W1 -- Rule 30

The algorithm I took inspiration from is a well known set of cellular automata rules called Rule 30. This describes a set of cells which can either be on or off, typically represented by black or white squares, which change state based on the state of their neighbors.

I was able to quickly implement a version of this algorithm in Grasshopper, but then had to contend with how this logic could conform to the physical limitations of cutting out a pattern in a physical material. Although I might have preferred to render the pattern as pixels representing each cell and print from there such as the image below, the laser cutting procedure required me to render cutting paths as lines.

For this, I modified my algorithm to connect each “on” cell to its corresponding “on” neighbors in the row above. I then was able to offset each line in order to make a 2D path which can be followed by the machine. I have attempted two versions of this procedure, one with rounded lines and the other with uncapped extensions.

The circular version ended up working best once I had access to Illustrator.

The final cut ended up taking quite a while to cut because of the amount of detail, so I would adjust my designs to be less detailed in the future.