Post on 24-May-2015
PATTERNS
“Nature’s forms are the most practicaland functional and most efficient in
terms of space, materials, energy, andtime. Nature’s patterns teach us how to
get the most from the least. -- Michael S. Schneider
Humans observe nature
We see patterns!Amazing, right?
As keen observers,
we notice what patterns do.
The Branch
The Branch …….. gathers, collects and distributes the flow of water, air, energy, or material. It increases exchange and transport and anchors them.
SOURCE
The Lobe
• The lobe provides surfaces for exchange, edges, or interfaces where two things meet. The edge is the most productive and fecund part of a system, where the most interesting things happen.
Source: Permaculture Activist #19
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
INCREASING EDGE
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Slime Mold
Source The article is worth reading if you don’t know about slime mold.
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Lobed Stony Coral: 500 years old
Source
Mima Prairie, Washington State
The Spiral
• The Spiral has the function – of speeding up or slowing down, – of concentrating or dispersing, depending on
which way the flow is going.
• It’s regenerative
• It concentrates or disperses energy
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The Net or Web
• The net or web is used for sorting, collecting, filtering and small surface exchange. It distributes both tension and force. We can use this pattern to strengthen and reinforce.
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Dendrite
Brain Image
A Quark: source
Source Side note for fun: Click hereMove the blue square!
The Scatter pattern introduces the
element of chance into a system.
It breaks things up and slows them down.
X x x
x x x x x xx x
x x
X xx x
x xx x
The Scatter Pattern
s
Photo courtesy of Jean Straatmeyer
Photo courtesy of Cindee Karns
The Rhythm/Wave PatternThe Wave pattern --streamlines, zig-zags and flows--provide pulsation, timing and the possibility of measurement over time into a system. Waves transfer energy, slow speed, and catch and store things.
Your heartbeat is a wave pattern.
Source
The HOLON
The holon pattern is the samepattern nested into a bigger one.
It is used as a growth pattern--it spreads.
FRACTALS
Click HERE to see them in action
Click HERE to go one step furtherIt’s amazing.
These are resting patterns,Like eddies in the river
There’s a block in the flow and the water raps around it.
It’s a resting place for big rainbowtrout!
Look at the model and decide where the flow is coming from.
SOURCE
The Overbeck Jet
Bill Mollison
calls all of these patterns,
which we’ve noticed in nature,
part of the…..
The General Core Model
Bill Mollison identified the coremodel as the model from which all other models come.
It is used for gathering up and then exploding forth.
Think of writing a research paper or giving birth.
Can you see how
the patterns fit in to
the larger whole?
Mollison, Page 73
Maybe it will help if you see its movement or flow…
ALL PATTERNS can be found in the General Core Model
It’s just amazing!
So---now you know what you are looking for!
They are hard to find in real life.
An easy way to see them is to look for the flow. 1. What’s happening? 2. Where is the energy coming from?3. Where is it going? 4. What’s the relationship?5. What purpose does the flow serve?
You can even map your community to lookat all of the flows. Like: where are the flows of traffic, or flows of money, etc.
A great resource book
That I just finished is called:
A Pattern Language By Christopher Alexander
May the rest of your day be filled with looking at patterns!