Can you find different patterns
in this photo?
As effortless as it is for us
to notice patterns, we can't always explain or predict them. The influences
that create patterns are sometimes too subtle and interdependent for us
to understand completely. "Chaos" is the name we use for these
phenomena that are too complicated to predict. Yet from within these seemingly
random, chaotic systems, order can emerge. When that happens, we see a
pattern.
The order that arises spontaneously
out of chaos is the subject of a new science called complexity. Complexity
tells us that nature is made not of objects, but of processes. Clouds,
sand dunes, ocean waves-each is a part of a shifting balance between forces,
a constantly evolving system of relationships. Changes unfold on every
scale. The past shapes the future, but not always in predictable ways.
At the heart of the Turbulent
Landscapes exhibition is an appreciation of the beauty of nature's complexity.
The wispy edge of a cloud swirls and dissolves in Infalling
Cloud. Miniature sand dunes swell and collapse
in Aeolian Landscape.
In Convection Cells,
a pattern that looks like a fingerprint appears in fluid heated from below.
You may not find patterns in the exhibits right away, but look closely
and patiently and they will reveal themselves.
