Patterns

Abstract

In recent years there has been widespread interest in patterns, perhaps provoked by a realisation
that they constitute a fundamental brain activity and underpin many artificial intelligence systems.
Theorised concepts of spatial patterns including scale, proportion, and symmetry, as well as social
and psychological understandings are being revived through digital/parametric means of
visualisation and production. The effect of pattern as an ornamental device has also changed from
applied styling to mediated dynamic effect. The interior has also seen patterned motifs applied to
wall coverings, linen, furniture and artefacts with the effect of enhancing aesthetic appreciation, or
in some cases causing psychological and/or perceptual distress (Rodemann 1999).
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While much of this work concerns a repeating array of surface treatment, Philip Ball’s The Self-
Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature (1999) suggests a number of ways that patterns are
present at the macro and micro level, both in their formation and disposition. Unlike the
conventional notion of a pattern being the regular repetition of a motif (geometrical or pictorial) he
suggests that in nature they are not necessarily restricted to a repeating array of identical units,
but also include those that are similar rather than identical (Ball 1999, 9). From his observations
Ball argues that they need not necessarily all be the same size, but do share similar features that
we recognise as typical. Examples include self-organized patterns on a grand scale such as sand
dunes, or fractal networks caused by rivers on hills and mountains, through to patterns of flow
observed in both scientific experiments and the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci.