Pattern is a familiar concept ever present in our daily lives, existing in many material forms, observable in varied states, and able to be createdfrom a diverse range of processes and events. Natural pattern forms, such as biological and chemical patterns, have been extensively studied,often within the digital environment because of its capacity to process large amounts of data which aids investigation of not only theircharacteristics but their potentiality. However, human designed physical patterns, while having been investigated extensively in terms of theirhistorical, geographic and cultural significance and their aesthetic and/or mathematical characteristics, have not been fully investigated in terms oftheir evolutionary potential.This project explores one example of human designed physical patterns, crochet lace patterns – which have remained largely stable andconsistent throughout various technological transformations such as the industrial revolution – in order to explore pattern as a process andinvestigate the potential for these patterns to become emergent. This exploration translated the patterns into the digital environment where, asdata, the patterns become available for manipulation using a generative art practice approach.By translating the patterns into a digital environment and engaging with the pattern forms at their systematic core, where crochet patterninstructions and software programming scripts operate similarly as ‘code’, this research provided a deeper understanding of the patterns andallowed exploration of whether a pattern’s developmental path can be altered to create new emergent patterns.This research draws on systems theory and systems aesthetics and their application within contemporary generative art practice and informsvisual arts in several areas including showing how aesthetic values shift as work becomes cross-disciplinary and enters the digital environment,and how the introduction and location of innovation affects the relationship between the original and its copy.
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