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By recalling its source shape recursively, cracking generates a geometry of self-similarity. For instance, a river delta has variously scaled “triangles” that are each cracked by the iterative and aggregate process of fluvial erosion. The crack patterns in dry mud or paint show a similar recursion of shapes in at least two visible scales. Whether it is the dynamics of water channeling through sediment to produce a delta or heat and dryness causing paint to peel, cracking is a distinct action performed through materials. The geometry that is created is about a return to origins within each new crack: the subdivision expresses something unique about the initial state from which it began. It is an embedded logic impossible to escape and fascinating to proliferate.
We applied the logic of cracking in 2D first using processing as the preferred scripting language. The generative procedure should incorporate both developmental and behavioral logics. Developmental in the sense of the recursive and self-similar cracking procedure. Behavioral in the sense of the boundary object that influences the cracking procedures. In the next step we managed to proliferate the pattern in three dimensions.

Institution: Columbia University
Year: 2007
Location: New York, USA
Program: Algorithmic Growth
Status: Proposal
Design Team: Martin Henn, Noriaki Hanaoka