Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1992 - 14

If rhese evems were purely physical
phenomena, scienrisrs would say rhey
demonsrrared rhe "Buner£ly Effeer," or
in sciemific rerms, "sensirive dependence
on inirial condirions." I The image rhey
use srans wirh a buner£ly in Japan £lapping irs wings, moving a small amoum of
air and evenrually causing a blizzard in
Vermom several weeks larer. '
The plays we produce orren deal wirh
such maners. \Y/e ralk abour fare or desriny and we debare wherher we exercise
free will or if we are subjeer co a cosmic
dererminism. Is rhe universe chaoric or is
rhere a plan? \Y/e snuggle co find answers,
co find parrerns and co find ways co exercise some comrol over our lives.
Sciemisrs in rhe pasr decade have also
become inreresred in occurrences which
are chaoric. They are finding panerns in
chaoric sysrems, and rhus rheir discoveries are changing nor only science, bur
conceprs of fare and dererminism, aesrherics, and human responses co chaos
and order.
As wirh any new ideas, rhere are some
cienrisrs who discounr rhe value of
srudying chaos. Nevenheless, rhe physics
and marh shelves in bookscores grow
increasingly longer wirh volumes on
chaos. For rhose of us wi rh Ii rde background in marh or science, evaluaring rhe
validiry of rhe new rheories mu r be lefr
co orhers, since undersranding rhe principles is hard enough. Even rhe new vocabulary rakes effore. Such rerms as fraerals,

scochasric, copology and srrange anraccors are impressive words co use ar cockrail parries bur rhey also represenr conceprs rhar can help us in rechnical rheane
co make sense of rhe consranr conrradicrions we deal wirh-rhe dynamic rension
berween order and chaos.
Scienrisrs rhemselves define chaos in
differenr ways. "Scochasric behavior
occurring in a dererminisric sysrem." , "A
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1992 SPRING

TD&T

kind of order wirhour periodiciry." ;
"Dynamics freed ar lasr from rhe shackles
of order and predierabiliry. .. Sysrems libera red co randomly explore rheir every
dynamical possibiliry. ... Exciring varieC»,
richness of choice, a cornucopia of
opponuniC»." , Wharever rhe definirion,
chaos research is being done in widely
differem areas of science from rhe srudy
of vemricular fibrillarion in medicine, r~
rhe rurbulence of gasses and liquids in
physics, co rhe formarion of snow£lakes
in mereorology, co fraeral geomerry in
marh. (Fraeral is a word coined by Benoir
Mandelbror co describe fraerional dimensions which are a "way of measuring
qualiries rhar orherwise have no clear definirion: rhe degree of roughness or brokenness or irregulariry in an objecr." 6
Sciemisrs who have been exploring
chaos in narure have been rhinking abour
phenomena which, because of rheir complexiC)f, were formerly excluded from sciemific inquiry or dismissed as aberrarions
in a simplified science of linear solurions.
ow, wirh new discoveries, new rhinking
abour whar was previously umhinkable,
and wirh rhe power of compurers co irerare formulae beyond our previous imaginarions, sciemisrs are looking ar chaoric
sysrems as imponanr pieces in rhe puzzle
of exisrence.
Newconian physics could nor explain
many phenomena. \Xfhen we pour a cup
of hor coffee, we can measure rhe coffee's
remperarure. We know rhar if we ler rhe
coffee srand, ir will evemualIy reach room remperarure.
Whar we can'r predier are all
rhe differem remperarures of
rhe coffee as ir cools and is
subjecr co chaoric convecrion
currenrs.
Similarly,
ewconian physics can chan
rhe parh of rwo moving parricles, bur rhe marh for rhree
panicles is beyond our figuring. If rhree panicles are
impossible, ir is useless co
arrempr co figure whar rhe
molecules in a gas are doing
and how rhey behave when
heared. However, we can
measure pressures and remperarures and use a sysrem of
probabiliry and srarisrics co predier and
explain rhe physics involved.
Sciemisrs using Newconian principles
were also forced co ignore slighr discrepancies in complicared sysrems. \Y/har,
arrer all, does a lirde fricrion maner? Bur
ir does, and even a decimal poinr or rwo
in a problem run on a compurer can produce unexpecred and erraric resulrs.
Moreover, sysrems rhar appear simple

enough co be farhomable are somerimes
chao ric.
The Lorenzian warerwheel is an
example. Picrure a warerwheel made up
of buckers wirh holes in rheir borcoms. If
warer is ler imo rhe buckers ar rhe cop ar
a rare rhar is less rhan whar can run our
of rhe holes in rhe bucker, rhe wheel does
nor rum. If rhe warer is grearer rhan whar
can run our, rhe buckers fill up and sran
co rum rhe wheel, cominuing co lose
warer as rhey rum. \X!hen rhe warer £low
ar rhe cop is increased, rhe wheel picks up
speed and rhe buckers reach rhe bonom
of rhe wheel's circle srill pardy filled and
srarr up rhe orher side. As rhe wheel's
speed increases, rhere is also less rime for
rhe buckers ar rhe cop ro be filled wi rh
warer and evemually rhe weighr swirches
and rhe wheel changes direcrion. Edward
Lorenz "discovered, over long periods,
rhe spin can reverse irself many rimes,
never serding down co a sready rare, and
never repearing irself in any predierable
panern." s
Marhemaricians are employing several new ways co look ar rhe complexiries of
exisrence. One is called ropology or "rubber sheer geomerry." " Topology srudies
cominuiC)f, rhe gradual changes of shapes.
Squares rum inco circles and rhe najeccories of poinrs ploued as rwo rwisred
planes inrersecr co form chaoric panerns.
Trying co undersrand rhe concepr of rhis
geomerry is an exercise guaran reed co
challenge and expand rhe rhinking of
anyone working wirh visual design.
Anorher challenging idea for designers is based on rhe exisrence of many
dimensions. To explain some rheories,
scienrisrs posir rhar rhere mighr be ren
dimensions, six of rhem righdy coiled
bur vibraring. And dimensions may nor
even be regarded as whole numbers. If a
line is one dimension and a plane is rwo
dimensions, a line rhar wriggles around
co cover half of a plane can be considered
co have one and a half dimensions. 10
Foreshadowing our difficulry in imagining ren dimensions, in rhe lare 1800s
Edwin Abbou wrore "Fladand," which
has become a culr classic. "Flarland"
shows rhe difficulry faced by inhabiranrs
of worlds having one, rwo or rhree
dimensions in conceiving of worlds wirh
more dimensions rhan rheir own. II
Benoir t1andelbror's discoveries and
rheories go beyond screrching our
absrracr rhinking. They speak direcdy co
rhe aesrherics of narural and manmade
forms. His work wirh fraerals nor only
gives shape ro rhe visual represenrarions
of marhemarical calcularions, shapes
srarrlingly beauriful in rhemselves, ir
forces us ro reconsider rhe concepr of

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1992