Typical examples of pigmentation patterns on mollusc shells. In each close-up the pattern grows from 26 top to bottom, just like in a one-dimensional cellular automation.
These rule-based, simple scripts tend to create very complex patterning and behaviour; moreover the patterning is seen here as embedded in the process of growth and material formation in the natural/biological systems. Rule-based, Geometric patterns have fascinated mankind since ancient times. Artists had an excellent understanding of the generation principles of patterns long before mathematicians devoted deep studies to this subject. A prominent example is furnished by Moorish architecture. In the 13th-century Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, we find all the essentially different types of pattern that can be formed by congruent tiles; the mathematical classification has only been achieved in the 20th century. 27 -
Arabesque – Islamic Patterns and Ornamentation
As known, Islam in itself omits figuration. In this direction, Islamic architecture has constructed a taxonomy of patterns and ornamentation that express and goes along the basic tenet of Islam, not to be misled into an imaginary and idolatrous world. Islamic patterning and ornamentation has recently raised interests among the architects and artists because of its intellectual, mental, cultural and metaphysical bias, not merely decoration and material. In one hand this interest is also related with the shift of huge amount of construction works lead in the East by the Western architects and designers. And in the other hand, the Islamic patterning is becoming generative through digital tools in the articulation of the building envelope through a deep Ornamentation. 26 27
Wolfram, Stephen ‘A New Kind of Science’ Canada, 2002, p423 Pottmann, Helmut, 2009: ‘Geometry and New and Future Spatial Patterns’ AD Vol 79/6, p61
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