Artist Matthew Shlian has created amazing geometric structures with paper using advanced systems to "shake" modular polyhedral forms into nesting arrangements. These computers simulate shaking these forms until they are so tightly packed that there's nowhere for them to go. Picture hundreds of 20 sided dice in a large box. After being shaken until the forms are tightly compact, the team takes a virtual slice from the Y axis. When we extract the layer we see a 12 sided aperiodic repeating form similar to Arabic tile design.
Take a second slice, but this time from a different axis and a whole new pattern appears. Slice again, diagonal or arbitrarily, another pattern emerges. This research into visualization of pattern intrigues me. It questions the macro/micro patterning of nature, the structures we find on the nanoscale and directly compares it to architecture and ornamentation. I use these structures as a basis for artwork.
