In December 2019, I was invited to Doha Forum with the team of journalist and designers as a part of the JOVRNALISM Group at USC. The primary invitation was to showcase our work in immersive journalism to the dignitaries and delegates attending the forum. It was an experience as well as exposure to the thoughts of world leaders.
Qatar is in the opposite time zone from where I live. On the night of arrival as I was unable to sleep, I started sketching some patterns from my environment. Upon deliberate observation, I realized a repetitive pattern which I was encountering again and again.
Intuition was symmetric overlapping circles. However, my initial hypothesis was unable to answer many of the other patterns which I observed later during the trip. I was seeing edges, and different kind of grid patterns, irregular as well as the regular grid. Grids of different shapes made of triangles, square, pentagons, and hexagons.
Upon reading more, I was inspired by this article and research paper by the University of Waterloo, on the concept of star patterns. It is fascinating.
Below are some of my exploration with square grid patterns.
As a part of ongoing exploration, below are some of the patterns generated by various motifs. I later on connected some parameters with the audio creating music reactive patterns using the shader for better performance and animation. One can experience the experiment using this Snapchat Lens.
Fascinated by mathematics and geometry, I found a book written by Marcus du Sautoy named "Symmetry: A Journey into the Patterns of Nature". Upon reading the first few chapters, I learned about the rules, limitations, and number of possible symmetrical pattern groups in the universe. I will keep on experimenting and exploring this avenue of symmetrical and geometric patterns as my side-projects.