1.1A

Moirés – Agnes Denes

I understood a moiré to be similar to a figure/ground gestalt but accomplished with fields rather than figures. Two fields overlap and a new field emerges from that combination, with its own unique qualities not present in the original two fields. Patterns emerge, in some cases formed by optical illusions. There’s a sense of democracy in them. Perhaps the emergent pattern is what immediately grabs one’s attention, but it doesn’t stand on its own. The viewer appreciates the pattern more upon identifying the discrete fields that overlap to form it. Like a Magic Eye illusion, the viewer is delighted when they finally see it.

Algebraic Combination – Stan Allen

As opposed to the geometric combination of classical architecture which created harmony through order and hierarchy, algebraic combination seems to create harmony through connectivity and unity. The effect, I think, is more dynamic than geometric combination, both because one can more easily achieve a sense of movement in algebraic combination and because, like Allen points out, parts can be taken away or added without losing the effect or form of the whole. It’s sort of like finding the trend line for a plot of data. Individual data points don’t tell you much, but taken together you can see the forces or rules at work.

Flock/swarm emergence – Iannis Xenakis

Here again is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. When a flock of birds fly together, the flock as a whole has different characteristics than the individual birds. If you could isolate the movement of just one bird as the flock does its aerial dance, it would probably look pretty erratic; wings flapping everywhere as the bird makes sharp turns and changes in speed to stay in time with the flock. It wouldn’t be anything like the gentle swooping and swelling that you see in the flock as a whole. These emergent qualities come from the fact that each bird is obeying the same rules, matching speed with and maintaining distance from the surrounding birds. When every individual follows these rules, they move as one.