TRIPLE Pendulum!

Chaos Calligraphy | Triple Pendulum

The Chaos Calligraphy project is intended as a way to visualize Chaos Theory.  The piece is displayed on a 9600 x 2760 pixel screen.  Chaos Calligraphy uses randomly generated triple pendulums to plot chaotic curves along the length of the screen.  

Whoa! Chaos!

The curves plotted by Chaos Calligraphy are a visual display of Chaos Theory.  By observing the pendulum trails, the viewer can observe the nature of a chaotic system; as it begins a with randomized initial state, develops a chaotic motion, and settles into self-similar cycle, however still retaining chaos within the 'redundancy'.

One pass of triple pendulum

Chaos Calligraphy begins by creating a triple pendulum, with random arm lengths and random mass values, at the top left of the screen.  Chaos Calligraphy will then plot the path of the triple pendulum as it moves horizontally across the screen.  Once the curve reaches the end of the screen, Chaos Calligraphy will generate another random triple pendulum placed beneath the previous line.  Chaos Calligraphy will trace six different triple pendulums on the screen and then reset at the top of the screen, drawing over the came canvas.  The colors of the curves are based on the positions of the pendulum ends in respect to one another.  The use of color in this piece is an additional layer of visualizing chaos.  Similar to calligraphy, the width of the stroke is based on the velocity of the pendulum arm.  

Additional examples.....