I want to respond to Principle 3.5 from this week’s reading, “build complexity from simplicity”. More specifically, I want to highlight and analyze some favorite works of art and design that use limited building blocks to create complex, engaging wholes.
The first work is the piece “In C” by Terry Riley (written in 1964). The piece is composed of 53 musical snippets, each in the key of C. Each player in the ensemble starts at fragment 1 and plays it as long as they care to before moving on to the subsequent fragment. Thus, these simple fragments– generally 3-4 beats long– weave into a highly textured swirl that is different at every performance and with each ensemble. While “In C” inevitably creates some chaos, Riley has thoughtfully designed each of the fragments to fit together, and, even at its most chaotic, the piece creates intricate interactions between voices rather than just a mushy sound cloud. Furthermore, the piece has an arc to it, with each segment developing an older idea into a fresh one or introducing a new idea. “In C” is not meant to be watched, it is meant to be performed and experienced as an interaction with other musicians. Moreover, it invites the performers to bring their own personalities to the piece, leaving tempo, dynamics, articulation and instrumentation entirely up to the ensemble.
The next work or, more accurately, category of works, are starflower quilts. Historically, quilts were designed to make use of small scraps of fabric; thus, many traditional quilts, such as flying geese or nine-patch quilts, are designed with small, repeating patterns. A starflower quilt is made up of square “blocks”, which are each made up of 32 equally sized triangles arranged in a star shape. However, from these simple square and triangular patterns, quilters can create unique and complex designs by varying the color and pattern of their fabric and the size of their quilt blocks. Each starflower quilt design simultaneously carries the legacy of all the starflower quilts before it and reinvents itself as an entirely new work of art. Each quilt is laden with personal and cultural significance, yet the overall structure is streamlined.
While these works of art are built on a limited set of fundamental blocks, they are not repetitive: a moving minimalist piece or beautiful quilt does not “copy and paste” but rather copies and transforms. I think an important, implied component of this principle is that building interesting complexity involves playing choosing an element and then pushing it to its limits.