Pattern and Chaos in Art, Science and Everyday Life

Victoria Mitchell is Research Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts. She has published papers on various aspects of art, design and textile culture, pursuing an interdisciplinary theoretical approach which focuses on material, making, metaphor and meaning, and is co-editor of The Material Culture of Basketry (Bloomsbury, 2020), for which she wrote on pattern in the context of braiding and dancing.Dr Sarah Horton is an artist-researcher whose practice includes sculpture, drawing and painting often resulting in site-specific artwork. Her doctorate ‘Decoration: Disrupting the workplace and challenging the work of art’ indicates an ongoing interest in the way pattern, decoration and ornament is used in fine art and in a wider sense to indicate value and identity.

'In Pattern and Chaos in Art, Science and Everyday Life, chaos serves as the setting, while the creation, examination, documentation and destruction of patterns constitute the subject of the narrative... Many of these essays break down our sensory and imagined world into fundamental parts for metaphysical scrutiny and transformations between sense and creative interpretation.The personal and observational nature of...most of the writing in this book, is characteristic of academic writing about the creative process. This type of writing will be familiar to those publishing work in creative disciplines or collaborating with creatives in academia. For them, this book is a survey of works in related fields. Some of the featured techniques could be repeated at a smaller scale as practical exercises or investigations. This style will be less familiar to scientists, but it is a valuable example of research documentation outside the lab and shows how scientific research can be combined with work from other communities.Regardless of your professional discipline, when you take a step back and consider what these artists are doing, the imaginative power of their work is moving.'

• AcknowledgementsList of FiguresIntroductionSarah Horton and Victoria Mitchell PART 1: PATTERN DYNAMICSIntroductionThe Anxious SpiralKrzysztof FijalkowskiRepresenting Kinematics and Dynamics by Pattern-Breaking in Nature, Art and MusicBrian Whalley and J. Harry WhalleyDrawing Dynamic Patterns: The Protein MazeGemma Anderson, Jonathan Phillips and John DupréThe Metamorphogram: Pattern as Memory of ExperienceAlun KirbyCrumpling: An Exploration of NatureDewi Brunet and Gwenaël Prost, for the CRIMP CcollectiveSomewhere Between Weaving and PaintingGeoff Diego Litherland (with Angharad McLaren)Knotting Across Species: Creating Order from ChaosEleanor MorganSimplifying Complexity: The Visual Language of NeuroscienceGill Brown PART 2: MORPH, FLUX, MUTATEIntroductionUnrepeating-RepeatDanica MaierPattern EvolutionKate FarleyGeomorphology: Mapping the Land, Above and Below WaterGlyn BrewertonFluxKaty HammondDrawing FireDavid GriffinImago ImagesRobert HillierThe Chaos of Delight: Spatial and Temporal InterruptionsLesley Halliwell PART 3: DECOMPOSE–-RECOMPOSEIntroductionFomentCatherine YassMeniscusJames QuinnDigital DadaismChris BrownForty-Four SoundsMark GraverA Type of ChaosPauline ClancyFragile OrderCharlotte HodesShatterZoë HillyardThe Moments I am Looking For…Judith StewartExpanded Visuality: Photography as a Patterning Mechanism for the Animated FormKatarina Andjelkovic PART 4: VIRUSIntroductionGlobal Ghost MapAnne EggebertEmbodied and Coded: Drawings as Viral SystemsDaksha PatelViral ExperimentsLouise MackenzieContagious Pattern: The Spread of Appropriated Patterns by Contemporary ArtistsAndrew Bracey PART 5: SOCIAL IMAGINARYIntroductionYou’ll Never Walk Alone: Aa Song of Community and Struggle 1945–2021Sarah LowndesDialectical Reversal in About Two WorldsDavid MabbDistance and Disruption: The Organizsed Disorder of the Body in IllnessCatherine BakerUnfolding Thinking: Nanotechnology Meets Fine Art PracticeLes BicknellInstead of the Feeling of HomeTownley and BradbyDesigning for the Real World: The Importance of ChaosAnthony HudsonOrder?Sarah BlairYou Guys Are So StochasticLucy Ward and Karoline WiesnerClouds in the MachineSarah Horton PART 6 NOTHINGS IN PARTICULARIntroductionThe Shape of DustDoris RohrMimesis: Nothings in ParticularWilliam ProsserMottled Geometries: The Lure and Allure of the Pattern in the CarpetVictoria MitchellGhost Flower 3Andrea StokesDom Sylvester Houédard: Exhibiting Spiritual Architypestractures and Cosmic DustNicola Simpson Notes on ContributorsBibliographyIndex