The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants
Wednesday, 10 November 2004
The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants
If you kept your eye on the weblog I had running at transphormetic.com, you will know that I have a particular interest in patterns found in plants and related concepts such as recursion, symmetry, self-similarity and phyllotaxis – all of which result in complex, geometrically exact, replicative forms.
The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants (Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz, Aristid Lindenmayer) is a classic in the field and is available in PDF format (scroll to the bottom of the page) at algorithmicbotany. The book is a great place of study for any code biologist looking to nurture nature with data!
A lot of art is also informed by these models. Botanical Scan is a 3 dimensional plant installation constructed from a sequence of transparent layers. The work is heavily informed by self-organisation in plants and trees.
“Here we can observe a natural intelligence that informs all matter, organic and inorganic, an intelligence that also structures the universe spatially.
Architects are also increasingly utilising these mathematical models to communicate ideas and ‘grow’ algorithmic and organic buildings.
Nthd.org is predominantly a repository for experimental plugins and software for 3D design, architecture and visualisation. Check out the projects page and you will find some interesting work involving L-systems and Biomorphs.
