We are neurologically predisposed to seek patterns in our surroundings pattern recognition is our core cognitive ability, vital to our evolution and survival as a species—as it affords the capacity of prediction.
In life, as in art, we take delight in the symmetries, growth patterns and morphologies of the natural world as through them we recognise our formation. However, there is a constant flux between the regularity or predictability of a pattern and a counter-current of instability or turbulence that might threaten to render it indecipherable. This is embraced in creative practice as we always require a twist to a narrative; a dissonant metaphor in a joke; or an unpredictable note to conclude a melodic series. This is the sweet spot, the point at which our expectations of regularity in a pattern are disrupted, but not too much, just enough to throw the brain into mild confusion. It is the fissure, the reveal, and the punchline that reflects on the narrative arc and plays with our assumptions. To walk this tightrope between order and chaos is one of the central techniques of art. By contrast, the task of Science is to distil clarity from chaos; to disambiguate the signal from the noise.
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