Category: 06-PatternReading

Computed art lends itself to elegance in pattern. I liked how the 10 print passage had a ton of examples of old 1-line code bits that produced serendipitous arrangements of lines and blocks, and I tried to write code for this project that would surprise me similarly. For example, I had no idea the leaf-like structures in my piece would arise, but they did, and that was a lovely discovery.

From the Graphic Games reading I found the below pattern really interesting because of how it uses lineweight to achieve a sort of optical illusion effect. I like how its not a grid tiling, but a row-wise tiling. Pretty cool stuff

In the excerpts, it was mentioned how patternmaking is typically seen as an ornamental type of art and is therefore overlooked. I definitely agreed with this sentiment prior to reading and creating my pattern; I had no idea how much thought could go into making any pattern. One part of the Graphic Games excerpt that I found very intriguing was the section on the “Adinkira” pattern and how simple transformations of the single shape could create vastly different effects for the viewer by changing the relationship between light and dark.

Something I found particularly interesting about the pattern reading was how they both highlighted something different about how the viewer is meant to experience patterns. In 10 PRINT, it’s that the viewer examines patterns by trying to anticipate what comes next; the excitement isn’t derived from something too predictable or too obscure but rather a balance in the middle (maybe if you didn’t provide a first time viewer a grid, the threshold would be if they couldn’t figure out the algorithm in the first ten seconds).  In Graphic Games, the first half of the reading focused on how our minds begin to read black/white as the primary shape in a pattern in relation to its coverage in a grid block or its “dark-light interchange.” I feel like truchet tiles could also make its way into optical illusions given both of these two ideas. I have no big introspective thoughts from reading this, but it has definitely given me a lot to think about in making a “good”(not boring) pattern.