CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@mrdk thank you. I hope making art with algorithms brings you some of the same joy it’s brought me.

@mrdk yes! Making errors with cellular automata can take an algorithm that makes relatively uninteresting designs to one that makes really compelling ones. Many of the designs in my book have errors, whether intentional or not, and some have complete “reboots” to reset the pattern entirely. When you’re building a pattern once cell at a time, sometimes it makes a lot of sense to add errors to add interest. Sometimes I highlight the errrors in a contrasting color.

@mrdk I think that project is quite similar to mine as they’re both fiber art and cellular automata. The biggest difference is the grid. I’m using a staggered grid rather than the traditional square grid, and it turns out that makes a big difference in the visual impact of the designs. Thank you for your interest in my book.

@fractalkitty @lizzard @paul_ipv6

Thank you so much for your interest and enthusiasm for this project!!!!

@loopspace Roger Antonsen was a spark of light, a genius at math, logic, coding, and mathematical art. He was kind and funny. I learned a lot from him, and I was lucky to have as much of his attention as I did. Many of the deeper mathematical observations in our book were Roger’s, and he wrote all the code that we used for the illustrations that appear on almost every page. I miss him dearly.

@v_for_verbosity that’s a lovely piece of Cellini peyote stitch your mom made. Thank you for sharing it with me.

I’m very familiar with Contemporary Geometric Beadwork. I have both of the first two books, and they are masterful works, both! I like to imagine that CGB described the intrinsic forms of peyote stitch beadwork in the way that Beading with Algiritms describes the color patterns. The two books are complementary and can be used together.

@FlarZuumi thank you Flar. I hope you enjoy using the algorithms to make some art.

@provuejim awe thanks Jim. I promise it will be worth at least half of what you paid for it or half your money back.

@tinfoiling thank you! Working on this book became a side hobby. After year 3, it gave me and my friends who worked on it a reason to meet regularly and chat about our progress and other cool math and art stuff.

Unless we sell 100,000 copies, it’s never going to pay for all the time we put in it, and that’s okay. It was fun, beautiful, and content worth sharing with the world. But maybe, just maybe, we’ll sell 100,000 copies. That’s only 1 in every 83,000 people.

@grease thank you very much. I hope you enjoy making art with these algorithms as much as I have. As a family, you can all choose the same algorithm, but each use different colors and a different initial condition, and you’ll all get a different piece of art.

@cthon1c awe, that is such a sweet comment. ️ I’ve tried reading that book a few times and never got to the end. I assure you that the picture to text ratio is much larger in our book. We also have countless tables. So many tables.

@loopspace yes. Roger Antonsen was a math professor at University of Oslo, Norway. Sadly, he passed away, it will be two years this April. He and I worked on this project for about seven years together.

@RosyMaths @GinevraCat the book actually has a fair amount of math in it. However the math is more observational, rather than proof-based, because I didn’t want to scare away the artists. Since most of our math observations come without proof, I think there is a lot there for mathematically interested folks to consider and explore, too. I’m hoping the book will spawn a few senior math theses, in particular. Some of our observations might even be harder than that. I don’t know because I didn’t try to write the proofs. Instead I wanted to make a recipe book of algorithms for artists. Since you enjoy hand crafts, you can also apply our algorithms to coloring or embroidery. Thank you for your interest and support.

@RosyMaths @GinevraCat thank you so much Rosy. I hope you find a similar joy to what I have from beading with algorithms. It’s very meditative.

@sewblue yes, weaving and computing are longtime friends. It’s arguable that the first computing machines are looms. Cellular automata are special types of algorithms though because depending upon how you start, you can get many different patterns out of one algorithm. In contrast, with a punchcard loom, you’re always going to get more or less the same pattern, although you can still change the colors and dimensions.

@UweHalfHand thank you. It’s a pretty book full of pretty pictures. Maybe that’s enough. One of my goals was to make it pass “the flip test,” meaning when you quickly flip through the pages, there’s an explosion of colorful images. When I’m in bookstores, I always use the flip test when deciding which books to buy for myself because I like pictures more than text.

There’s a complete chapter on bead weaving, but if you don’t want to learn beading, you could color the coloring pages. It’s very meditative. Or maybe you know how to lay tile, and you could use the algorithms to tile the bathroom or kitchen. The algorithms all work with grids using squares, rectangles, or regular hexagons.

@MyYeeHaa thank you so much. I hope it brings you some of the enjoyment that it’s brought me. I find the process of beading with algorithms (or even coloring with them) is very meditative. It’s good to calm an anxious mind.

@MisterMadge @standupmaths perhaps the largest patch of 1D cellular automata that doesn’t repeat. I’d love to see it!

@MyYeeHaa thank you. Sure, you could take up beading; there’s a whole chapter on weaving beads. If that’s not your style, you could retile the bathroom or kitchen. The algorithms would work perfectly with ceramic tiles: squares, rectangles, or regular hexagons.

@littlescraps thank you. I hope beading with algorithms brings you some of the joy it’s given me.