Meandering Curves
Introduction
About
This lecture provides an overview of the course and meanders through space and time.
Goals
- Overview of the course
- History of meanders in nature and design
- Basic understanding of generative coding
- Basic understanding of self organisation
Inspiration
Nature
- Harold Fisk: Mississippi Maps (1944)
- Daniel E. Coe: Willamette River, Oregon (2013)
Culture
- Alois Raimund Hain: Mäander, Kreuze, Hakenkreuze (1852)
- Owen Jones: The Grammar of Ornament (1856)
- koFactorLab: Super-Flexible Laser-Cut Plywood (2015)
Art
- Anni Albers: Red Meander (1954)
- Anni Albers: Intersecting (1962)
- Anni Albers: Under Way (1963)
- Wilson Thomas: Tramarada Font (2011)
Literature
Meanders
- Hans-Henrik Stølum: River Meandering as a Self-Organization Process (1996)
- Jeffrey Ventrella: Brain-filling Curves: A fractal Bestiary (2012)
- Jenny Sabin: Meander: Variegating Architecture (2010) — ISBN 978-0415424271
Lines
- Tim Ingold: Lines: a brief history (2007) — ISBN 978-0415424271 (hint: google it)
- Wassily Kandisky: Punkt und Linie zu Fläche (1926)
Labyrinths and Mazes
- William Henry Matthews: Mazes and Labyrinths: A general Account of their History and Developments (1922)
- Herrmann Kern: Labyrinthe (1999) — ISBN 978-3791306148
- Sam McElhinney: Labyrinths, Mazes and the Spaces inbetween (2009)
- Casey Reas: 10 PRINT (2012) — ISBN 978-0819426529 or PDF
Science
- E.Gail Hutchinson and Janet M.Thornton: The Greek key motif: extraction, classification and analysis (1993)
Collaborative Drawing
About
In this lecture we will draw curves using everything from paper to online tools.
Goals
- Learn about algorithms
- Learn about constraints
- Design your own algorithm
Videos
- Conditional Design Workshop by Studio Moniker (2013)
- Conditional Design Keynote by Studio Moniker (2015)
Links
Random Walks

John Venn The Logic of Chance (1888)
About
In this class we will learn how to use randomness to create curves.
Goals
- Learn to use and create functions in processing
- Learn about random distributions
- Learn about noise functions
Links
- Walking on Real Numbers
- Visualizing Randomness (Anti-Dataviz)
Art
- Roomba Art Group on Flickr
- Drawn not Void by Sergio Albiac (2010)