The Golden Ratio Course
Stephen Wolfram’s book A New Kind of Science offers an interesting view on the phenomenon of complexity. In his book it is demonstrated how systems based on very simple rules can generate complex patterns that appear random in many ways. We will make a tour trough his examples, try to understand his claims and do some experiments ourselves.
We will deepen our understanding of complexity and ways to exploit it or master it. This module is not a substitution for the classical mathematical skills of symbolic manipulation in algebra and calculus. However, we shall use the computer-math tool Mathematica, which is a very powerful tool for all kinds of math, not only the cellular automata of Wolfram’s “A New Kind of Science”.
In particular, we will focus on the topic of Tessellation. You will use Mathematica to draw a tilling, which you will then export into Illustrator. We will then use the laser cutter to create your Tessellation with colorful plastic.
Resources
- Books
- A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram
- Flächenschluss: System der Formen lückenlos aneinanderschliessender Flachteile by Heinrich Heesch, Otto Kienzle, Otto Helmut
- Regular Figures by L. Fejes Toth
- Reguläre Parkettierungen by Hans-Günther Bigalke & Heinrich Wippermann
- Software
- Tutorials
- Basic Mathematica Tutorial
- Rotation Matrices Exercise
- Vectors and Matrices Documentation
- Information on how to export graphics from Mathematica
- Tutorial on how to prepare your drawing for the Speedy 300 laser cutter.
- Tilling Examples
Results
June 2008
- Braat (PDF) | braat.nb
- Boer (PDF) | boer.nb
- Kersteman (PDF) | kersteman.nb
- Mattheijssen (PDF) | mattheijssen.nb
- Wang (PDF) | wang.nb
- Wessels (PDF) | wessels.nb
- Westerlaken (PDF) | westerlaken.nb
June 2009
[...] The Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology has got a new promotion video. The scenes with the laser cutting tiles is based on our master module “The Golden Ration“. [...]
[...] The tiles are then mounted to foam board or another plate of Perspex. Transparent Perspex is more difficult to mount, since the mounting plate and the glue shines through. Additional examples of the students’ work are available at http://www.bartneck.de/2008/05/21/the-golden-ratio-course/. [...]