Diffusion Type Treatment
A creative code exploration of type using reaction diffusion techniques in Touch Designer.
About the Motion
More of a simulation of reaction diffusion than an implementation of the underlying math, this video utilizes feedback loops and noise fed through blur and threshold nodes within Derivative’s creative coding platform Touch Designer. These visualizations demonstrate some of underlying principles that drive the aesthetic intrigue behind the biological beauty of life forms from coral reefs to slime molds.
An exploration of generative design in motion, the following screens are extracted from the video above but the permutations are almost infinite…
Reaction-Diffusion Equations
Reaction-diffusion equations describe the behaviour of a large range of chemical systems where diffusion of material competes with the production of that material by some form of chemical reaction.
From: Structural Geology, 2015
The typography in treatment is relatively generic and the more interesting dimension of type-in-motion begs to be explored. Additional elements could also improve the visuals such as framing and masking.
Ultimately, there are so many aesthetic variables that it is difficult to imagine the direction of future visualizations based on this technique. We’ve been seeing these types of design elements since the 80’s, notably entering pop-culture sneaker aesthetics on the Air Jordan 3 (1988) as “elephant print”. But various implementations of this design seen on everything from wall paper to book covers as the principles behind these “patterns” arise under various chemical interactions and lend themselves to printing techniques quite readily.
As mentioned above, the math, explained by Alan Turing way back in the 1950’s, describes the underlying principles behind various biological phenomena from coral, to slime mold, to chemical & even magnetic fluid interactions (Fabian Oefner’s – Millefori, seen below right.)
Honorable mention to the suit design for the 2023 Flash movie as it’s the most recent sighting of this awesome aesthetic in the world at large.
I’m not any more or less a fan of the Super Hero genre than anyone else these days but I am always fascinated to see how our growing technical prowess in material and textile design and production finds it way into new renditions of possible futures and speculative tech…
And even speculative zoology as a lot of the creativity that brings us everything from long dead species to alien entities seems to pull in an ever increasing awareness of the principles that underly the formation of life and systems of order that previously belonged only to hard-core mathematicians and physicists.
Plenty to explore when creative coding intersects with design.