雪花譜 / six-petal automata [ Mt. Moiwa 2024, 4xLCD version ]

Snow crystals, as expressed by the Japanese word rikka (literally six-petaled flower), possess a hexagonal lattice structure. In this work, clusters of pixels arranged on a hexagonal grid continuously generate patterns reminiscent of snowflakes by exchanging information with their neighbors. While these patterns reflect the brightness and color of a background image taken on a hiking trail in Sapporo (Mt. Moiwa), they remain chaotic and difficult to predict. The formation process of snow crystals has yet to be fully understood even by modern natural science, and no model currently exists that can accurately predict their shapes under specific conditions. Do natural phenomena follow algorithms? Or do they simply exist, while algorithms are only approximations? The Japanese title Sekka-fu (“Snowflower Charts”) is the name of a book published in 1995 by people fascinated by snow, including Dr. Yoshizumi Furukawa, former director of the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University.