VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
“We may say most aptly, that the analytical engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.”
Galileo said “the laws of nature are written in the language of mathematics”
And there something curious between the beauty of the nature being underpinned by mathematics.
The algorithmic beauty of plants can be described using a mathematical system called a Lindenmayer system, which is a form of fractal geometry.
The roots of Lindenmayer systems are interlinked with linguistics and formal language theory.
In perhaps its simplest form, a Lindenmayer system can be described in terms of an alphabet, say A and B, and rules, such as ‘let A become ABA’ and ‘let B become BBB’. For each iteration, the existing string gets rewritten according to the rules, which is meant to mimic multicellular growth.
As my iteration zero for this project, I took a graphic I had replicated from Figure 1.24.e from page 37 of The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants using p5.js.
Here, the alphabet is X and F, and there is additional notation. The letters are coded to tell p5 to draw a line, and the brackets represent drawing a branch of an angle of my choosing, here 25.7 degrees, with pluses and minuses describing the directions right or left.
In Philip Ording’s book, 99 Variations on a Proof, he explores how the solution to one mathematical expression can be visually expressed nearly 100 different ways.
Similarly, I have been experimenting with the “expressive, cognitive, and imaginative possibilities” that one set of Lindenmayer rules might be able to describe. I simulated an infinite loop of Lindenmayer drawing and considered the interesting parallels between plants in the real world being grown from genetic code, and these plants being grown from JavaScript code.
Thinking along the lines of “concept and mode of presentation” altering the outcome and/or perception and/or meaning of a piece, I looked at conceptual artists like Joseph Kosuth,
And Yoko Ono,
And I began to trial my system in other media, pursing the idea that “a departure from realism may offer a fresh view of known structures”.
Copying the system onto needlecraft fabric gives the drawings a new context which harks back to their digital origins, both as it’s crafted using digits, and is computational in the sense that the squares of the fabric are akin to pixels. The iterations are continually discrete, yet discreetly continuous.
I am exploring this concept of things, in the words of David Tenan, that are “neither wholly digital nor wholly analog[ue]”.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Auerbach, T. (2019-2021) Ligature Drawings [ink on paper]. Available at: https://taubaauerbach.com/works.php
• Brautigan, R. (1967) ‘All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace’, in R. Brautigan All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. United States: Communication Company
• Enquist, B., J. (2023) ‘Tree Theory, Biogeography and Branching’, in K. Holten (ed.) The Language of Trees. Portland, Oregon: Tin House, p29-31.
• Holton, K. (2015) Tree Alphabet [ink on paper]. Available at: https://www.katieholten.com/treealphabetdrawings#/tree-alphabet/
• Kanawara, O. (1969) Code. Available at: https://www.onkawara.co.uk/styled-117/
• Knowles, T. (2007) Tree Drawings [ink on paper]. Available at: https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/28/knowles.php
• Kosuth, J. (1965) One and Three Chairs. Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81435
• Ording, P. (A Few of) 99 Variations on a Proof, 2019.
• Prusinkiewicz, P. and Lindenmayer, A. (2004) The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants. New York: Springer Verlag.
• Tenen, D. ‘Literature down to a pixel’ Plain Text: The Poetics of Computation, Stanford: Stanford University Press 2017 pp. 165-195.
• Wigner, E. (1960) ‘The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences’, Communication in Pure and Applied Mathematics.
• Woods, A. (2023) ‘Of Trees in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars’ in K. Holten (ed.) The Language of Trees. Portland, Oregon: Tin House, p225-231.
• YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND(2024) [Exhibition]. Tate Modern, London. 15 February 2024 – 1 September 2024. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/yoko-ono