gravitational attraction.




Here's a 100% closeup view.







It's blue, cool, metallic and seems to morph. I'll call it
metalmorphosis.