Learning and creating designs with African Fractals
Many African designs are based on "fractals" -- patterns that repeat themselves at many scales (also called "scaling patterns"). To learn more you can order the book African Fractals by clicking here Creating fractals with recursive line replacement
Create your own fractals: nature, science, and African design Creating fractals with transformational geometry
One fractal design that is part of African American innovation is the scaling pattern of cornrow hairstyles. Another scaling design from Africa is this Mangbetu ivory sculpture Logarithmic scaling in an african windscreen
You can build a paper model to explore scaling patterns in an African windscreen Numeric recursion
Some examples of recursion in African material culture are numeric. The "marching formation" in the game of Owari offers insight into African concepts of iteration, self-organization, and related phenomena. Click here to experiment with these numeric patterns. |