socialmedian: Why Spontaneity Comes from Following the Rules

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Why Spontaneity Comes from Following the Rules

Submitted by Markdykeman from Google Reader

Oct 26, 2009

Summary

This video of a conversation between Brian Eno and SimCity game designer Will Wright (via Fresh Creation) reveals a surprising truth about creativity.

The most beautiful, complex and apparently spontaneous creations are often produced by following a few very simple, very rigid rules.

In their talk, Eno and Wright show some computer animations in which each coloured cell on the screen is programmed to analyse the behaviour of the cells next to it, and alter its own behaviour in response.

For example: “If three of your neighbours are alive, you’ll survive into the next generation. Or if only one of them is alive, you’re going to die.”

When the program runs at high speed these rules change the colours of the cells in each ‘generation’, creating complex patterns of colours flickering across the screen.

Suppose you had to make this as a film, what we’re seeing here. It would be very complicated, that’s a lot of information if you had to specify it as a visual phenomenon like that.

But what actually has happened is that there’s this tiny little set of rules and this la

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