A SMALL MATERIAL. A CIVILIZATION.

[A] WORLD IN A GRAIN

An instrument for exploring the texture of a single grain.

COMPANION READING · VINCE BEISER · The World in a Grain ↗

FRONT BORDER · FOUR SLOTS Drag a value here to affix it. Use the selector for keyboard access.

D is held. Drag and depth move the live instruments.
01 · Top · held referenceFractal dimension2.57
02 · Right · selected instrumentSmoothing0
03 · Left · selected instrumentEdge0.06
04 · Bottom · selected instrumentPores0.6

· FRONT / AFFIXED BACK

FRONT · 100%

Preparing…
FORM, PORES & POSSIBILITYILLUSTRATIVE STUDY
BACK MAPPINGS NEED REFRESH AFTER TUNING
SPACE → MATERIALBACK · CONNECTION RECIPE

X/Y/Z place the seed. Any axis may feed any descriptor. Zero disconnects; negative reverses. Edge follows the slotted side’s centerline. Held values stay fixed.

DESCRIPTORXYZEDGEMEASURED STAGE
Fractal dimensionnot measured
Edgenot measured
Poresnot measured
Smoothingnot measured
Random seednot measured
Threshold bandsnot measured
Color curvenot measured
Image scalelayout only
Hairlinelayout only
Palettenot measured
Color mappingnot measured
Source outlinenot measured
Preparing…

Times are measured on this device for the latest uncached stage; total is the last render, not a promise for every connection. Amber marks stages over 100 ms. Fields are cached; texture work waits until you finish moving. Discrete descriptors change at their thresholds. Palette, curve and bands share a color stage; curve and bands become visible when their matching color mapping is selected.

INSTRUMENT APPENDIXBACK RECORD · DRAG ITEMS TO FRONT SLOTS

Drag to move the center · Scroll for depth · Shift + scroll for hairline · Alt + scroll for scale · Shift + drag to tune free instruments

01AFFIXED
02↥
03↥
04↥
05↥
06↥
07
COLORPARCHMENT
Every adjustment makes a new study.
THREE EQUATION CURVES · THREE-VARIABLE PROJECTION · DATASHADER · ON DEMAND

ON RESONANCE

2D perceptive resonance is what we are after. An understood layer of communication, imperfection is the inescapable fractal reality

Self righteous gold

THE READING BEHIND THE STUDY

The World in a Grain

The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization

VINCE BEISER · RIVERHEAD BOOKS · 2018

Sand connects the smallest material structures to the systems we build. Beiser’s book is the companion reading for this exploration.

Explore the book ↗Publisher reference ↗

A visual response to the subject of the book. The grain model is an independent illustrative construction.