ORDER IN NATURE

ORDER IN NATURE

Welcome! This is a collection of the work I have done for my Art and Design AS project. When we were initially given the brief for this term: order and chaos, the general consensus of the class was that man-made stuff brought order to the chaotic world that we live in. The general view was that nature is chaotic while man-made things bring order. This idea is reflected outside of the art scene and has even been discussed by great thinkers and historians such as Henry Adams who described chaos as the “law of nature.” However as I looked at nature through the lens of order, I found an overwhelming amount of evidence that nature is far more ordered than this view allows. I tried to take an open-minded view and think more about different perspectives that might show a more orderly dimension to nature. Through this project I have come to agree with Jose Saramago who states that, “Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.”

The purpose of this project was to look at nature to see if there is order beneath the chaos.

Magnets

I started this project thinking about order in nature. The first thing that sprung to mind was magnets and the fields that they make. The beautiful, complex patterns made from individual components [iron filings] are held together by one force.

Magnets are an important part of this world. They are a form of natural order. Their fields create patterns and shapes so intricate, and yet they do this instantaneously. Although each piece is a different shape [some large, some small, no two the same], the force that binds them is the same. The overall form is uniform. The shards of iron are held in place by the simple force.

Then I tried using an electromagnet – much more powerful, larger surface area, and more control over the magnet.

I experimented with current, strength and orientation to see how they would affect the patterns.

Sampling techniques used:

A few filings// Lots of filings// On and off// Vary voltage//

Orientation// Dynamic//

Sprinkling a few filings around the magnet to show the basic field lines (minimalist):

These images look incredible - the geometry and the aspect of impossible balance. They give a sense of fragility and weakness, because what is holding them there is invisible.

It is easy to judge things at first glance, but your judgement is founded on what you see, not on what is really happening.

Pouring on more filings to produce a 3D structure shows the over all shape created by the magnet, but there is extraneous detail. Less is more. More is less. The look of fragility has been lost, and it now looks clumsy and bulky.

Pouring the filings onto the magnet while the current is switched off, and then switching it on:

Here only the strongest forces are visible and the number of iron shards being held by the force is reduced because the magnet has to lift up the shard rather than just hold them in place.

Varying the voltage changes the size of the structures.

Making the shape smaller reduces the resolution of the shard structure.

One thing I liked about the electromagnet work was the individuality. Every time I poured iron filings onto the magnet and turned on the current a shape would appear similar to the last one, but noticeably different. There is a repeating dome structure with an aspect of originality within.

I wanted to manipulate the overall structure, to see if I could create forms other than a dome. This was a hard problem to overcome. My solution was to change the orientation, so adding gravity into the equation.

Orientation

Hanging the magnet from above so that the structure was also affected by gravity:

Gravity, another natural force, added to the magnetism, created a beautiful set of samples. The two forces are complementary. When you add them you get tall structures. When you have the magnet on its side, it stretches one side (bottom) and compresses the other (top). These two forces combined can accomplish in a fraction of a second, something that would take hours for a pair of hands. The magnetic field has lost none of its fidelity, but it has gained the extra complexity.

I like this addition of complexity but there was one thing missing - TIME.

So now I wanted to make the structure move, and record the movement, adding the dimension of time.

Dynamic

- experimenting with the effect of sound.

Now I added the mathematics of music into the equation:

[Play video]

This shows sound in a visual way, using filings to produce the analogue order of sound and the form of the magnetic field produced by the speaker’s magnet.

Again none of the integrity of the filings was lost. It simply helped to illustrate another movement we encounter each day - sound. Like my orientation samples, sound is just compression and rarefaction. It deforms the medium it is travelling through. As you can see in the video, the filings hold their form as they pulsate to the beat. The structure is only lost when balance is swayed and the volume is boosted out of proportion. Even then, new patterns form in 3D like fireflies above the speaker.

A blind alley

I tried to use these properties to create structures of my own design by manipulating multiple magnets and guiding the filings. This didn’t work. My interfering destroyed the natural beauty, because I was interfering with a natural force that I didn’t completely understand. The magnetic force was too complicated to manipulate with any success.

This shows how man’s attempt to order nature produces more chaos. Manmade stuff at first glance seems to bring order, but actually has adverse effects on true order. However, nature is so complex that we see it as chaos. Now, I wanted to look at organic objects to see if I could find order beneath the apparent chaos.

end.