So I ended up going deep down the rabbit hole of Moiré patterns this week. Honestly, I didn’t spend nearly enough time researching them, because I got too excited about the possibilities and just wanted to jump right in.
Before I jump in, let’s establish a quick definition: “A Moiré pattern is an interference pattern produced by overlaying similar but slightly offset templates. A simple example is obtained by taking two identical ruled transparent sheets of plastic, superposing them, and rotating one about its center as the other is held fixed.” -Wolfram Mathworld
This is one of those patterns that appear unexpectedly, and maybe in your periphery, and might go completely unnoticed. However, what captured my interest was how quickly you can build complex shapes and patterns and the potential for them to become animated by a person driving, walking, or even just moving their head slightly.
To begin I follow a tutorial that took two square grids and offset one of them with skew and subtle rotation. I ran into performance issues with this that made it challenging to tweak the parameters and get compelling patterns, but I liked the technique conceptually. Also, the site features some amazing ideas for other grasshopper applications and algos.
Next, I followed, what I thought was a tutorial, but ended up just being a screen-cap that moved way too fast, even on the slowed-down version at 75% speed. The idea was to build a series of Moiré pattern circles, with many adjustable parameters.
In the end, I got frustrated with grasshopper, and its lack of movement, and turned to my old friend Processing. On the bus, I wrote a quick sketch similar to the Wolfram example above, then I made a circle of lines that moved, before finally landing on this ridiculous rotating noodle. For me, the most compelling part is when the shape gets to about 3PM and there is a crazy radial pattern that appears. This shape also allowed for 3 layers to lines to overlap at times, making for even more complex patterns.
Link to ported P5 sketch: https://editor.p5js.org/claytonk/sketches/AkequKAP
For future exploration, I’m interested in combining physical surfaces with projection mapping to create the motion. I’d also like to explore some sort of kinetic sculpture that plays on the effect. Thinking far ahead, imagine embedding a stripped pattern on a bus window, and them hiding messages along the road that could only be viewed through when the Moiré pattern appears…
So much more to explore on this topic.
