is rich with competing forces whose confluence creates the spatial
and temporal patterns and shapes that we, as humans, experience every
day. Any given force or effect (gravity, erosion, viscosity) operates
over many scales of time and space, but is typically dominant over
a smaller range. The bounds of this range are where alternative forces'
influences become considerable. The characteristics of the pattern
or behavior resulting from each dominant force are different; and
at the length and time scales where two dominant forces overlap, new
patterns will emerge.
I use computer simulation of natural and artificial phenomena to visualize
patterns created from either the isolation of a particular dominant
force or the interplay between co-dominant forces. An advantage of
working with computer models for these physical systems is the availability
of data for any component of the system: effectors or inerts can be
made visible, temporal and spatial dimensions can be swapped, and
non-physical projections of the data can be created. New patterns
can be explored by nearly any combination of forces or projections.
The aim of my work is the creative exploration of this space.
A paradox of real and unreal natures exists in Mesh #3 Iso. The image
is a photometrically accurate computer rendering of a specific scene.
The scene is composed of cylinders, assembled into a structure which
could not possibly support itself if manufactured. Each visually-solid
cylinder represents the mathematical "vortex core" of a
small packet of air. The arrangement of these vortex cores is the
result of a computational fluid dynamic simulation of the self-evolution
of vortexes in free space. The initial conditions that resulted in
this shape were completely arbitrary and unrealistic. The superposition
of these real and unreal elements pulls the viewer's perceptions in
In the future, when personal entertainment relies on fooling a viewer
with scenes of natural and constructed objects and behavior, the lines
between nature's actual behavior and a computer's simulation will
be gone. The laws of physics used to calculate visually realistic
images will be mutable, even irrelevant.