Spiral of Spirals
October 20th, 2020
Spiral of Spirals was created in September 2020 as an entry for Sisyphus Industries' Track Design Contest. The contest invited participants to design creative and visually compelling tracks for display on their kinetic art furniture.
My interest in the kinetic art of sand tables began in 2007 when I discovered the art of Bruce Shapiro, the founder of Sisyphus Industries. His kinetic sculptures blend technology and art, creating mesmerizing patterns in sand. In 2018, after seeing Bruce’s Kickstarter campaign to make these sculptures more accessible as home products, I returned to the sand table that I had started years earlier as a response to his work. Over the next two years, I worked on developing the hardware and software necessary to create my own designs.
My Contest Entry
As I developed art for my sand table, I focused on geometric patterns like cycloids, Farris curves, and other parameterized shapes. Although most of my work was based on established forms, I created a few original designs, including one called "Fibonacci Lollipops". This design drew a line from the center toward the perimeter where it would draw a spiral-shaped lollipop before returning along the same path to the center. Each subsequent lollipop was slightly shorter and offset by a specific angle from the previous one. This resulted in a design that combined two spirals: one formed by the lollipops themselves and the other by their overall arrangement. This concept built upon my earlier work with Fibonacci Florets.
I was pleased with this design because it was visually striking, interesting to watch being drawn, and covered any previous designs that had been drawn it order to create a new clean design on the table.
I had no idea how it would perform in the contest. It didn't win the popular vote, but it was selected as the judge's choice by the Sisyphus team, which to me is an even greater honor.
The code for this design is publicly available, and you can experiment with its parameters to create your own variations.
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