Volume 2. Chapter 5. Articulation of matter

Ornamentation

If all you’re doing is following instructions, your work will have no life. Rigid determinism may result in symmetrical ornamentation. Nature is not like that, but its dynamic forces work in random conditions. Therefore, we focus on the essential and on the process. Take the germ of an idea and let it grow like a living thing.

Vibratory impulse

Draw the bow of a violin on the edge of a metal plate covered with fine sand. A single point of vibration imparts to the sand on the plate a rhythmic pattern. You are the bow on the plate. What is your vibratory impulse? What do you need to express?

Waves

A water surface is susceptible to random and chaotic motions. Water molecules move freely but pull together. Narrow your focus to the smallest effect and see how animation there propagates living forces across the entire surface.

Sand on a beach

Air and seawater wind and tides leave patterns in the sand whose clarity and subtlety exist because loose and porous grains of sand are transformable.

Tiny shelters

Attacked by waves and wind, sand grains line up to resist movement, forming tiny shelters, then give way to cascade in rivulets.

Vibrations

Movement permeates everything; everything vibrates even though its vibration may be imperceptible. Every particle transmits and coordinates in its vibrations in larger groupings in all dimensions.

Unscrolling

A plant unscrolls from its seed. Its leaves unscroll; its petals unscroll. A flower unscrolls to tell its story. Then it scrolls itself into seeds.

Cell function

Each cell in a plant has a function. Cells in capillaries convey fluids. Other cells reinforce structures of root and stem, leaf and flower. Photosynthesis and pollination, tiny movements collaborate life.

Organs

Each eukaryotic cell has organelles. Animals and plants have many eukaryotic cell types forming tissues and organs. An organism is organized. Organs grow for a particular function that benefits the whole organism.